Reply to If you think it matters that your kid's classes be taught by a professor: Why?

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Reply to "If you think it matters that your kid's classes be taught by a professor: Why?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Profs develop the courses, read widely, are active researchers, have deep expertise from both PhD and time spent working in the field.  If they are active researchers, they need to keep up with current practice.  They have a network and will likely be working at the school and in the field for a long time and thus can be tapped for future references/advice/network support.[/quote]

TA's are usually teaching the lower level courses that are cookie-cutter and standard across the department. Most of the content has been determined by the professors ahead of time. So a class isn't lacking just because it's taught by a TA. Some TA's are younger and relate more to the undergrads. However, professors have more experience in teaching and managing a class, so in that way they may be better. [/quote]
TAs also aren't equal.  If you get a 1st year graduate student as your TA, they may very well be unqualified and flunk out shortly after.  But you could also get a 5th year graduate student who is a wonderful teacher, especially in a lab class.  They may have a ton more recent experience than a professor.

There are lots of tenured professors who are terrible teachers because they don't care.  All they want to do is research, not teach.  There are also some real gems.  There are also good and bad adjuncts.  Good and bad TAs.  What really matters is if the department administration is committed to teaching and don't just care about research.  Good administrators will move out the bad eggs and find qualified instructors.[/quote]

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