Majors in College

[the_std]

But I think, at least at WCU, too many people are receiving degrees they never really earned, and as a result, we have a lot of horrible teachers. There are plenty of good ones, but I've experienced quite a few teachers who never should have even thought about teaching for a profession. And it's grade inflation that produces this.

Then it sounds like your school is the problem. You're demonizing other majors because your school doesn't seem to understand how to handle giving education degrees. I understand that one's own experience is generally the basis of one's opinion, but you can't honestly believe that this is the case the world over.

An added degree of difficulty in an education degree: you have to know a bit of everything. Yes, you specialize in a few areas, but you are required to know at least a bit about pretty much ever standard class that you might end up teaching. That doesn't sound like a lot, but that is a ton of information.

[Greenday]

Then it sounds like your school is the problem. You're demonizing other majors because your school doesn't seem to understand how to handle giving education degrees. I understand that one's own experience is generally the basis of one's opinion, but you can't honestly believe that this is the case the world over.

Actually all PA state schools have the same policy requiring a minimum GPA for education. A lot of the private schools do too. It's not just my school.

[DesignFox]

It sounds like it's your school's attitude that sucks Greenday.

I went to a school well known as a teaching college. I knew many education majors, and let me tell you, their curriculum was no walk in the park.

They have to know a bit of everything, as someone else has already stated. Not to mention the fact that each education major has to pick a focus and then take a specified number of classes in that subject.

My college also required education majors to serve a specific period of time student teaching.

It's a hell of a lot of work! Especially the student teaching part. My room mate spent hours working on lesson plans, grading papers, working with her students.

Lots of people suggested I become an art teacher. I didn't want to. I wanted to focus on learning art. I either would have had to work myself into the ground, or spent an extra year or so at school to feel confident with all the material.

I can be a hard worker, and when I'm dedicated or focused on something I go for it.

Teaching was not something I felt passionate enough about to put forth all that work for. It is a deceptive major in that it seems so easy, but it's really very time consuming.

If you love it, as my roommate does, it can be very rewarding.

I do agree with you, however, that GPA shouldn't be the end all. And frankly, once you are out of college, no one gives a flying fuck what your GPA was. You have a degree? Great. No one gives a shit beyond that. Especially once you get out there and get some experience. If you can do your job without being a major screw-up, you're fine. I know people who flunked out of college who have better careers than I do. So. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Do your best. Meet your requirements. You'll be a step ahead right there. Also, if you can get an internship, then you'll really be set.

[Seshat]

I'd admit that, yes. And I do believe that performance arts require tons of work and dedication. It's just mainly education majors that my biggest gripe is against.

Genuinely teaching is really difficult. I have no idea what your college's education course is like, but to be a good teacher you have to learn a lot of things about people, as well as about your subject.

For example, every person has a different learning style. A good teacher can devise a course that covers the same material in a way that people of every learning style can learn from.

You have to deal with gifted, rapid learners, yet not go too fast for the median, and have some method of helping those who are slower. You have to deal with people who don't have the background knowledge that's expected for the class.

You have to be able to use analogy and metaphor and parables and a whole host of other learning/teaching tools.

You have to develop the patience - and skills - to deal with troublemakers; and to deal with the genuinely slow, and the genuinely frustrated. And to distinguish between them.

....

And that doesn't include attempting to assess whether your students have actually learned the material.


And on top of that, you have to learn your subject.


Anyway. A good education course should be as hard as any other good course for highly skilled professionals. A bad education course, on the other hand, might be a fluff course that teaches nothing significant.

[Slytovhand]

I'm with GD on this (not that he's taking much of a stance other than some things are harder than others, and some teachers/education institutions are making things too easy). Yep, some things are way harder than others... this is a fact of life! (and no, I'm not referring to music either! Nor was GD trying to belittle it in any way...)

I will put in, though, that in my opinion (as extremely valuable as it is ) is that anything can be easy... if you've got your basics down, and don't try to go past what you really don't understand. Maths? Easy... if you haven't missed stuff.

Of course, there is 'brain-sidedness', but I'd be also willing to put my opinion in that pretty much most people are able to get both sides operating in balance, and thus, all spheres of life are accessible.

Of course, I'm an idealist who believes in a few different things... and those things aren't part of current education systems...

But it also takes starting out real early in life.

Teaching is the most important career a person can take on... where else do you really make a difference to how the rest of the world will be? (yeah, go on... say politics but who taught those politicians??)

[invadernina]

Bringing it back around to the original topic.

Hi everyone, first post on the boards.
I'm a college student currently, and I work in peer counseling for people who are having academic difficulties. Most of the students I see are in science programs, or majors that are typically thought of as "harder." The biochemistry department actually has a higher GPA requirement than other departments. Humanities majors have to dip below a 2.0 to hit probationary status, biochemistry majors only have to go below a 2.5.

I used to be a Neuroscience major on the premedical track. I switched to Psychology to alleviate some of the stress that my major was putting on me. There are majors out there that are just inherently harder than other majors. Neuroscience actually requires more units than any other major.

I'm not saying that the humanities type majors deserve to be picked on. My best friend is a dance major and she works her butt off (literally) to stay on top of all her classes. But when a major is deliberately premedical, the professors go out of their way to make things more difficult than they have to be. There's an almost 'hazing' quality to it, where they try to drag people through as much hell as possible to see if they can really 'handle' being a doctor.

For the most part, whether a major is hard or easy comes down to personal preference and skills. But the basic attitude behind most hard science majors is that you have to give up your social life and any hobbies to dedicate yourself to school. Premedical majors are the worst for this, because they plan on sacrificing the next 8 years of their lives to medical school. It's awfully hard not to have some resentment for a major that, on the surface at least, doesn't seem as grueling.

Since switching to a psychology major, I take constant ribbing from my friends about how I copped out and couldn't handle the hard major. I do sympathize with people who get picked on for their major choice. I have a friend who's a theater major, and he constantly works like crazy directing plays and whatnot.

That said though, I have to admit that I have a lot more free time as a psychology major than I ever would have dreamed of having as a neuroscience major.

[fireheart17]

OK, Australian universities run slightly differently, so I'll explain how the system works at MY university, since it's pretty much the same across all degrees.
Every degree has core topics that you're required to take. These are usually specific to the degree i.e. Bachelor of Education would require teaching-related topics, Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice would require certain Law topics etc. These topics have a unit value assigned to them. You're required to take a certain amount per year and then study a certain number of units to graduate. First year topics are usually 4.5 units, Upper Year topics are usually 6. Then there's variations like 12 unit topics, 18 unit topics etc.

Annnyway....I'm doing a Bachelor of Arts degree, so I can pick my majors and classes freely. As long as I'm studying a major and minor minimum, the uni doesn't give a rat's ass. My majors? French and International Relations (also known as International Studies). I've been teased about it by a friend of mine who says that I won't be able to get anywhere with just the International RElations and a workmate who jokes about "sacrificing the arts students". (I counter by telling him to stay on his side of the lake...(my uni is built with a huge lake in the centre)). Me? I know I'll get somewhere, I just have to prove it.

[Slytovhand]

What I would like to see is parity in assessments and markings.

I'm an 80% student (cos I'm lazy ). At UQ, that's a credit or 5*

When I did my final subject at Melbourne Uni, I got 1st Class Honours for that 80% mark. Anything like a "First Class Honours" at UQ was going to take a 90%+ (if not 96%).

Also unfortunate, is that at the moment, many universities don't have parity across what it takes to get a degree. It would be nice if you knew that the BA you got at one uni really was pretty much taking the same amount of effort and knowledge at any other uni. It's not. I'm sure a few here who have been through academia are aware of having done stuff that would be considered basic, and find they're with other uni students in 2nd or 3rd year (or 4th, depending) who have no idea about some of those 'basics'...


* 1= didn't even do the subject in the end.. or if they did, didn't do any assessments (usually what happens if you didn't withdraw in time)
2 = did the subject, was incredibly crap at it...Fail!
3 = did the subject, was fairly crap at it, but we'll say they passed for the moment (Conceded Pass
4 = Pass
5= Credit
6= Distinction
7= High Distinction