Argument197 【GTER三月机考群090117第一次作业】by Lafela

lafelaUID: 2538110

Argument197. The following appeared as part of a recommendation made by a faculty member to the president of a large university.


"Never once in our 150-year history as a university have we clarified our objectives. How, then, can we hope to adapt as an institution to the new challenges facing higher education. As a first step in this evolutionary process, therefore, we should send out questionnaires asking faculty members why they teach, asking students what they want from this university, and asking former students what they gained from their own education here. When the replies come in, we can tabulate them and formulate an official statement of our educational mission. This will surely result in improved programs at our university."

作者：Lafela01  修改者：Janet02

It won’t be hard for us to figure out that this questionnaire asking about teachers’ attitude toward teaching, students’ needs and the harvest of the former students is designed to provide evidence for the university educational mission. But taking a serious look into the questionnaire, I will find it difficult to draw advisable conclusions for the future mission mainly because the questionnaire lacks high reliability and validity.

The first problem lies in the question inquiring teachers about their reasons to teach. This question is too vaguely expressed and likely to mislead the respondents. Ten teachers may have ten different reasons to teach according to their various characteristics, family nurturing, academic background and even their genes. What’s more, if someone’s reason is that he can enjoy a good reputation or a higher welfare as a teacher, I think he will make out some false reason instead of telling people directly.

The second problem lies in the students needs part. Students needs are so divertingly scattered that this questionnaire definitely needs to narrow down the range of choices, which means the faculty should consider what students may need first, and then design the questions into multiple choices. It not only facilitates the designers to classify and to tabulate, but also clarifies the high rating needs of students to give more reliable evidence for the educational mission. What’s more, students in different grades may have different problems. Freshmen and sophomores tends to relax more in the first two years while juniors and seniors may worry about their future career and social adaptation. Thus such transition, rather than only focusing laterally, should be considered more into the educational mission.

The third problem of this questionnaire is its validity. We notice that no definite way to collect answers has been announced here, which will lead to the problem of inefficiency to get the wanted answers. And even the questionnaire is valid in getting replies, can the answers really give directions for designers to design the mission? Even if the mission meets teachers’ and students’ needs, can this mission meet the society’s need and approach the goal of whole education system? No, the designer did not say a word about that.

To sum up, the faculty member does have a great idea in considering teachers and students’ needs and subjectively wish it would help in improving their university program. But the questionnaire
and its content lacks validity and more serious thoughts, which will probably have no help on the educational mission.

janettaoweiUID: 2591384

1# lafela
小改了一下，也许我的看法也是错的