I’VE taught in the graduate schools of some universities here for some 27 years now.
Without fail, I hear while passing along corridors or stairs practically the same students’ concern --- what topic to choose for one’s masteral thesis or doctoral dissertation.
With this school year ending, can submission of research papers be far behind? Those who’re still groping might find inspiration from the Internet, and run similar studies to survey the local situations.
One could be about student evaluations of teachers. While schools often have their own evaluation tools, a website RateMyProfessor.com has become popular among students.
An interactive chart presents a gendered language in teacher reviews.
It allows the participant to key in the word to describe male and female teachers.
The chart then shifts and sways to display the responses taken from 14 million reviews posted in the website.
Findings have shown gender biases about teachers. Key in such descriptions as “knowledgeable,” “genius,” “charismatic,” “generous” or “experimental,” and the men teachers dominate.
Words like nurturing, stylish, bossy, helpful, annoying, or playing favorites point to women. On the other hand, words like articulate or grouchy describe both genders.
I wrote “charismatic” and the men grabbed it. I keyed in “organized” and the women won. “Grouchy” yielded both genders.
Another interesting subject to explore would be local schools’ stand on innovation in learning and teaching.
For instance, have organizational structures changed to catalyze learning and teaching innovations? In light of frequent laments about resources, where should resources be shifted away from, so that these can be freed up to invest in needed innovations?
Shouldn’t we know the local situation about the influence of single-parent families on education? Fifty years ago, the Moynihan report revealed how black families were disadvantaged in education. This year’s study reinforces that finding and reveals that one-parent students now leave school earlier than counterparts living in two-parent families.
Also, the rise in single-parent families transcends racial and ethnic boundaries. The number of black children living with single parents has doubled, but the percentage for white children has tripled.
With the rise in separations and single-parent families here in our own country, a similar report on this topic is in order.
Another subject worth focusing on is the schools’ intervention measures to safeguard their students’ future employment chances despite social media (SM).
Since SM is inevitable, and people will always want to connect --- including sharing, alas, their innermost secrets --- there will always be apps to respond to these needs. Such are Snapchat and Whisper.
Both promise that the postings do not stay long in their servers, students can unwittingly post photos, some about illegal activities. Some schools use these to charge them with code violations.
Other schools prefer the proactive approach. Freshman seminars now include lessons on SM and personal branding. Always the message is, “A quick chat, tweet or post --- it doesn’t go away. You’re a freshman now, but when you sit in front of potential employers, they may have access to that.”
(lelani.echaves@gmail.com)