Professor Review: Dr. Henrietta Nickels Shirk

First let me start off with saying that my negative impression of Ms. Shirk is not due to my grade, certainly it is questionable whether I deserve an "A" in any of my classes.  It is this professor that put me over the edge and decide to start doing professor reviews due to her awful attitude.  Short recommendation:  If you are assinged Henrietta as your professor call your academic counselor and request a reassignment immediately!!!  The ENTIRE class struggled and I know there were others that filed formal complaints.

Possibly it is my fault for expecting something different, but when I ask a question I expect something more than re-read the material.  I fully believe that she kept saying this because she was not familiar with the material.  What initially caused this problem was that the syllabus was unclear and what I was looking for was on the CD, but was not clearly identified where I needed to go.  This was further exacerbated by the documents on the CD being images in PDF format and thus I could not search for the text.  I've included the email correspondence I had with her and you can decide for yourself.  I  just dropped the case because I saw there was clearly no point in proceeding, and just hoped for the best with my grade and moved on.  (Obviously Henrietta retains copyright to her work and it does not fall under the FDL.)

Also, on a somewhat funny note Henrietta could never spell my name right throughtout the class (she used "Eric").  I suppose that was the attention to detail she was looking for in my work!  ;-)
From: Erik
To:  Henrietta
Subject:  Concerns

As you know I am heavily struggling with this class.  Historically, I have been an A student, but with the latest grades in I am now going
to max out with a B for this class.  I seem to be struggling over two main issues.

The first issue is that little to no guidance is provided on the assignments.  For example, on the week six assignment it was suggested
that we use the template provided on the CD.  Unfortunately, no where on that template was it mentioned that we needed to site our sources nor how to cite them.  I understand you have office hours, but I do not know the questions that I need to ask before I submit an assignment and do badly.  With this being virtually a do it yourself course how would you suggest I proceed?

The second issue is that I have now given up asking questions after doing poorly on a assignment, checkpoint, etc. after your one of your
answers to my questions was to "Study the assigned readings carefully!"  The readings are not cutting it for me, and from what I have seen from other students they are struggling too.  How do you suggest I proceed so I can do better?

Sincerely,
Erik Smith
From:  Henrietta
To: Erik
Subject:  Re: Concerns

[Hi, Erik,
Thank you for your posting.
Please see my comments below and in brackets.
Best wishes,
Henrietta]





As you know I am heavily struggling with this class.  Historically, I have been an A student, but with the latest grades in I am now going
to max out with a B for this class.  I seem to be struggling over two main issues.

The first issue is that little to no guidance is provided on the
assignments.

[The best guidance is provided by the content contained in the assigned  reading materials. I recommend that you study and learn that content before  you proceed to the assignment's instructions. The instructions are based on and come from those materials. Students who proceed to the assignment before reading the assigned materials are understandably confused.]


For example, on the week six assignment it was suggested that we use the template provided on the CD.  Unfortunately, no where on
that template was it mentioned that we needed to site our sources

[The citation of sources is a matter related to plagiarism. If a student--I  am not referring to you here--simply copies material from a source about differences in cultural communication and submits that material as his own,  I have no way of knowing which sentence might be his, which sentence might be a quotation without quotation marks, and which sentence might be a paraphrase of a quotation. I may not credit a student for material he has simply copied from the Internet. All students know what plagiarism is,  whether they are reminded on a CD or a template or not.]

nor how to cite them.

[It is assumed that students have a minimal knowledge of how to cite sources. Most any way to cite sources is acceptable until we cover accurate citation methods. This assumption is also based on the concept of  plagiarism. If a student knows he may not submit material from other sources as his own work, he knows that he must cite them or make some kind of  acknowledgment of the sources when he uses such sources.]

I understand you have office hours, but I do not know the questions that I need to ask before I submit an assignment and do badly.  With this being virtually a do it yourself course how would you suggest I proceed?

[Your situation is not unusual. There is a complete solution to that  situation, although it takes time and effort. It is that you study and learn
the content of all the assigned reading materials before you proceed to an  assignment's instructions. Remember that the assignments are all based on the assigned reading material. Master that material, and you will master the  assignment.]

The second issue is that I have now given up asking questions after doing poorly on a assignment, checkpoint, etc. after your one of your
answers to my questions was to "Study the assigned readings carefully!" The readings are not cutting it for me, and from what I have seen from other students they are struggling too.  How do you suggest I proceed so I can do better?

[Erik, I have taught many years. The major difference between students is not their ability, but the amount of time they spend studying. There is no secret to learning. Learning requires reading, re-reading, concentration,  imagination, effort, etc. When I write "Study the assigned readings carefully," I am completely serious and not trying to blow someone off. Nor  am I trying to blame anyone.

The best advice I know to give someone is that he or she study hard, and that begins and ends with the assigned reading materials. Students who think that 30 minutes of studying for an assignment are enough are completely mistaken. How much is enough? The answer is how long will it take for you to study and learn the assigned reading materials. The amount of time is not the criterion. Until we get into the habit of really learning, we need more time. Gradually we need less time to learn new material.

What I notice about many mistakes--I am not referring to you here--is that the correct answers were stated right in the assigned reading materials. When a student makes a mistake and the answer was available to him right in  the reading materials, I simply know that he either did not read those materials or he did not study them. I never think that a course as  introductory as this one involves issues too intellectually difficult for some students to master.

Ask any student who is "struggling" how many hours he or she studies, how hard he tries to study, and how motivated he is to learn or to get a top grade; and you will probably believe that the student does not "struggle" to learn.]


© Erik Smith 2005
Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License