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[educator1]

but certainly has the potential to hugely increase the amount of bad teaching. 
It's great that you're well treated, but that is not the experience many adjuncts have.  The plural of anecdote...

Again, unsupported generalizations. Where is the evidence that adjuncts are worse teachers than TT types? Does it even make sense to make that kind of comparison without considering variations between fields, institution types, etc.? Why rail against generalizations and then make them yourself?
The statement "adjuncts make bad teachers" is as untrue as a generalization as "old tenure track faculty are deadwood".

[jonesey]

Um, which was what I said.  And if you'd read my post, I was not slamming adjuncts.  I was pointing out that the adjunctification of higher ed is a related problem which is not being addressed, but certainly has the potential to hugely increase the amount of bad teaching.  You think paying people like crap, treating them like crap, and making them fear for their jobs every freakin' semester is going to motivate them to uphold standards in the classroom? 

It's great that you're well treated, but that is not the experience many adjuncts have.  The plural of anecdote...

So, what's the answer?  Are all of you Big Time Researchers going to come down and teach Bio/English/History 101 every semester? 

That's what I thought.

[glenwood]

However as I continue to say, the reason why they are going along the route is that the academic community, insteading of recognizing that they need to fix the breakdown in trust just continually whinge "Well they should just trust us because.  So there."  That's all the academic community has to say.  Besides mocking any of the little people's concerns.  That and mutterings about conspiracy theories (which to most people looks like a lame excuse).  If I was to write a guide on how to alienate the public, the way the academic community is behaving would be one of the prime examples.

I could not disagree with you more. It is not by any stretch of the imagination true that the academic community "has nothing to say" on this issue.  Nor is it even remotely true that academics don't care about accountability or people's perceptions. I don't know if this was ever the case; it certainly has not been true for the past 40 years.

Every year, academics write books -- many of which sell quite well -- in which they criticize the current situation and suggest ways in which the system should be changed. If you want to know why these books are not featured on certain popular cable news programs, it is because they are insufficiently ideological -- yes, that's what I said -- and because they propose solutions that are long-term.

Some examples, available at a library near you:

Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education
by William G. Bowen, Martin A. Kurzweil, and Eugene M. Tobin, in collaboration with Susanne C. Pichler
University of Virginia Press.

The Price of Admission: How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges—and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates
by Daniel Golden
Crown

The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality
by Walter Benn Michaels
Metropolitan

Excellence Without a Soul: How a Great University Forgot Education
by Harry R. Lewis
PublicAffairs

Our Underachieving Colleges: A Candid Look at How Much Students Learn and Why They Should Be Learning More
by Derek Bok
Princeton University Press

Powers of the Mind: The Reinvention of Liberal Learning in America
by Donald N. Levine
University of Chicago Press

Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class
by Ross Gregory Douthat
Hyperion,

I'm the Teacher, You're the Student: A Semester in the University Classroom
by Patrick Allitt
University of Pennsylvania Press

What the Best College Teachers Do
by Ken Bain
Harvard University Press,

University, Inc.: The Corporate Corruption of American Higher Education
by Jennifer Washburn
Basic Books,

The Future of the Public University in America: Beyond the Crossroads
by James J. Duderstadt and Farris W. Womack
Johns Hopkins University Press,

The Uses of the University
by Clark Kerr
(fifth edition)
Harvard University Press,

Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education
by David L. Kirp
Harvard University Press,


These are just a tiny sample from the past 4 years.  You don't have to like any of these books, but you shouldn't pretend that they don't exist.

[magistra]

Um, which was what I said.  And if you'd read my post, I was not slamming adjuncts.  I was pointing out that the adjunctification of higher ed is a related problem which is not being addressed, but certainly has the potential to hugely increase the amount of bad teaching.  You think paying people like crap, treating them like crap, and making them fear for their jobs every freakin' semester is going to motivate them to uphold standards in the classroom? 

It's great that you're well treated, but that is not the experience many adjuncts have.  The plural of anecdote...

So, what's the answer?  Are all of you Big Time Researchers going to come down and teach Bio/English/History 101 every semester? 

That's what I thought.

Some of the best teachers I've ever seen were the Big Time Researchers, and yes they taught gen ed classes.  This is fairly common in my field; many even love it. 

My point was that if you're going to evaluate teaching effectiveness or whatever the buzzword is, you need to consider that hiring a person with the right specialized training, paying them a decent wage, and managing factors like the number of students per semester might be important.

And for the record, I have mostly lower level classes, and teaching methods is one of my research specialties.  I'm at a Big Name school where teaching is very important.  It's one of the reasons I'm happy here.

[daniel_von_flanagan]

So, what's the answer?  Are all of you Big Time Researchers going to come down and teach Bio/English/History 101 every semester? 

I do. - DvF