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[spork]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/education/11stutter.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1318288023-4iuNe9TIZw417xtYfl/iMg

[canuckois]

If this student's report is accurate, the adjunct deserves to be fired.  So does the dean.

I have a stutterer in one of my classes this semester.  He's one of my best students (in a class of great students) and I consider the time we wait for his thoughts well-rewarded.

[prof_smartypants]

I can see both sides of this.

On the one hand, it's f'd up that someone with a speech impediment should be singled out in a college classroom.

On the other hand, this woman probably earns about $2K to teach this course, and needs to balance all sorts of student issues with her own teaching goals.

It seems as if she has tried to find a middle ground. There are so few support structures for adjuncts, it makes me sad that someone who is clearly at least trying is being vilified in the NYT.

[heynonnynonnymouse]

It seems as if she has tried to find a middle ground. There are so few support structures for adjuncts, it makes me sad that someone who is clearly at least trying is being vilified in the NYT.

"You are not permitted to ask questions in class" is "a middle ground"? On what planet?

[prof_smartypants]

It seems as if she has tried to find a middle ground. There are so few support structures for adjuncts, it makes me sad that someone who is clearly at least trying is being vilified in the NYT.

"You are not permitted to ask questions in class" is "a middle ground"? On what planet?

No, she asked the student to write down questions he had and she would address them in class at a later date or on an individual basis.

We don't know the details of what the classroom experience was like. It could have been extremely distracting. If the student takes 5 minutes of class time to ask a question in a 50 minute class, is that reasonable?

[concordancia]

It seems as if she has tried to find a middle ground. There are so few support structures for adjuncts, it makes me sad that someone who is clearly at least trying is being vilified in the NYT.

"You are not permitted to ask questions in class" is "a middle ground"? On what planet?

No, she asked the student to write down questions he had and she would address them in class at a later date or on an individual basis.

We don't know the details of what the classroom experience was like. It could have been extremely distracting. If the student takes 5 minutes of class time to ask a question in a 50 minute class, is that reasonable?

No, she told him he could write down the answers to questions she asked in class. There is no mention of him writing down his questions.

[prof_smartypants]

It seems as if she has tried to find a middle ground. There are so few support structures for adjuncts, it makes me sad that someone who is clearly at least trying is being vilified in the NYT.

"You are not permitted to ask questions in class" is "a middle ground"? On what planet?

No, she asked the student to write down questions he had and she would address them in class at a later date or on an individual basis.

We don't know the details of what the classroom experience was like. It could have been extremely distracting. If the student takes 5 minutes of class time to ask a question in a 50 minute class, is that reasonable?

No, she told him he could write down the answers to questions she asked in class. There is no mention of him writing down his questions.

Fair enough. I misread.

[heynonnynonnymouse]

It seems as if she has tried to find a middle ground. There are so few support structures for adjuncts, it makes me sad that someone who is clearly at least trying is being vilified in the NYT.

"You are not permitted to ask questions in class" is "a middle ground"? On what planet?

No, she asked the student to write down questions he had and she would address them in class at a later date or on an individual basis.

We don't know the details of what the classroom experience was like. It could have been extremely distracting. If the student takes 5 minutes of class time to ask a question in a 50 minute class, is that reasonable?

To me? Yes. Let's flip the reasonableness question. Have you ever had a student that rambled in your class? (Personally, I teach in a social science field, and I have a couple every semester who can babble for 5 minutes on their experiences or feelings on any particular topic.) Was your solution to ban him or her from speaking in the class, ever?

If the adjunct had talked to the student and explained that she would call on him only as frequently as the other students in the class, or a maximum of twice, or something of that sort that was fair, I'd be a lot more sympathetic to her situation. But, I'm sorry, adjunct or tenured faculty or middle school teacher (which this adjunct apparently was for most of her career before taking on a semi-permanent adjunct job for the past decade at this university) or impoverished grad student (like me), anyone I knew who did this as an instructor would lose all of my respect immediately.

If this is a lecture class with infrequent student contributions, it wouldn't take much time for him to speak once or twice per 75 minute class.

If this is a discussion-focused class, to prevent someone from participating in that discussion is cheating that student out of the class experience in a major way.

Either way, the instructor is wrong.

[pathogen]

She's being shredded in the comments section. Unfortunately, there's a lot of ignorant comments about adjuncts being unqualified and unfit to teach. The article certainly makes it seem as though she was in the wrong, but I have a feeling she's going to be the target of a whole lot of personal abuse by self-righteous people who know her name and where to find her.

[proftowanda]

It seems as if she has tried to find a middle ground. There are so few support structures for adjuncts, it makes me sad that someone who is clearly at least trying is being vilified in the NYT.

"You are not permitted to ask questions in class" is "a middle ground"? On what planet?

No, she asked the student to write down questions he had and she would address them in class at a later date or on an individual basis.

We don't know the details of what the classroom experience was like. It could have been extremely distracting. If the student takes 5 minutes of class time to ask a question in a 50 minute class, is that reasonable?

To me? Yes. Let's flip the reasonableness question. Have you ever had a student that rambled in your class? (Personally, I teach in a social science field, and I have a couple every semester who can babble for 5 minutes on their experiences or feelings on any particular topic.) Was your solution to ban him or her from speaking in the class, ever?

If the adjunct had talked to the student and explained that she would call on him only as frequently as the other students in the class, or a maximum of twice, or something of that sort that was fair, I'd be a lot more sympathetic to her situation. But, I'm sorry, adjunct or tenured faculty or middle school teacher (which this adjunct apparently was for most of her career before taking on a semi-permanent adjunct job for the past decade at this university) or impoverished grad student (like me), anyone I knew who did this as an instructor would lose all of my respect immediately.

If this is a lecture class with infrequent student contributions, it wouldn't take much time for him to speak once or twice per 75 minute class.

If this is a discussion-focused class, to prevent someone from participating in that discussion is cheating that student out of the class experience in a major way.

Either way, the instructor is wrong.

I will say that, as I've had home-schooled students, as is this one, some are not socialized well to be succinct, to take their turn, to not try to dominate, etc.

But if this is as reported, the instructor did not handle it well.

However, I repeat, if this is as reported . . . by one side, so far.

[burnie]

Upon reading the article - it looks like the adjunct was using the recommended tactics for students with Aspergers.  Is it possible she wasn't supported well by Disability Concerns or didn't understand what she was dealing with?  It's very easy to label her as insensitive (and that may very well be the case), but I wonder if she just received bad info.  I would really like to hear her side of things - I can't help but feel that she would sound a lot like the folks who post to these fora...

[larryc]

I have a stutterer in one of my classes this semester.  He's one of my best students (in a class of great students) and I consider the time we wait for his thoughts well-rewarded.

You are a great teacher.

[macaroon]

Upon reading the article - it looks like the adjunct was using the recommended tactics for students with Aspergers.  Is it possible she wasn't supported well by Disability Concerns or didn't understand what she was dealing with? 

Actually, burnie - that's the first thing that jumped into my mind as well.  One of my classes is extremely popular with Aspies, to the point that during one year, Aspies made up 1/3 of my enrollment.  This has trickled up into my upper division classes, and I have a disproportionate amount in these students in my other classes as well. 

I've ended up becoming very well informed about how to manage a class full of Aspies (not my own ideas - I learned from experts).  I'm aware of this technique, but have never needed to use it, thankfully. 

If he was additionally socially a bit "off" on account of being 16 and homeschooled, I could see how a professor might mistake him for an Aspie.

[polly_mer]

Did anyone else watch the video?

If that video is characteristic of what the student can do, then the adjunct shouldn't have shut the student down.  Prof_Smartypants is right that asking the student to write out questions and/or answers before being called upon would be reasonable to get the thoughts in order, but shutting the guy down entirely seems unreasonable.  Asking that he limit himself to one or two contributions per class would also be reasonable (he seems to be a rambler), but saying "I will never call on you" is too extreme.

[merce]

The article doesn´t provide enough detail for me to feel comfortable judging the teacher.

As Heynonnynonny points out, this is not necessarily very different from the student who always wants to talk, answer or ask questions, or rambles. We have many strategies for dealing with that: Give students 2 marbles and they use their marbles to speak. Once they are out they have to wait until the whole class is out of marbles.

Heynonny got the impression she had singled this student out rather than saying she would answer his questions when she did everyone´s. I don´t know for sure after reading the article.

If she was attempting to lecture rather than hold discussion constant questions could be annoying (what is constant though?). It is pretty common to tell students or the student who has raised a hand, to hold questions to the end of the lecture or presentation. So if he was the one raising his hand then I could see her telling him to wait til class (if the lecture would last all class long) was over.