In my six years as an undergrad, I have come across all types of counter productive forces in the classroom. As I pay, from my own pocket, two-thousand dollars a semester, I feel it would be appropriate to address these different forms of counter-production. There are three types of counter productiveness they are: bad professors, loud campuses, and annoying students.
I have yet to come across the first variety at SJSU. However, fellow students have confided in me, and I have deduced three different types of bad professors. The first type is the authoritarian professor. This type of professor is counter-productive because they are more concerned with sustaining a self-inflated self-image than helping students learn. This type of professor will change test dates on impulse, neglect any margin of personal error,and treat the students as less-than-animals. Another type is the older than dirt professor. This type of professor means well, but is counter-productive as they are too senile to remember when the class ends, whether or not the students have done an assignment already, or that the curriculum has changed since they had attended college. The third type is the overburdening professor. This type of professor also means well, but neglects that the students have other classes, a job, and a necessity to eat and sleep. These three types of counter-productive professors are rare but can damage a GPA.
Another form of counter-productivity, in college, is the campus itself. It is almost always in the form of a noisy environment. This can stem from protest, which could help contribute to a more productive learning environment, but can ruin the content for that day; fraternity activity, wherein the word "bro" is yelled after every other word, which is usually followed by a profanity; or, the worst kind, the one that has a crappy band play every Thursday. I have experienced all three of these types of noisy campuses, at CSUN in Los Angeles. SJSU doesn't have a prominent noisy campus problem.
The third, and most prominent, type of counter-productivity is the annoying student. There are three classifications of this type of counter-productivity. The first type is the unintentional annoyer. This type of student either breaths too loud, consistently forgets to turn off his/her cell phone, pops bubble gum, clicks pens, or snores in class. Another type is the argumentative student. This student feels he/she is intellectual equal of the professor and is entitled to argue every point the professor makes. The third and final type of counter-productive student has plagued the class room since the dawn of pedagogy, that of the class-clown. This type of student feels it necessary to make annoying quips in order to make his or herself feel important, they make comments that are rarely relevant, and mark students papers with annoying comments during class time. This type of student engages in high school bull shit on a collegiate level, and forces his/her fellow students to be subject to their behavior.
These three types of counter-productivity permeate through all aspects of collegiate life. They make the serious student feel disenfranchised and disrespected. Either, through lack of responsibility, poor self imagery, or plain stupidity these types of counter productivity have made their way into the milieu of academia and brought it to lower and lower standards. We, as students, have a unique opportunity to be autonomous and responsible in the university system. We also have the opportunity to reduce these counter-productive forces that have exposed themselves to us. All it requires is recognition that there is a time and a place for our little annoying traits, argumentativeness, and foolishness, and it is not in class.
I have yet to come across the first variety at SJSU. However, fellow students have confided in me, and I have deduced three different types of bad professors. The first type is the authoritarian professor. This type of professor is counter-productive because they are more concerned with sustaining a self-inflated self-image than helping students learn. This type of professor will change test dates on impulse, neglect any margin of personal error,and treat the students as less-than-animals. Another type is the older than dirt professor. This type of professor means well, but is counter-productive as they are too senile to remember when the class ends, whether or not the students have done an assignment already, or that the curriculum has changed since they had attended college. The third type is the overburdening professor. This type of professor also means well, but neglects that the students have other classes, a job, and a necessity to eat and sleep. These three types of counter-productive professors are rare but can damage a GPA.
Another form of counter-productivity, in college, is the campus itself. It is almost always in the form of a noisy environment. This can stem from protest, which could help contribute to a more productive learning environment, but can ruin the content for that day; fraternity activity, wherein the word "bro" is yelled after every other word, which is usually followed by a profanity; or, the worst kind, the one that has a crappy band play every Thursday. I have experienced all three of these types of noisy campuses, at CSUN in Los Angeles. SJSU doesn't have a prominent noisy campus problem.
The third, and most prominent, type of counter-productivity is the annoying student. There are three classifications of this type of counter-productivity. The first type is the unintentional annoyer. This type of student either breaths too loud, consistently forgets to turn off his/her cell phone, pops bubble gum, clicks pens, or snores in class. Another type is the argumentative student. This student feels he/she is intellectual equal of the professor and is entitled to argue every point the professor makes. The third and final type of counter-productive student has plagued the class room since the dawn of pedagogy, that of the class-clown. This type of student feels it necessary to make annoying quips in order to make his or herself feel important, they make comments that are rarely relevant, and mark students papers with annoying comments during class time. This type of student engages in high school bull shit on a collegiate level, and forces his/her fellow students to be subject to their behavior.
These three types of counter-productivity permeate through all aspects of collegiate life. They make the serious student feel disenfranchised and disrespected. Either, through lack of responsibility, poor self imagery, or plain stupidity these types of counter productivity have made their way into the milieu of academia and brought it to lower and lower standards. We, as students, have a unique opportunity to be autonomous and responsible in the university system. We also have the opportunity to reduce these counter-productive forces that have exposed themselves to us. All it requires is recognition that there is a time and a place for our little annoying traits, argumentativeness, and foolishness, and it is not in class.
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