Every year, departments face the task of finding professors to teach their large introductory courses. Department chairs say they often try to enlist professors who can skillfully teach a large body of material to a great number of students in an attempt to both attract potential concentrators and engage students with a wide variety of interests.
Finding effective professors and accommodating their schedules poses "a can of worms," said Marjorie Thompson, associate dean of biological sciences.
Thompson said finding professors who can teach these large classes is difficult for all departments, not just her own. "Brown does value teaching skills; nonetheless the ability to get grant money is critical and teaching is not the way to do that," she said.
Thompson said not everyone is qualified to teach such a broad-based introductory class.
"These days everyone is so specialized that teaching the intro level is harder, perhaps the hardest of all. It requires a different kind of knowledge," Thompson said.
Departments use different strategies to deal with the problem. Some departments, like biology, use mainstays who teach intro courses year after year. In other departments, such as economics, the professors teaching these courses vary.
In the case of the Division of Biology, which is actually made up of several sub-departments, the division relies on Professor of Biology Ken Miller '70 P'02 to teach the main introductory class, BI 20: "The Foundation of Living Systems."
Thompson said the department relies on Miller because he enjoys it and has the ability to effectively teach a broad range of material. Thompson said Miller continues to teach BI 20 every year because he is one of the few biology professors who actually like teaching the class, adding that he feels a sense of commitment to it.
Andrew Foster, chair of the Department of Economics, also stressed the importance of teaching ability when dealing with large courses. "We try to identify faculty who are particularly effective in teaching large lecture courses and provide appropriate incentives, encouragement and support so that they are willing to teach the more difficult large lecture courses," Foster wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.
In deciding who will teach intro courses, Foster said the general expectation is that every faculty member will teach one of the department's intro or intermediate level courses. In particular, large classes like EC 11: "Principles of Economics" present the greatest challenge, as professors need to be able to teach "an audience with broadly different interests and abilities," according to Foster.
Lecturer in Economics Rachel Friedberg and Professor of Economics Roberto Serrano, who teach EC 11 this semester, were both chosen because of their impressive ability to teach a large number of students, Foster said. This semester, the enrollment of EC 11 reached a record high of 450, according to Foster.
The Department of History, like economics, uses a rotating schedule to decide who will teach the department's intro courses. "Survey classes are extremely difficult to teach because they require the teacher to help students learn to ask significant interpretative questions while condensing enormous amounts of information into a semester," wrote Professor of History and Associate Dean of the Faculty Carolyn Dean in an e-mail to The Herald. Dean has taught HI 2: "Europe since the French Revolution" several times in the past.
HI 2 is particularly difficult to teach because it is a requirement for both history and international relations concentrators, some of whom wait until the last minute to take it or are trying to decide if the concentration is right for them, Dean said. As an introductory course, HI 2 also attracts many first-years.
The Department of Political Science uses a combination of mainstay professors and a rotating system, according to Professor of Political Science P. Terrence Hopmann, who is also the department's chair.
With many of the department's intro courses, such as PS 10: "Introduction to Public Policy" and PS 40: "Conflict and Cooperation in International Politics," a professor will teach the class for a couple of years, and then another professor will take over. In the case of PS 22: "City Politics," Professor of Political Science James Morone teaches the class every year. "Morone is the only one who teaches City Politics because he's the only one who does research in that area, and he's obviously one of the best rated teachers," Hopmann said.
When choosing professors to teach other intro courses, Hopmann takes into account schedules as well as teaching ability.
"We put more of an emphasis on people who have more teaching experience and those who have done well with their classes based on their evaluations," Hopmann said.
Hopmann is currently trying to create a system where two professors are capable of teaching the department's intro courses at any given time, thereby enabling professors to have the chance to teach more upper-level courses.
Currently, only Associate Professor of Public Policy Ross Cheit can teach PS 10, Hopmann said.
While some may consider these lower-level classes less important, Thompson said she believes they are the most critical courses for a department.
"The introductory course is the class that engages students into biology. Teaching this class is a position of particular stature and everyone knows that and views it that way - you have the responsibility of exciting students and attracting concentrators," Thompson said.
Thompson cited high enrollments in both BI 20 and BN 1: "The Brain: An Introduction to Neuroscience" as indications that the courses are successful. BI 20's enrollment often nears 400, according to the Critical Review, and BN 1 is often even higher.
Some of the professors who teach these large intro courses are highly appreciated by students.
"I thought Professor Miller was great," said Whitney Keefe '08, who took BI 20 last spring. "I loved him."
Other classes draw even stronger praise. Morone's "City Politics" lectures have the reputation of bringing students to tears, according to comments from the Critical Review. PS 22's enrollment consistently nears 400.
Other students were less enthusiastic about intro courses in other departments. Jonathan Thompson '08, who took EC 11 with Friedberg and Associate Professor of Economics Kaivan Munshi in the fall of 2004, said the professors were "alright but not great."
"I wasn't blown away," Thompson added.
