The Classrooms

So far we have said that we have big student numbers in the classes, students mostly don't know what they signed up for after Tawjihi, There is a significant number of bad teachers in this University and now I want to address the Classrooms

مدرج 2 - اعمال / مقابله حمام يستحق الزيارة

In university requirement classes like General Safety Principles, Ecology, and other courses where a class has at least 150+ students from different faculties, teachers use big old projectors and transparency paper slides of the actual book pages or exact passages, -yup they still use those, fine if you wanna use it for a graph but text, I don't think so- the teacher goes over the content in a one man show, reading off , alone! there is no use of attending these classes, the exam is a multiple choice that you know you would pass if you read the book, a total waste of energy and most of these classes are too boring, a bigger class requires a variety of methods to keep students focused, believe me I tried to stay focused on what he is saying in military science, in horticulture, but I couldn't. I lose the lecturer at least twice during the class and I am quite a good listener, the Arabic 101 , 102 books and instructors are terrible. Check the books for yourself. we don't take "أدب عربي و تعبير فكري عربي" we take " بصم عربي و كيفية النفاق بالعربي "

In other classes towards the humanitarian faculties some Drs do some underlining in the class while reading to students, students attend these classes because attendance is mandatory and most of the time you have to stick to the seat number, the only question a student would ask is " is this chapter included in the exam? "

Speaking of questions, shouldn't a class provoke questions? 80% of the classes rarely raise questions from students, most of the time, Drs don't like to be interrupted and some of those Drs give you an impression that you are stupid to ask such a question or " inta mish mtabbe3 3ashan heik ma fhimet aw shiklak mish fa6er ". bil 3arabi bisharshe7u bi karamtak il ard iza 7akait mish fahem.. few and really really few Drs welcome a student saying I didn't understand what you just said in class.

لقد تعلمنا ان لا نسأل

We didn't learn the philosophy of science, we didn't dedicate classes for the scientific method, how to reason, what is critical thinking, all this got embedded in the definition of a major and the procedures they teach but truly students don't know what it means. we didn't learn how concepts are formulated, we don't learn PHILOSOPHY. contemplate this action's consequences. its a personal request.


There are Drs who teach wrong information, students correct their math on board and teachers give non convincing answers or bullshit their way out of it making it mission impossible to understand, literally, leaving behind holes in the students' brain, Drs won't think outside their notes that they want to fill up the board with, students end up signing with such a Dr because he has easy grades or mi7taker il maddeh.

Good students are the ones who learned to study alone.Through self-study and reading beyond course requirements in the text book

Drs who do power point presentations / use computer applications have to stick to the rooms that have "a data show" so its either the computer lab, the room with a key, or they would ask the secretary to give them the department data show and guess what,, these doctors use the whole fifty minutes reading off the presentation while the lights are off which is a nap atmosphere, in this kind of classes where the lecture is the presentation, students don't even read the book, we were not given any background reading to do, NEVER, I don't remember being asked for assigned reading, I was not asked about looking up a subject for discussion, very few did discussions and was in 5th year classes, they gave us weekly quizes and homework problem sets, some were very demanding but for the sake of it, few Drs did care that we understand, they spent the time showing us how problems are solved numerically, and asking us to do the same, a series of direct instructions, stick to the notes and the power point presentation, the past papers and you will pass, whatever report we did, there was a perfect answer that needs to be written.

The least attention is given to the Laboratories and conducting experiments, sometimes we were able to finish the lab in 30 minutes out of three hours, there was always past reports to look at and fill the tables, students don't pay attention since its a credit hour, but it is where we really apply what we are learning and I can't really put it in words, its bad. go see for yourself. the labs are old and very badly equipped, especially mechanical engineering labs, automation, control, thermal fluids.

Teachers in JU don't know how to be class facilitators, they don't bother reading the room, knowing the students on a personal level, don't know that a human brain disconnects after 50 minutes in 1 hour 30 minutes class, they don't know that they should give breaks, that they should include activities in class, that he needs to set expectations for the class and agree with the students on some ground rules, he should use variety of tools, flow charts, colors, videos, ppts, reading assignments, problem sets, and web pages and discussions. he should watch his tone of voice that it won't remain monotonous through the lecture, he should know that that who scribbles in class is not totally absent minded and most of all...

لا تستعملوا اسلوب التخويف

There is a truth, we are very much behind when it comes to teachers and technology. I can think of 3 Drs in the electrical engineering department who have a webpage, the rest don't. I swear a Dr in the Mechanical Engineering Department asked us to write him an e-mail so he would send us the presentations back instead of uploading it to a website, he replied back to fifty something student, I SWEAR.. The Computer Engineering Dept staff Webpages are still of Web 1.0 form. its still a one way communication, log on and check the announcements and download files, that's it, there are no online discussions, there are Drs who don't reply e-mails, and there are Drs who can't be found in their offices quite often, so you can say communication is not impossible but it does very sincerely SUCK!! not to mention if you are a girl, some Drs exhibit a sense of discomfort dealing with a female student, and this is so evident, they won't look you in the eye, and you have to be super polite when talking to them. the female voice is so silent, so non existent, girls sitting next to each other, in one row, questioning too little, having the group distribution automatically labeled as " the girls group " they always said girls commit to studying better, master the homeworks, but the guys are the better engineers! you wanna know why, because they go easy on girls when its a practical assignment! girls get a preferential treatment in classes. It makes others politer but reserves incompetency attitude towards females. guys always joke about female incompetency in my faculty, it was never not there.

As for the competency test, you can find the result file for Fall 07/08 here, it includes the Gender, Nationality, University, ID number, Tawjihi Grade, GPA, Exam Score and Rank. I omitted the names column.

how did the results turn this way,, its another story =)

Support Worthy Student Activities - IEEE Jordan University Student Branch

Students / Professors Must Check - Wesch Classroom





why don't the branch students make a training session for the Drs on web 2.0 applications that can be used in the classroom ?? courses would give a drive for the classmates to work collectively and learn and lets say make wikis of knowledge by the end of the term that is a product of what you have done with the Dr .. WHAT YOU THINK?