Would it be rude to tell a lecturer you don’t like the way they structure seminars?

[Drin]

I’m a second year mature English lit student and I’m finding the way one of the lecturers structures his seminars extremely frustrating. He prints out a series of questions asking us to analyse certain passages or other various challenging questions and it just doesn’t flow well for me at all. It feels like an exam or something and I always freeze up and become tongue tied.

I’ve pre-planned answers twice in the past but then turned up to the seminar and he’s changed the questions entirely so I did the work for nothing. I challenged him on it yesterday and he apologised saying it was because he was expecting a bigger group and thought it would work better. I didn’t say a word yesterday as a result because I just froze up again. I always leave the seminars feeling absolutely stupid but he knows I’m not stupid because I got 80% on his assignment and I get 71%+ on all assignments so I’m heading for a first. I’ve read all of the books for that unit as well so it’s not as though I don’t know what I’m talking about.

I have two seminars with another lecturer and always leave his seminars feeling really good. It was the same with a couple of the seminars last year, they were just structured completely differently and it worked really well. The difference is they don’t have a series of set questions, instead they will ask what we made of the text and then ask various free flowing questions afterwards. It always flows well and we all bounce off one another, it opens up a lot of dialogue. I just don’t feel like the structured set up flows as well.

I was so frustrated yesterday and felt so stupid I ended up crying in the changing room cubicle at the gym. I’m now on the verge of not bothering to turn up to his seminars at all next year. Would you raise it with him or do you think he’d just think I’m a dick? For me, it’s between raising it and just not turning up so I don’t know which is worse.

YABVU to blame your lack of confidence/ability in prompted dialogue on the lecturer. YWBVU to tell him you don’t like his seminars with any expectation that he changes him. In your position, I would be speaking to classmates and asking for tips on preparing for, and contributing, so the seminars. Part of the essence of higher education is preparing you to be informed and adaptable when you leave, not encouraging you to stay only in work environments where your own personal preference is centred

I think YABU. You need to work on your difficulties rather than expecting a whole course to change around them.

Learning to answer questions without preparation is a legitimate academic skill.

I don’t think it would be particularly beneficial to you to say something. I wonder if you normally find unpredictable situations stressful? I’d imagine for most students they are coming along and ‘in the moment’. It would be quite unusual to prepare what you are going to say in a seminar unless it was an assessed presentation.

Absolutely this.

I would try to think of it as a challenge rather than an irritation. See if you can overcome your fear and get good at these assignments. That’s what education is for.

Like others I did English A level and degree and these types of assignments were normal. I think if you can do an exam without worrying you can learn to discuss out loud what you have just written. It’s probably just a question of getting used to it.

I guess that different lecturers do different things - the same as bosses in work.

You have to just get on with it.

Clearly it's working or you wouldn't be getting the grades you are 🤷‍♀️

I guess you need to decide if you're going to pull up your big girl pants or drop out and enter the world of work.

You need to adapt.

You come across as quite self-important in your posts.

It's uni. It's not all about you. There are many different teaching styles, and many students. Everybody will have preferences, that's just how the world is. It's your job to navigate all that. You need to get what you can out of his classes, and do further work at home if needed, set up a discussion group with others in the class if they would also find a free flowing dialogue helpful.

You won't be spoon-fed at uni. It's not like that.

"I’ve pre-planned answers twice in the past but then turned up to the seminar and he’s changed the questions entirely so I did the work for nothing."

That you don't see the benefit in the work unless you get to share it is strange. You didn't do the work "for nothing" - you developed your skills. Which is the point.

The benefit is as much in the doing, as in the discussion.

You will probably be given an evaluation survey at the end of the module/term/semester which asks for feedback on all these sorts of things.

In my recent experience as a postgrad the uni do take these surveys seriously - lots of us on the course complained about having to hand in printed copies of some pieces of work as well as uploading digitally, and they have changed that for the students coming behind us. But complaining about a tutor's personal style, which may be working very well for other students, is a different sort of complaint.

I guess I just prefer free-flowing dialogue. It makes the seminars more fun and works better imo. I don’t think within a subject like literature, the structured set of questions works as well.

Hmmm. That's your opinion, but others may disagree. I'm the opposite actually - I freaked out with free-flowing dialogue and massively preferred my English Lit seminars to be more structured. I wouldn't dream of blaming the lecturer though - I was well aware that I wasn't the only person in the room and it would be impossible to cater for all our preferences simultaneously! I just had to work harder to adapt.

It sounds like you are judging the teaching style based on your own preferences without accounting for other students.

In my recent experience as a postgrad the uni do take these surveys seriously

Yes- absolutely. If many people raise issues, it will be dealt with.

Of course you need to tell him this, but you need to word it very carefully / differently. Do it in an asking for help /struggling way.

I’m afraid I don’t understand this at all. I never found seminars “fun” on my degree. They weren’t relaxed or free flowing either, they tended to be a rigorous discussion where you were very much expected to be put on the spot, expected to explain a point with minimal prior knowledge or preparation of the specific question. For example the seminar might be “Mill and his applications to the American Constitution”, you’d get a load of reading and then there would be a discussion where you would make your points and be expected to back them up.
I’ve done a degree and a post grad qual in a different subject (law) and in neither of them would I ever expect to be made to feel comfortable or relaxed.

I fear that there sometimes can be an expectation that classes in Eng Lit at third level are supposed to be warm, fuzzy experiences mostly about how the texts make you feel, encouraged towards self-expression by a lecturer somewhere between Yoda, Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society and a stand-up comic.

In my first job, I used to envy a friend who was a lecturer in speech therapy, where the expectation was that the students were there to acquire the knowledge that would allow them to qualify as speech therapists, not to be entertained.

Not everything is about what you prefer. There will be others in the class who prefer his/her style over other lecturers. It is really so prevalent these days for people to think it doesn't suit me - I must make them change it - instead of trying to work with them or make changes themself.

Absolutely unreasonable!!

This is his class. He gets to decide how to run it and how it 'makes you feel' is utterly irrelevant!

You sound like more than a bit entitled, IMO. Teaching/lecturing isn't easy and the job certainly isn't to make things 'comfortable' for students.

I think different styles work for different people.
My English degree was all seminar and assignment assessments, no exams (back in 2007) - in contrast I much preferred the seminars with structured questions. I could plan, I knew what was expected and I knew what to speak about. Personally, the free flow style used to leave me under confident, I always felt like I didn't know if I was saying the "right" thing or if I'd focused on the key bits. It felt too "book club" to me. I put up with it, learnt to adapt and tried my best, and by year 3 I was OK.
I think you might need to stick at it, try and adapt, recognise it doesn't play to your strengths but understand that's how life goes and things won't always work for you. It's only been one term, give yourself and him time- it might never be your favourite style but learning to adapt to it will give you confidence to approach other new styles too.

I have just finished a degree and MA. Some lecturers structured their lectures like this and it did not work for me, I am SEN and my processing does not work like this.

I did not get upset, quietly frustrated sometimes though - nonetheless, I achieved a firsts in both courses. I just accepted this type of teaching did not work for me and if I was asked in the lecture why I was not participating - I would explain why. Very often the lecturer had not realised that it does not work for SEN students.

YABVU but I see you have already acknowledged you were being a "dick". I wouldn't call you a dick but you're certainly only thinking about this from your perspective. Maybe his style works better for others than the "free-flowing" waffling on about crapstyle which you prefer.
When I was at uni we had tutorials rather than seminars. I found some of the tutors deadly boring and others inspiring. They all had different styles. I know that some of my fellow students liked the ones I thought were boring. But you just get on with it. Nobody would have complained that they didn't like the style. The same applied to lectures.

This is your problem, it's on you. He sounds well-prepared - actually making an effort to make sure the most important points are covered rather than having some kind of wishy washy free-flowing discussion where the most important aspects end up getting missed or glossed over.

I think it is worth taking this on as a challenge - there are lots of techniques to help you when you freeze. You may have a personal preference for another style, but I think you learn a lot from the ones you find more uncomfortable or difficult (although it is not as much fun). Hope student services are helpful.

I fear that there sometimes can be an expectation that classes in Eng Lit at third level are supposed to be warm, fuzzy experiences mostly about how the texts make you feel, encouraged towards self-expression by a lecturer somewhere between Yoda, Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society and a stand-up comic.

Shit, so THAT's why I experience some of the challenges I face in my workplace. Hollywood has a lot to answer for.

For reference, my students are very aware that I have banned the word 'relatable' from any essay they turn in to me!

I don't see why a structured arrangement prevents anyone thinking out of the box?

You sound quite fragile tbh. In life you will have to deal with people who have a different approach to you. You need to learn to deal with it. A free flowing discussion may be more “fun” but it’s unlikely to be the appropriate response to all situations, sometimes you will have to answer structured questions and sometimes you won’t have time to prepare for them.

When you are a lecturer you can run your own sessions how you see fit. As it is it's good for you to experience and take part in a variety of different teaching and learning styles. Think less about your feelings and how you 'look' and more about your learning

You're focusing far too much on your feelings: university study is about ideas and critical thinking. Crying after a seminar because you "don't like" the way the tutor structures it? Not being able to answer questions which are different from the ones you expected? You are struggling, not the tutor.

I find undergrads tend to project their fears onto us as lecturers. I had a very rude student a couple of years ago tell me that my teaching style wasn't working for him. He failed the module - not because I failed him, but because he didn't hand in all the required work, and what he did manage to do was not up to standard.

I've had students in the same seminar ask for entirely different teaching methods, and I have students who have learning disabilities who require adjustments (although not always 'reasonable').

Lecturers just can't win when students are so lacking in robust intellectual drive.