Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that this is a poor way to behave in a university lecture?

211 replies

malificent7 · 30/09/2018 15:13

Sat in front a group of girls in a lecture...first proper one of the module and I wish I'd said something.
They were laughing about the lecturers , were nattering on about everything and seemed to have a comment for everything the lecturer said.
I took 1 photo of a power point slide and they must have had a 3/4 minute discussion ( pisstake) about it. ( apparently it's fine to take photos of the big screen for notes. I had to check as was feeling paranoid in case I had committed a lecture faux pas.
They were behaving like a bunch of year 9 students win a sweet shop not a group of 18 year olds at uni.
In another lecture a paper aeroplane had been made but thankfully no-one had thrown it.
I am a mature student and therefore a boring old fart. Didn't help that I used to teach. But this is a respected science course and these young people will be treating the vulnerable if they qualify.
So am I a boring old fart and next time should I say something? The lecturer had to tell them to shut up several times.

OP posts:
Orchiddingme · 03/10/2018 10:04

SoutineBellhop Noooooo. Why on earth choose lit and creative writing?!

HerSymphonyAndSong · 03/10/2018 14:05

I am a student as well as university staff. I have to admit that I do sometimes have to remind myself that downloading article =/= reading article!

LRDtheFeministDragon · 03/10/2018 15:31

I think at school, the curriculum makes English Lit quite focussed on morals and ethics. I often get students who imagine that 'doing English' at university will mean talking about why a certain book 'teaches us important lessons' or 'teaches us that about the evils of x'. Since I teach medieval lit, they'll often tell me that an author 'teaches us about the terrible state of women in the past' or 'tells us about racism in the medieval period'. Or (shudder) is 'relatable to us today'.

Or else they think it's book club, and you're there to say what you like and don't like about your favourite novel.

We need to do a better job of communicating what it's actually about, clearly.

SenecaFalls · 03/10/2018 16:13

We need to do a better job of communicating what it's actually about, clearly.

Yes, to this. I had a wonderful English teacher my last two years of high school in the US. I realize now that she was quite subversive. She was the first person I ever heard talk about how a work of literature "means" rather than what it means.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 03/10/2018 16:22

Yes! I had the same experience - my sixth-form English teacher was amazing.

One of the things I loved about her was that she always made it seem as if we were really finding out new things and pushing her own ideas further than she'd gone before. I don't know how true that was and I have my suspicions (Grin). But she really made us believe we were finding out new things about texts, rather than finding the 'right' answers.

woollyheart · 03/10/2018 16:27

It does seem odd that students take English Lit as a subject if they don't enjoy reading.

Do they take it just because it is required for some career they want to pursue?

Or were they bored by all other subjects too, and this was one they thought was generally useful and didn't require science/maths?

PanGalaticGargleBlaster · 03/10/2018 18:31

A good lecturer can inspire even the most distractable student! If your students are talking, or not turning up, or walking out, you need to do something different!

If students are talking, not turning up or walking out they need to grow the fuck up.

Some subjects are very tough and turgid, but often form key elements of a course. I studied engineering and it was pretty hard sitting through soil mechanics, fluid dynamics or structures modules but we all pushed on through because we would have failed, not because we wanted to pass and not because the lecturer was not entertaining enough.

HerSymphonyAndSong · 03/10/2018 19:26

Friends who did English lit when I was at university often wanted to be writers (of some description)

shearwater · 03/10/2018 21:39

Some honestly thought they will just do lectures and about an hour a day, if that, of independent study and it looks like some are sticking to it

I only did about that. My lectures and seminars were 21 hours though. The joy of joint honours degrees.

shearwater · 03/10/2018 21:43

I avoided any literature courses until degree level. Eng Lit was optional as a GCSE at my school. Didn't fancy it, or for A Level, as it might ruin books for me that I would otherwise enjoy.

Finally did a couple of French literature modules at degree level and got firsts.

IAmAllAsttonishnent · 03/10/2018 21:50

OMG I am a mature student and this is the worst! I have one group of angsty orange faced (and overweight) girls on my course who are terribly chavy and behave like year 9’s. They are also very mean and critical of others (for being slimmer, brighter and more comfortable in their own skin than them).

In terms of lectures though I do get very VERY frustrated at the slow pace of my course. It’s clearly been designed under the assumption that no one bothers to do the reading or prepare online and entire seminars are spent just going over the material I’ve already done that was uploaded days before.
Twice last week I was pulled aside by tutors and told I could go as they would just be reading slides to the kids who hadn’t bothered to read them!

I don’t think I’m getting £9000 a years worth AT ALL.

I work full time whilst studying so to me time is very precious 👿

LRDtheFeministDragon · 03/10/2018 22:04

Bloody heck, that's a horrible way to talk about the other students.

LoniceraJaponica · 03/10/2018 22:45

What type of subjects are the students talking through? And what was the average grade level of the students?

Is there a correlation between low grades and students treating university as an excuse to party for three years with the odd lecture thrown in? Do students talk through subjects that have more contact hours and practical elements like medicine/dentistry/biomedical science?

SoutineBellhop · 03/10/2018 22:52

I’m humanities, and while I’ve obviously never lectured in a science/business/tech field, having houseshared with a lecturer in medicine, it seemed to me that there was less expectation from her students that each lecture was supposed to be ‘inspiring’, exciting and delivered with the charm and chutzpah of a stand-up comic-cum-guru.

Dljlr · 03/10/2018 23:20

each lecture was supposed to be ‘inspiring’, exciting and delivered with the charm and chutzpah of a stand-up comic-cum-guru.

I'm Social Sciences and I know exactly what you mean.

luckycat007 · 04/10/2018 00:45

@EmperorTomatoRetchup I'm so with you. Sector has changed so much it is unrecognisable- I'm guessing you are in academia too?

HerSymphonyAndSong · 04/10/2018 01:57

I’m with LRD, IAmAllAsttonishnent that is a truly disgusting way to talk about your fellow students - I’m not sure you have a leg to stand on re “mean and critical”

PipeTheFuckDown · 04/10/2018 02:19

Mature student here (32) on a science degree at a prestigious University. I spent 10 mins on Tuesday being smacked over the back of the head with a book, repeatedly, with increasing force. Her and her mate thought it was hilarious Hmm

Until I turned around and gave them Stern Mum face and bollocking. They hadn’t realised I wasn’t a teenager - as if that would make it okay if I was Hmm Typical Mean Girl attitude when confronted and I went straight to Student Welfare to complain. As an adult I just found it mildly irritating and immature, but a teen who’s far from home and lonely may not be so calm about it.

Little fuckers Angry

therealimposter · 04/10/2018 02:37

I got called a cunt the other day for asking a dick with the brain cells of a jellyfish man to shut up.

EmperorTomatoRetchup · 04/10/2018 06:00

@EmperorTomatoRetchup I'm so with you. Sector has changed so much it is unrecognisable- I'm guessing you are in academia too?

Yep, just about clinging on by my fingernails, with short term teaching fellow contracts all over the country. I had a gap of about ten years between my BA and my Masters and was amazed how things had changed in the interim.

luckycat007 · 04/10/2018 06:41

@EmperorTomatoRetchup oh I've been there with the contract gig. Ironically it seems to be nigh on impossible to get out as you are overqualified for everything. I honestly think the job now is more akin to customer service than it is about developing intellect, and funnily enough that was the reason I got into this gig - to escape customer service work argh!

NicoAndTheNiners · 04/10/2018 07:11

I also teach med students, although only in small seminar groups of max 13. Never had a med student misbehave. Get the odd one who looks bored shitless and is probably not interested in the speciality I’m teaching (it’s a bit marmite) but everyone sits there politely. The majority say thank you as they leave.

IAmAllAsttonishnent · 04/10/2018 08:57

@ LRD
@ HER

If you are mean and critical and bully others why shouldn’t I call it exactly how I see it. Those girls are nasty (not to me but to others who have done absoloutley nothing wrong).

It’s pretty clear why they are being mean, pure jealousy. I’m not, for a second, going to feel guilty about giving somebody back exactly what they go around giving others.

If university teaches them anything maybe it’ll be that you get back from people what you give out.

(I’m lovely to/ about everybody unless they give me a good reason not to be)

LRDtheFeministDragon · 04/10/2018 09:53

Um ... we were, I think, focussing on the bit where you called them 'orange faced and overweight'.

Both that and your writing style suggest that you might want to look closer to home for someone on the course who has an immaturity issue.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 04/10/2018 09:54

Seriously, if you were one of my students and you came out with anything approaching this in class , I would be calling you in for a discussion about appropriate workplace communication and professionalism.