Summary of Interviews

I have chatted with several physics professors regarding their opinions regarding how students’ general academic proficiency and grammatical aptitude have varied over their teaching careers. Usually, I first introduce the topic posed as the following question, “Have you noticed any trends in the aptitude of your students over your teaching career?” The response to this question was somewhat reserved due to either apprehension about how the response will sound or a lack of a formed opinion. For example, one professor noted: “Though this is a general question, I think that, overall, the aptitude of the students has remained almost constant; however, students’ writing and comprehension abilities have declined over the past 10 years.” The second question asked was, “How significant is proper grammar usage outside of undergraduate physics work?” The answer to this question was unanimous, “Isn’t that obvious? Hasn’t it always been important?”

After these introductory questions, I prompted them to speak more candidly on what they thought had changed the most in the last 20 years. The response to this question was perhaps the most varied. For example, one professor said, “Overall, students’ abilities to read and comprehend material given in class and in textbooks have fallen.” Although it is not grammar related, the most interesting quip was, “I think the greatest change has been in how we are required to grade and how students now treat their educations like consumers. If they don’t like their grades, they just try trading them in for better ones; it’s not supposed to work like that. There should be consequences for poor study habits.”

The conversations then passed to more esoteric topics. Among these topics, the most appropriate for this discussion is, “What errors do you find occurring most often in the literature?” The answers were “spelling mistakes and incorrect use of certain words.” However, I think that this can often be forgiven since many authors are not native English speakers; although, the journal referees should catch these errors.

Kyle Augustson