Vous dîtes qu'un bon professeur doit pouvoir mettre les élèves à leur meilleur niveau et qu'il doit être à l'écoute de chaque élève (pas que des meilleurs). Mais l'un n'empéche t'il pas l'autre?

The way I understood what you said is that we think good teachers should be able to make their students reach their highest potentials and be available to their students. I don't see how one would prevent the other. Being available to their students means they are more likely to understand each student and individually help them as opposed to treating all their students like a single entity. At least that's the way I see it.

From your responses, I think we mostly agree. It's just that your responses indicate that teachers are more or less limited to the classroom whereas we seem to expect teachers to be available outside the classroom. What do you think?

Je suis daccord avec toi. C'est très difficile pour un professeur d'aider les élèves en difficulté à l'exterieur de la classe  car je pense (pour nous les français ) que très peu d'élèves iraient soliciter les professeurs en dehors des cours. Le professeur ne peut pas obliger les élèves en difficulté de venir en dehors des cours. Vous en pensez quoi?

I was wondering if in France you have much interaction with your professors outside of class. At MIT we have something called "office hours" where you can go and speak to your professors about concepts that are troubling you, or just about the class in general. Is there something similar at your school?

@Karen

Les professeurs nous proposent parfois d'aller les voir à leur bureau si on a des questions, mais il n'y a pas d'heures réservées à ces visites (elles dépendent de la disponibilité du professeur).

En tout cas peu de gens vont directement voir le prof à son bureau, surtout si la question n'est pas urgente et peut être posée en fin de cours.

@Benji

I agree with you. I think a good professor should not mandate students to come after class.

I think that ideally, a good professor should be to able to teach the majority of the students in the classroom. They should not have to rely on the use of additional time outside of the classroom to explain the things he did not explain well in class. Otherwise, the extra time outside of the classroom would just be the same as the classroom, Of course, everyone learns at a different pace. Therefore, I think it is a good idea but not a necessity to have optional hours for the few students who do not understand a concept and would like additional clarification.

@Noujoud

But do you ever discuss things that are not directly related to the material the professor is teaching with the professor?

My opinion is that the fact that we have Recitations/Office Hours gives the student far more opportunities to interact with different professors. Consequently, it gives the professors far more opportunities to stimulate their students into understanding the material. Also, as Jelle said, due to this you can discuss things that aren't necessarily related to the material that is being taught.

Overall, it seemed that people agree on what a good professor should be like, with minor differences.

I agree. It seems like the big difference is based mainly on how professors interact with students outside the classroom.

In your experiences, how do student's deal with questions on the material? Is there usually a time at the end of class where you can ask them or can you ask questions throughout the class?

@Ana

Pour chaque séance, les profs se definissent des objectifs et s'ils sont atteints avant la fin de la séance ils proposent aux élèves de poser des question sur l'intégralité du cours durant le temps qui reste... Toutefois les élèvent peuvent à tout moment interrompre le prof pour poser des questions mais il faut de preference que ce soit en rapport avec la partie du cours dispensée et non sur l'intégralité.

I agree that there is a big difference in how professors interact with students outside the classroom. However, I think this indicates a bigger difference: I think we have different views of the "right" or "best" relationship between students and professors. I think the American students believe the professors should care for their students individually and try to help them succeed. I cannot tell from the French responses whether the same is true.

Do you think that professors should care about each individual student and try to help them succeed, or is their responsibility only to explain clearly and transfer knowledge?

@Jelle

En général, le professeur suit un programme précis. Si nous lui posons une question hors programme, il nous répond mais il préfère se concentrer sur le programme à suivre. Quant aux questions qui ne sont pas propres à sa matière, si elles peuvent y être rattachées et si il a les capacités d'y répondre, cela revient à poser une question hors programme.  S'il n'a pas de connaissances suffisantes, il nous le dit clairement et nous renvoit vers d'autres personnes plus aptes à répondre.

Mais en général, nos questions concernent la matière enseignée, ou si le professeur a d'autres responsabilités scolaires (par exemple si c'est le directeur de la filière), on peut lui parler d'éventuelles difficultés rencontrées.

At MIT I often find that people will ask questions that are related to the topic being lectured, but has to do with something that interests that student in particular. Sometimes it seems like we get too off topic from lecture, but sometimes you end up learning about something interesting that you wouldn't have known otherwise. I think a lot of students email professors about topics that interest them as well, rather than mentioning it in class. Are your professors accessible by email and do they often respond to specific questions you may have on a somewhat-related topic?

@ Karen Dubbin

Souvent les questions que nous posons à nos professeurs sont relatives au cours. Mais ils répondent toujours à nos mails et je pense que cela ne les dérangerait pas de répondre à des questions spécifiques qui ne sortent pas de leur domaine d'étude.

Since MIT is a place that has a lot of very very smart people (some are kind of phenomenally smart) I think that the professor should make it clear that the class is not a competition and push everyone to do their best and to improve themselves (even if compared to the others the progress is not that big). Because the thing is, you can never be the smartest here, so better compare to yourself and compare what you were before in terms of knowledge and what you are now. Me, personally, I think curved classes are a bad idea often. Curved classes are classes where people's grades are determined by where they are compared to the other students in the class and the average grades that other people get. So, you can be doing very badly on that class but if all the other people are doing badly as well, you are fine:) Do you have classes like that in France?

@Pape

I think another interesting anecdote about professors here are how willing they are to discuss topics outside of "learning". I have found that many professors are willing to sit and talk about life. Many have offered to talk about career aspirations, the mistakes they have made, things to watch out for as we move through our careers. In that sense, they are much more than just transmitters of knowledge - they really become a wisdom bank for many things in life. Do you feel like you can talk about things beyond anything that has to do with class materials?

@ Danielle

En fait la réponse que j'ai donnée à Karen concerne juste les mails. Nos professeurs nous donnent des conseils sur la vie, sur nos orientations et aspirations, donc nous pouvons bien sûr en déduire que nous pouvons discuter avec eux sur des sujets qui dépassent le cadre scolaire. Mais ces genres de discussion sont souvent abordées face à face et non par mails. 

Bonjour,

Je voulais juste compléter les quelques réponses. Je pense qu'il est certes important que les professeurs nous accordent du temps pendant ou à l'extérieur des cours mais cela n'est pas leur objectif principal. Ils sont là avant tout pour enseigner. De plus, dans les écoles il existe souvent des réunions spécifiques pour parler de nos orientations et aspirations. Je pense aussi que la première personne à qui en pense lorsque l'on a un problème ce n'est pas un de nos professeurs donc il est tout à fait normal qu'ils ne nous accordent peut être pas le temps pour autre chose que les cours.