I just finished reading an extremely insightful article that was referenced in "Enhancing Scholarly Work on Teaching and Learning." The article is titled "Students as Clients in a Professional/Client Relationship" by Jeffrey J. Bailey.
I'm quite pleased that this article exists, as it reflects some of my own perspectives on teaching that I already have and enhancees it by increasing the depth of those views. What is even more exciting is that this article exists in a journal for management education, not a journal for mathematics education. One of the main points of "Enhancing Scholarly Work" is that cross-disciplinary reading in education is both valuable and necessary because there are education issues that extend beyond the boundaries of a particular subject.
There were a few poignant quotes:
The enhanced role of the professional and client in the client metaphor (compared to a sales clerk/customer metaphor) embodies additional rights, responsibilities, and expectations for both professors and students. The client rightfully has expectations that the professional operates within accepted standards and ethical guidelines and will fulfill responsibilities associated with being a member of the profession.
This statement expresses something that I've already felt and even codified in my "Standard Syllabus" in the contract that I have at the end. I feel less odd about the contractual nature of that document now.
As Franz notes, the attainment of physical fitness cannot be given to the client but must be accomplished by the client. A trainer can, however, show a client what to do, encourage him or her, and provide accountability. Similarly, students need to realize the importance of their active involvement in learning. The students must work at learning just as the trainee must exercise (work) to obtain physical fitness.
This helps to put the classroom experience in the right perspective from the students' side. If you go to the gym but don't exercise, do you expect to derive any benefit from the experience?
The professor/student relationship has dimensions to it that parallel the accounting firm/client relationship. If a student is not satisfied with a grade, he or she does not get it changed simply because of the dissatisfaction. Just as the audited client cannot say, “I’m not satisfied with your audit so change some numbers here to make me satisfied,” so too the student is generally bound by the grade the professor has assigned.
I wish I had this article five years ago, when I started as a TA. It would have given me a much clearer explanation to students as to why it is unproductive to argue for a better grade when one it is clearly not deserved.
