College Selection Guru

People normally equate a professor to a teacher and vice versa. True, they both have the responsibility to impart knowledge on students and encourage them to discover new things. However, there is much more to being a professor if we were to dig deeper.

College professors are usually involved in research and sometimes, they tend to set aside teaching in favor of research.  In colleges and universities, research is given more priority over teaching such that high profile professors ignore their teaching performance. Although it is a fact that outstanding research can bring in more money, the effect of putting more emphasis on such work is detrimental to students.

The debate continues as to why research professors are not good teachers.

everal factors point to this truth as found by many academic experts. High profile research professors are intellectuals and experts in their respective fields. The downside is that with their high intelligence, they tend to ignore the basics which show in their way of teaching. They assume that their students understand what they say in one session such that they skip so many things. Others believe that the so-called “star professors” do not have great interest to teach as they consider it a chore. But they don’t have much choice since professors are required to teach a certain number of hours in universities.

The conflicts between research and teaching have been investigated by Professor Morris Kline. Good teaching, he says, needs fulltime dedication which can be pursued only by those who are willing to master the art. He pointed out several factors that contribute to good teaching like extent of knowledge and effectively communicating it to students, learning what backgrounds students bring to class, knowing your students well and how they think, encouraging questions from them and motivating them. These factors, however, are not inherent in most research professors.

Professor Kline pointed out that teachers and professors differ in personalities. Although research professors are kind and polite, they are not effective communicators. Many are the introvert type who just keep to themselves. When teaching, they are meticulous with their material and write it on the board such that class time is limited to copying what was written there. When asked questions in class, they feel bothered and tend to depart from their prepared lectures. They usually get irritated when interrupted in the middle of their lectures.

Many researchers do not have any interest in teaching. In fact, when a university hires a research professor, a light teaching load is usually offered apart from a high pay. University officials do know that researchers are not keen on teaching hence besides a minimum teaching time, they encourage professors to conduct a course or seminar in their specialized field.

The demands of research and teaching greatly vary. Although both can be pursued at the same time, it’s not always possible that a professor can be good at both. It does not always follow that research professors are good at teaching and that teachers should engage in research. One is distinct from the other.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 7:37 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.