I wonder if the mixing of teaching and research is causing a lot of
these problems? In academia the only position for conducting original
research long-term is professor (ostensibly?) but they are also
responsible for teaching too (ostensibly?)... I wonder if the
enterprise has grown too large and we need to start parsing out the
teaching to those who want to do it and are good at it and the research
who want to do and are good at that - with some kind of more structured
overlap so students can still experience "real world research". The
overlap I think has become a huge gray area, and sharks feed in gray
areas and murky waters - as do opportunists, thus causing a lot of the
problems we have been discussing.
On 10/23/2012 12:01 AM, malcolm McCallum wrote:
I personally do not consider it an opportunity as you put it.
I consider it a necessity or requirement you just better do.
I have sat on a ton of search committees, and I guarantee you that
teaching experience will trump none in every case except maybe a
research doctoral school.
I'm not sure if that is fair or not, but it is what it is.
You can't guarantee yourself an R1 position, but you can at least give
yourself a chance at a teaching post if you can show effective
teaching at any level.
M
On Mon, Oct 22, 2012 at 7:54 PM, Aaron T. Dossey <[email protected]> wrote:
Although I agree that experience teaching can give one a competitive edge in
the ever more tiny faculty job market, and provide other benefits as helping
guide one's career priorities, stay fresh with the basics etc.... BUT:
I fear that this emerging trend to "give more teaching 'opportunities' to
students and postdocs" is a thinly veiled method to, like has been done with
research, grantwriting and many other things, farm out or pass along
undesirable workloads to students and postdocs (ie: distill the faculty job
description down to pullet points, keep those with a career benefit and have
students and postdocs do those which are left). In fact I generally cringe
(literally, often physically) when I see the word "opportunity" in titles of
emails in this list associated with graduate school "positions" (jobs?
really?) and postdoc positions.
Funding agencies, accreditation entities, institutions, etc. must watch this
VERY CAREFULLY lest it devolve into a pyramid scheme like research has been
for some time.
On 10/22/2012 7:29 PM, Christa Mulder wrote:
Hi All,
I would like to comment on the need for training in teaching mentioned in
earlier posts in this thread, and the comment below that students often have
little opportunity to gain such training or experience. Things are changing
rapidly: many universities now offer programs that provide training
specifically aimed at graduate students who expect to have teaching (or
outreach) be a significant part of their career. This follows from an
increasing awareness that providing rigorous training in one aspect
(research) and none in another (teaching or generally communicating science)
when both are likely to be crucial components of future careers makes as
much sense as training pianists to play with their right hand and expect the
left hand to follow along at the first concert (this analogy was first
provided by Jo Handelsman in her 2003 article "Teaching scientists to
teach", HHMI bulletin 12:31). For example, at my university we have just
submitted the paperwork to have a 12-credit Certificate in Teaching and
Outreach aimed at graduate students in the sciences. Students who complete
this will have practical training in course development, active learning
techniques, evaluative techniques etc., they will have completed an
internship (with a mentor faculty member in a college classroom, in a K-12
classroom, or in an informal educational setting such as a museum or
visitor's center), and they will have a teaching portfolio, including a
teaching philosophy statement based on experience rather than just ideas,
that should help them obtain employment. Of course this takes more time
initially - but in the long run it probably saves time as the level of
frustration in teaching is reduced. And of course it should increase the
quality of teaching that undergraduates are exposed to in the next
generation.
With respect to training in budget management and similar skills: I would
strongly encourage graduate students to get together and ask their faculty
for skills-based courses. These could be short courses or weekend workshops.
It too will save you time in the long run.
Good luck to everyone entering the job market.
Sincerely,
Christa Mulder
On 10/22/2012 1:03 PM, Tyler Hicks wrote:
I've been following this thread with great interest. I've found many of
the comments to be on par with my own graduate school experiences. My
graduate school experience has been a mixed bag of positive and negative
experiences. However, I've found that overall the graduate school experience
has not been everything that I hoped it would be. When I originally made the
decision to go to graduate school I did so because I was interested in
pursing an academic career (teaching/research). Personally, I am still on
the fence about a research versus teaching position but giving the
saturation of the job market the choice may be made for me (at the least at
the entry level). However, in many ways I feel that graduate school has not
prepared me as well as it could to become a professor.
For instance opportunities to gain teaching experience are limited. TA's
often do not provide lecture or lesson development opportunities and tend to
be structured in advance. Some graduate students seem to enjoy this as it
reduces their work load and provides time for research, which is certainly
important, but it does seem to reduce opportunities for active engagement in
teaching and development of teaching skills by graduate students. I was
fortunate to partake in NSF GK-12 program which at least provided some of
this experience albeit at the 7th grade level which may count for very
little when it comes to acquiring a job.
On the flip side looking at research I also find the graduate school
experience failing to provide opportunities to help develop the skills I
need to do research or one day run my own lab. Reduced library and
departmental budgets make ready access to literature and software
challenging. Additionally, I've been fortunate enough to write and secure my
own fellowships and grants. However, being "only" a graduate student I am
afforded little opportunity to actively engage in the management of those
research funds. Managing large grants and fellowship funds seems like a
rather useful skill to possess when exiting school with PhD. Instead much of
the financial matters take place behind a veil of administration and
bureaucracy until one day someone tell you that your out of $$.
A former graduate student in the same department as mine once referred to
graduate students as the "illegal immigrant workforce of the academic
world." In many ways I think he is right. Many, but not all, graduate
students work tremendously hard and long hours for little pay. Of course the
pay doesn't bother me as much as some of the other issues. For one I find
the level of healthcare coverage provided to graduate students to be
ridiculously poor. I know of many graduate students that have suffered
through pain simply because of the poor level of health care coverage or the
hassle that low quality health care providers cause with each claim.
Additionally, graduate students have very little rights within the
university. I've known others and myself who have appealed to the Ombudsum
or other intra-university avenues for legal advice and the general consensus
is that we graduate students should just grin and bear whatever difficulties
we are having with administration, advisors, or other faculty. We are after
all ephemeral and if you can just deal with it for another couple years you
can go away. It seems that there is an unfair conflict of interest when a
graduate students wishes to bring a complaint against a university when the
only avenues to do so are a part of the university system itself. It seems
in the best interest of the university to protect itself rather than deal
with an ephemeral graduate student's issues.
Not to focus entirely on the glum. One opportunity graduate school has
provided for me is the opportunity to work with a variety of governmental
agencies and ngo's on natural resource issues. I've found that experience to
extremely rewarding. So much so that I am considering working for an agency
or organization such USFWS, USGS, or TNC upon graduating (if any positions
exist!). Prior to graduate school I would have never considered a science
based management or research position within the government. Whether or not
all the time I have dedicated to working on applied natural resource
management questions (e.g. reports and consultation) rather than producing
copious amounts of publications will come back to haunt me remains to be
seen.
I will finish by saying that my comments are based primarily on my
experience at my institution. Other people have had very different
experiences at other institutions and even at my own. Every graduate student
has different expectations of what they expect from graduate school. I
realize they can't make everyone happy but I do feel that universities could
do a little better.
Cheers,
Tyler L Hicks
--
Aaron T. Dossey, Ph.D.
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Founder/Owner: All Things Bugs
Capitalizing on Low-Crawling Fruit from Insect-Based Innovation
http://allthingsbugs.com/about/people/
http://www.facebook.com/Allthingsbugs
1-352-281-3643
--
Aaron T. Dossey, Ph.D.
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Founder/Owner: All Things Bugs
Capitalizing on Low-Crawling Fruit from Insect-Based Innovation
http://allthingsbugs.com/about/people/
http://www.facebook.com/Allthingsbugs
1-352-281-3643
