Dossey, one of the greatest strengths of the teaching component of the higher
education system in the U.S. is that the people doing the teaching are truly
experts in the fields in which they teach. These experts range from full
professors through junior faculty members and down to post doctoral fellows and
graduate students. But they are teaching subjects that they have a passion
for. We do have institutions where teaching exists as a stand alone activity,
unrelated to research. Though many of the faculty members teaching in such
institutions are devoted, passionate, hard working, and do an excellent job,
still, the effort is divorced from research activity, and in order for students
in such a program to experience research, they have to be "farmed out" to
research programs. One of the strengths of regional universities that has
developed in recent years is greater involvement of their faculty in research,
and in particular, greater participation of their students in re!
search.
Now we just need to get state legislators to recognize the importance of the
research activity in these institutions. In my home state of Texas recently
faculty are being attacked by the government for being "do nothings" because
their teaching loads don't add up to a forty hour work week when only time in
the classroom ("contact hours") is considered. Of course, that is posturing
for political consumption, but it has a serious impact on these institutions
where the typical teaching load for a biology faculty member is three lecture
courses with associated laboratories per semester, putting the faculty member
in the classroom and teaching laboratory for 15 to 18 hours per week.
To divorce teaching from research completely would be akin to sending a young
woman who wanted to become the greatest she could be at automobile mechanics to
learn from someone who read books about cars, rather than to master mechanics.
I do not mean this analogy to demean those who have chosen teaching for their
focus, but rather to emphasize that research has an important contribution to
make to effective teaching. We just need to get the politicians to understand
the connection.
A university's contribution to society is the creation and dissemination of
knowledge. When the creation and the dissemination are conjoined, the
institution is most effective.
I realize that my description is an idealized one, and that many paths to
success exist. But to try to separate teaching absolutely from research, in my
view, would be a serious mistake, damaging to both teaching and research, and
to the overall scholarly endeavor.
David McNeely
---- "Aaron T. Dossey" <[email protected]> wrote:
> 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
--
David McNeely
