杨繁的GRE-issue写作

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TOPIC: ISSUE50 - "In order to improve the quality of instruction at the college and university level, all faculty should be required to spend time working outside the academic world in professions relevant to the courses they teach."
WORDS: 329          TIME: 00:36:34          DATE: 2/11/2010 4:00:52 AM

The speaker asserts that it will improve the instruction quality to require the teaching stuffs to spend time working outside the academic world and thus we should do it. The first part statement is general true but whether the requirement is necessary depends on both the particular subject and the ability of the faculty member.

To begin with, it is certain that  the working  experience outside the academic world would broad the the horizon  of the teacher. In fact, according to a survey, most of the student feels that instructors with working experience outside the campus can free the knowledge better from the dull textbooks. Further, they are less doctrinairism. They can give a more vivid lecture while encouraging skepticism. This is especially true for the subjects such as business and communication. Since in these field, for better understanding the theories, the most efficient way is going on practicing it. With large amount of first hand experience, the instructors can really figure down the advantage and disadvantage of the theories. I  can figure it out  from my own experience. The most popular business teacher in my university is an old man who is full of wonderful experience. He have founded 6 companies up to now. Five of the went bankrupt. He sold the last one, which finally makes him become successful.  Now the great experience, which has already been changed into practical knowledge, attracts students from all majors to his classes.

On the other hand, let us take the situation of basic science into consideration. To require a scientific professor that is already outstanding in the academic world working in a commercial lab is a bad idea. Since he can lead all his scientific researches in campus, there is no necessary for him to go off campus. Also, before he became a professor,  he must have already possessed a lot of  laboratory experience. There is merely any need for a professor in scientific subject be required working off campus again.

In addition, is it really necessary to have that requirement? For a young teaching stuff, the quality of his teaching is not only decided by his working experience off campus, but also determined by his on campus teaching experience. The later is more important while the former only serves as supplement. After working outside the academic world for a certain period, would he still be familiar with all the teaching work? According to the the survey I have mentioned before, it is also found that the teaching quality at the initial return of the teachers, the teachers who went off campus and work for a period, usually drops. That should be due to the unfamiliarity to the teaching work.

In conclusion, the statement has oversimplified the condition. It is true that students will appreciate a teacher with plenty of working experience and there are evidences shows that working off campus does improve the teaching quality. But whether the improvement will work depend on both the particularity of the subject and of the teacher.