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发表于 2010-7-20 22:50:02
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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: 644
TIME: 01:10:24
DATE: 2000-7-20 22:33:47
Should all faculties spend time working outside the academic world in professions relevant to the course they teach? The speaker claims so for the reason that through this measure the quality of instruction can be ameliorated. I essentially agree with this claim because both students and faculty stand to gain benefit in many respect when teachers complements academic knowledge with real world experience.
As a threshold matter, the statement needs to take two limitations into consideration. Firstly, there exist some disciplines which are hard to find coordinate professions outside the academic world. For instance, should a philosophy teacher choose to be a lawyer or anything else? Or is it possible for a astronomy teacher to be hired by a company which has got a delicate and huge observation for itself? Given the specialty of some pure academic discipline, some faculty cannot find a suitable profession in the real world. Secondly, there exist some disciplines which, to some extend, have already contained such jobs. It is not uncommon to see that English teacher do part-time job such as translation or teaching English to students who do not belong to the university he worked. Another apt example involved the singing teachers, who perform in front of students to teach them how to sing beautifully. When it comes to such disciplines which are more practical than academic, whether or not faculty involved seek to work outside the universities has little impact on the progress in the quality of instruction.
Forgoing these two provisos, I fundamentally agree with the speaker's claim since not only students but also faculty are losing their faith and interesting in their major because they find it banal and impractical. Fortunately, this measure can exactly vitalize the current torpid situation. The first benefit has to do with the faculty research. By working outside the academic world, faculty can gain lots of knowledge which cannot be learned from textbook. In the meantime, the working experience will certainly facilitate their academic research because they now can review their academic subjects in a new perspective and therefore they might discovery many new things that they had never thought about. Moreover, no matter the statistics or working result feedbacked from the real world will necessarily enforce their confidence and sense of achievement, both of which are beneficial to their later teaching career.
Secondly, by keeping abreast with the current study and application of disciplines, teachers will have deeper understanding of the courses they teach, especially their application, which is an engaging aspect for most students. Besides, faculty can serve to cushion the students' anxiety and fear of the huge gap between the academic world and real world professions. It can be expected that an economics teacher bring their students to the company he or she had worked to broaden their view. Moreover, the teacher can introduce his students to the company as interns. Any college career planning staff won't have as much academic knowledge as such a teacher do, and few teachers who only concentrate on academic world can provide students any useful suggestion about how to make a career plan.
In this respect, teachers who had worked outside its academic area, also serve to be the best career planning staff for students. Therefore, the quality of instruction will increase dramatically because in the students' eye, those teachers are more than a staff who give them knowledge, to some extend, they are their good friends who provide precious suggestions about the career plan.
To sum up, aside from the two qualifications, it is desirable, or even necessary for the faculty of a college or university to spend time working outside the academic world in relevant professions. After all the intent of university education is to prepare eligible citizen for the society. In this respect, the faculty, as paragon to the students, should not be isolated from the real world.
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