Issue50 Appril小组第二周第四次作业

gingerleeUID: 2454321

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: 458          TIME: 01:29:00          DATE: 2008-3-29 23:10:52
提纲：
不完全同意作者观点。
某些学科，如人类学，地理学，心理学需要学术界以外的知识，一个学术领域可能涉及其他领域的知识。融会贯通才能提高教学水准
某些领域不需要花时间去学习其他知识 如天文学，天文学是特殊的学术领域，需要精英，对此领域的知识掌握得越好，对天文学更有用。
The speaker holds the opinion that all faculties in college and university should spend time working beyond their academic world in professions which are related to the courses so that the instruction could improve. In my opinion, not all faculties should work outside their academic world. I agree insofar as some faculty of disciplines such as Anthropology, Geology, Geography and Psychology, should establish their theories not only on the academic research, but also on some related information and knowledge of different academic world. However, in terms of discipline regarding Astronomy, Physics and so on, faculty would better concentrate their mind academically on the unveiling mystery which they would cast light on with their great efforts.

First of all, working outside the academic world in professions relevant to the courses can provide the faculty with an opportunity to be close to a new discovery which may be hardly figured out in the academic world. For example, the professor of Anthropology who especially focus his/her mind on studying the difference between the Western Culture and the Oriental Culture. As we all know, a large number of factors can lead to various cultures between the West and the Orient, for instance, the inhabited environment the climate, the geological location where people live. With the knowledge in Geography or Psychology, the professor can have a better understanding of geographical reasons psychological analysis which may attribute to the distinct of the distinct cultures. And also, despite the fact that he/she can develop the instruction based on the on his/her own academic research, will the lecture much more fascinating to the student with professor's geographical knowledge ? This illustrates the point that, with knowledge beyond academic world, professor can make the instructions vivid and of course they can have unexpected newly discovery to their studying area.

On contrary, in terms of some specific disciplines like Astronomy, it would be better that professor can concentrate their mind on exploring the outer space which is still full of mysteries to the public. Since, astronomy requires the professor of an advanced scientific knowledge. Nine great planets including Earth, Saturn, Pluto, Venice, Mars,etc. are still waiting for the scientists to discover. However, spending time learning other invalid knowledge that has no relevance with Astronomy is an action of wasting precious time and would leads to no breathtaking discoveries. The more knowledge of Astronomy a man master, the higher quality the instruction will be.

In conclusion, to some disciplines, there is no denying that the more the faculty learn outside the academic world, the more useful knowledge will be instilled into the classes with some so that the quality of instruction can improve to a higher level. However, to some special disciplines, specific factors must be taken into consideration.