Issue50 【六人作文小组】第1周第3次作业

levinshireUID: 2559564

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: 342          TIME: 2:33:57          DATE: 2009-1-7

提纲：
有些专业应该，有些不应该
1.工商管理，一些工科，实际工作经验有助于教学
2.哲学、文学、物理、数学等基础理论学科，还是安心教书的好
不同学科情况不同，区别对待

Should all faculty in colleges and universities be required to spend time working
outside the academic world in professions relevant to the courses they teach in order
to improve the quality of instruction? As far as I concerned, it depends primarily on
the specific academic area. It's useful for some applied areas, while for some
theoretical areas outside work is unnecessary.

In certain academic areas such as business administration or engineering, it will be
very helpful for the improvement of the quality of instruction if the professors have
worked outside in professional positions related to their field. The reason for this is
simple: students can not learn how to manage a company or how to operating a machine
merely through textbooks. A professor who has experience in the business field is able
to bring about practical, real-world examples which the students shall never learn from
the books. That helps him to become a better teacher by offering better instructions in
general business principles and practices to students.

By contrast, in the academic areas such as literature, philosophy, mathematics, or
other theoretical sciences, there is no need for the faculty to take some job outside
the academic world. For the courses such as humanities and theoretical sciences,
working experience in companies or governments offers little help for students'
understanding and learning of the theories. Most of the important theories in these
courses were made by scholars decades or even centuries ago, and the right way of
theoretical studying is to do a lot of theoretical reading and thinking. Working
outside is a waste of time and energy. Besides, in some areas there exists no relevant
profession outside academia at all.

In sum, it is an unfair generalization to assert that all faculty, no matter what
specific areas they are in, should spend time working outside schools in professions
relevant to the courses they teach. As for a professor of business administration it
will help to improve the quality of instruction. However, for a professor of literature
it is totally worthless to do that.



[ 本帖最后由 levinshire 于 2009-1-7 23:46 编辑 ]