issue50

423165179UID: 2649312

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."

This issue argues that professors should step out of their academic world and get relate to the work outside which is relevant to the courses they teach. However, the conclusion I agree with is that in most academic areas professors need to take the suitable extent of training outside their academic.

There are three arguments to brace the author's notion. First of all, as we all known, nowadays, in this full of challenges and changes society, almost every academic area is updating quickly with the development of our society. And professors, as people to deliver knowledge and solve questions, must stay up with the rhythm at which his academic area changes. Otherwise, the knowledge provided in the books cannot update so quickly with its developing trends and maybe not enough for the teaching process. Consequently, professors getting out of the academic world and obtain more touch with more practical and fresh knowledge which is relevant to his academic area maybe a beneficial thing.

Secondly, the combination between the practical ability which brought by the work outside courses and the basic knowledge which provided by the academic materials can not only let professors get a updating knowledge but also a further understanding of the academic area he teach. As the problems and new questions they met at their practical experience may stimulate their deeper studies on their subjects and better mastery of their acquired knowledge which, certainly will make his courses more practical, more vivid, more understandable. And these, will cause a mount advantages as his students' better grasping of knowledge or more interesting about his courses and so on.

Thirdly, the work outside the academic world may help the professors know more information to help their students find job, it can also become a potential fine example to the students to bring them a practical mind.
Since the grasping of more detailed knowledge about more practical problems, the students will become the favor of the employers and will develop a more practical spirit on the studies in the future.

Albeit, the notion I raised above does not equal to that every area should have as many as possible outside work. Some areas like philosophy and mathematics may count indoor researches more important. For these academic areas, studies without any interrupt may be better. And even the academic area which needs professors' working outside the academic area, should hold a good balance between indoor researches. Only through that way, work relevant to their research areas will be a activator instead of a barrier stays in the professors academic study and instruction.

To sum up, most academic areas should encourage professors to do appropriate amount of practical work relevant to the courses they teach because these experience can help them build more modern series of knowledge, more firm construction of knowledge, more vivid explaining of knowledge and benefit their students at last.