ISSUE50=August Rush= 考前冲刺 by Mason.PD

Mason.PDUID: 2592013

50. "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."
为了改大学的教学质量，所有的教员都应该被要求花一定时间到学术领域以外去参加和他们所教科目相关的工作。

Mason.PDUID: 2592013

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: 512-649          TIME: 01:00:00+10（结尾）         DATE: 2009/8/11 14:40:17

With the development of modern society, people are becoming more and more willing to put their emphasis on education. As the paramount peak of the learned pyramid, college and university begin to improve their quality of instruction through appealing all faculty to spend time working outside the academic world. However, I fundamentally agree with the suggestion partly for the reason that not all the subjects' faculty can improve their teaching quality through practical operation, especially for the pure theoretical investigation.

To begin with, whether the quality of instruction at the college and university can be improved if faculties have experience outside in course related job depends on the purpose of the education of the particular discipline where these faculties belong to. Generally there are two types of disciplines: one is to train students with practical skills which put them at more advantageous position in the future job markets, such as engineering or law school; another aims at cultivating pure researchers, philosophers and scientists hunting for axiom and truth existing in nature and humanity, such as theoretical math, philosophy. The later one does not guarantee students to earn more money or gain higher position in politics, but to give students independent thinking and eternal desire searching for unknown territories and mysterious values.

For the faculties to train students with practical skills, the experience they get outside the academic world in professions related to their jobs can improve the quality of instruction. There is a common saying in China that practice is the sole criterion for testing truth, which can also be applied into practical education. Through engaging into the real operation, faculties can face with several fresh questions that they may never touch in the textbook. These problems ask them to have a new and full comprehension to their teaching discipline, and then they will definitely redesign their teaching method to prepare their course to make their students having strong abilities dealing with the practical difficulties which they will face with in their future jobs. Besides, the experience beyond academic area can give faculties new comprehension to understand the social trend. As we know, practical education finally serves for the society. If college and university's graduates only know how to solve professional questions but donot know how to express them or communicate with their colleagues, college and university will undoubtedly fails to improve their quality of instruction.

However, when reaching for the pure theoretical subjects, it is too hasty to say their faculties need to be involved into working outside the academic world. There are only a few profession related jobs for them. Imagine this fact, can you find a exact social job for Immanuel Kant, who originated German classical philosophy? A writer? Then a writer must serve for some publishers or magazines, in effect Kant is not such a kind of person. These faculties, maybe a little like freelancers, only can carry on their independent criticism in pure theory, which will definitely be affected by society. You can not force lots of humanist, like Kant, to spend time outside the academic world, which may impede their critical thinking the fountain of the world and cumber their creative ideas. Meanwhile, some theoretical scientists also cannot spend much time in practical jobs as well. A physicist understanding of the universe won't be deeper after he spends ten years on designing computers which is obviously physics related job. Free research environment not the experience outsider help improve the instruction quality of there less practical fields.

To sum up, before asking faculties to spend time outside on profession related working, we should know clearly the particular purpose of their disciplines. Outside experience help improve the instruction quality of the faculties aiming as training students with skills for solving practical problems in their future careers. Nevertheless, for pure humanists and scientists, free research environment rather than outside experience, promotes more the quality of instruction.