Issue50 教员vs外出工作 【教育类超高频，求指点，互拍】

MagicGlaiveUID: 2112081

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: 632         TIME: 0:55:00          DATE: 2006-8-24

Whether college faculty should be required to spend time working outside the academic world in professions relevant to the courses they teach depends primarily on the specific academic area. In my view, aside from some majors for which is neither feasible nor possible, it is suitable for some faculty whose major are appropriate to work outside the academic, to get some real-world experience, which would greatly benefit both students and faculties, and thus improve the quality of instruction.

To begin with, for some major, its knowledge can be broadly used in the outside world such as mechanics, engineering and so forth, the more experience of faculty in real-world get, the more students benefit. Professors now can clearly know what is badly in need of outside the academic, which might be long time neglected in our textbooks. Take computer science for example. Our universities used to teach students miscellaneous knowledge about computer while always omit the ability in practice--which just goes to the opposite of industry field's need. They required the employees to be specialists in one certain small field and are able to solve some practical problems quickly, instead of a bookworm who know everything about computer but can do nothing in practice. If the professions can catch such information during their outside work, they could adjust their syllabus and teaching material which would help their students be more welcome after they graduate. Moreover, when their students want to get a job of that major, the faculties who work outside would offer big convenience since they have stable relationship with the companies of the field they teach.

Still, their experience and relationship with the real-world would help the faculties with better research issue and fund especially in some active domain containing high-tech such as biology, economics and so on. In those fields, if they do the research without any sight of outside the academic world, their research result might be useless or even meaningless. In the biology domain, the hottest issues are always the most rapidly developed direction. If the professors do not step into the most popular topic, how could they claim that the quality of instruction at their department is good enough? So does economics; its research must base on the real statistics from the market and stock. And all the models they build to illustrate the economic activity must be testified in the real world. Without any experience working outside the college, an economist can not give out anything meaningless. On the other hand, their working relationship in real companies would be useful to get fund for their study. This would help the professors purchase advanced equipment for their laboratory which can improve the quality of instruction of the college and university.

However, not all faculties are suitable to work outside. For those who study mathematics and physics, their study is to discover some secret of the universe which has no direct relationship to our daily life. If they are asked to work outside the academic, their attraction would be dispersed from their study and they would not have enough time and attention in teaching and research. And for those whose major is philosophy, how can they even get a job relevant to their subject outside the academic? If we really want to improve the quality of instruction, school must provide necessary support for them to bend their head over the teaching and research without being disturbed by the outside academic world.

Accordingly, college faculties in those fields directly relevant to outside world should step out and the experience they gain is a great treasure for both students and themselves in improving the quality of instruction. But for those areas in which outside work is either helpless or unavailable, school should provide condition for their teaching and study.

flycc28UID: 2164453

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