ISSUE50 [Dancing in the Dark] 每日一练6 by subtory

subtoryUID: 2298678

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."

Faculty members in college and university are usually confined in academic researches, which may limit their vision when they teach courses. So it has been suggested that some professors should spend time working outside the academic world to improve the quality of instruction. But it is not necessary for the faculty of all fields. Professors whose researches are centered in experiments and theories have no need to take a job outside schools. Instead, there are many other ways to improve the quality of courses.

Professors in some fields such as economics, journalism, law and engineering have many opportunities for employment outside of academics, and they can accumulate practical experiences through the work. Without such experiences, professors may only know some theories but know nothing about how to solve practical problems. Maybe they are expert at economic theory, but when facing a practical economic problem, they do not know what to do at all. Maybe they can remember every list of laws, but when being ask for legal consultation, they can do nothing to help. It is true that some faculty members in economics or law may only do researches about the theories, and these professors should indeed put their whole time and energy into the researches. However, there must be many students taking the courses in order to find a job after they graduate, and they hope the faculty can give them some information about practical skills that will be useful when they take the job. Professors can only obtain such information through a real job.

However, professors who teach in some areas such as physics, mathematics and humanity, in which experiments, theories and thoughts are essential while practical knowledge is not necessary, do not need to work outside the academic world. Actually there are few opportunities of employment for them. Students taking their courses are mostly intended to learn theories and methods for doing research. Even if they will not do research after graduation but work in other fields, they do not expect to learn practical knowledge about jobs in these courses, which will only degrade the courses. It is said that professors who cannot do a good job in researches cannot give outstanding courses. Professors should, therefore, try to do some advanced researches and publish papers in peer-reviewed journals to increase the quality of their courses.

Moreover, even if it is useful for some faculty members to work outside schools, there are also some flaws, and there are many other ways to improve the quality of instruction. If a faculty member wants to start a job, he probably has to spend at least one year in the work, or he can hardly learn anything. In this period, he is far away from schools and students, and he may become unfamiliar with teaching, which is also skillful and requires a close connection between the teacher and the students. So when the teacher returns back to the school, he is possibly not as good at teaching as before. Instead of working outside academic world, professors can invite some famous people from some big companies to give lectures on careers. These people have much more practical knowledge than the teachers even if they spend several years working outside of schools, and they can tell students how to find a job and show them how to solve a variety of problems in their work. Besides, professors can also create some opportunities for the students to take a job for some short period, which will increase their experiences fundamentally.

In conclusion, faculty members in some fields that are closed related with practical knowledge do need to spend some time taking a job outside of schools, while it is unnecessary for the faculty in other fields. Instead of working outside the academic world, which also has some shortcomings for the faculty, there are many other ways to improve the quality of instruction such as inviting some famous people to give lectures and encouraging the students to take some short-term jobs.