Teaching College Students as a Profession – Part 2
Hi Everyone!
Last time I shared some of responsibilities I have as a college faculty member. I thought this time I’d talk about how creating and maintaining student relationships is one of the main duties of a teaching faculty member. For example, my advisees drop by to discuss many things: their schedules for the current or the coming semester, their overall progress toward graduation, opportunities for internships, study abroad or graduate studies, and possibilities for future jobs. Students in my classes come by to discuss projects on which they are working for class, concepts they don’t understand, ideas for papers, help with research, things in the media that they find interesting and related to our class content, and so many other topics that I can’t enumerate them. Students ask me to attend their sporting events, theater performances and other extra-curricular activities. I attend events that highlight and celebrate their many achievements. Several times a year, I make phone calls to admitted students and their parents to congratulate them on their admission and answer any questions they may have about PSU. All of these valuable conversations take time.
In addition to teaching individual classes, faculty members are responsible for curriculum development. That is, we need to figure out which classes should be part of each major. This task requires an understanding of the requirements of employers and graduate schools who might interact with our graduates as well as an understanding of the changing needs of society with regard to graduates in each major. To gain these understandings, we must keep up with our changing disciplines via reading and conversation. We must then come together in groups to make decisions about the structure and content of each major. We have to decide on the learning outcomes of each major and then add classes to the curriculum that will allow students to reach those outcomes.
Finally, we must keep up to date with our disciplines so that we can best teach the content of those disciplines to our students. This requires reading of scholarly articles and books, attendance at conferences, presentation of our own ideas to our peers via informal email conversations, blog posts, conference presentations and publication of our own scholarly articles and books.
In these two blogs, I have by no means provided an exhaustive list of the tasks and duties of a teaching faculty member at a state university. Your tax and tuition dollars pay for much more than just the time faculty members spend in the classroom. Teaching and learning happen outside of the classroom as well!
Cathie
Last time I shared some of responsibilities I have as a college faculty member. I thought this time I’d talk about how creating and maintaining student relationships is one of the main duties of a teaching faculty member. For example, my advisees drop by to discuss many things: their schedules for the current or the coming semester, their overall progress toward graduation, opportunities for internships, study abroad or graduate studies, and possibilities for future jobs. Students in my classes come by to discuss projects on which they are working for class, concepts they don’t understand, ideas for papers, help with research, things in the media that they find interesting and related to our class content, and so many other topics that I can’t enumerate them. Students ask me to attend their sporting events, theater performances and other extra-curricular activities. I attend events that highlight and celebrate their many achievements. Several times a year, I make phone calls to admitted students and their parents to congratulate them on their admission and answer any questions they may have about PSU. All of these valuable conversations take time.
In addition to teaching individual classes, faculty members are responsible for curriculum development. That is, we need to figure out which classes should be part of each major. This task requires an understanding of the requirements of employers and graduate schools who might interact with our graduates as well as an understanding of the changing needs of society with regard to graduates in each major. To gain these understandings, we must keep up with our changing disciplines via reading and conversation. We must then come together in groups to make decisions about the structure and content of each major. We have to decide on the learning outcomes of each major and then add classes to the curriculum that will allow students to reach those outcomes.
Finally, we must keep up to date with our disciplines so that we can best teach the content of those disciplines to our students. This requires reading of scholarly articles and books, attendance at conferences, presentation of our own ideas to our peers via informal email conversations, blog posts, conference presentations and publication of our own scholarly articles and books.
In these two blogs, I have by no means provided an exhaustive list of the tasks and duties of a teaching faculty member at a state university. Your tax and tuition dollars pay for much more than just the time faculty members spend in the classroom. Teaching and learning happen outside of the classroom as well!
Cathie
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