Throughout my college experience, both here and at another school, I have endured some boring and unhelpful classes. Many of those classes were not put together to account for and be beneficial to different kinds of learners.
Being an education major, I have learned a great deal from my classes about the way students learn and how to encourage active and effective learning. If high schools are concerned with teachers’ knowledge about educational techniques and skills, colleges should be also.
College professors are not required to take any sort of education classes or training. According to the United States Department of Labor’s 2010-11 Occupational Handbook, the requirement for teaching college is either a master’s degree or a doctorate.
This fact is strange to me, considering that our primary and secondary schools demand a very intense education on how to teach. College, arguably more important to the success of a student, is not, however, legitimately concerned with professors’ skills in instruction. If colleges were, there would be stricter requirements.
I will say that the majority of my professors here have been very skilled at teaching and involving different methods of instruction. There have been a few, though, who were ineffective.
I learned a great deal about teaching in educational psychology; taking even that one class would help professors be more efficient. Some professors do not understand the way that students learn.
Education professor Clare Kilbane pointed out that professors’ lack of training in education “limits the range of strategies to the ones they’ve experienced as students that worked for them.”
“Most professors in higher education were probably typical learners, and many students these days aren’t,” Kilbane said. She went on to point out that many non-typical learners are getting the opportunity to come to college and so the spectrum of learners is growing. College professors need to be more prepared to deal with this spectrum.
Another education professor, Dee Knoblauch, said that the opportunity for professional development exists at Otterbein. “The Center for Teaching and Learning provides ample professional development opportunities for professors so inclined,” Knoblauch said.
This is great to hear, but I feel training of some sort should be mandatory.
My concern is for both the professors and the students. I am sure that teaching college students is tough and often frustrating. If professors are equipped to instruct, they will be more confident, efficient and effective.
Their jobs would be more rewarding. Students would have more respect for their professors and also be better equipped to complete the assignments asked of them.
Cost is probably the largest issue. Professors would have to pay for extra classes or schools would have to pay for training sessions. However, even having to take one class would be enough to satisfy me. That cost would be nothing compared to the benefits of becoming a better teacher, which would in turn help students.
I applaud those professors who are good at what they do. And I don’t blame those who are not as skilled. There is no requirement for them to know how to instruct as long as they know their material. Taking a class may not fix all professors, but it would help a great deal of them.
