All of us have been through school systems, and know what is a teacher. Some of us proceed to university, and think that university teachers will be as caring as our teachers who taught us in secondary and high schools. But, many of us are stunned that university teachers are called professors, and they have little time to talk to us and educate us besides the 3-4 hours of lecture and tutorial time per week. So, what it means to be a professor at a university?
First and foremost, professors are teachers in the lab and classroom. In the modern highly competitive academic environment where promotion is determined by number of high impact factor journal articles published, the temptation is to neglect the teaching role and focus on the research role. Yes, a good number of professors have forgotten that they are teachers, but there is also the majority who still cherish their given roles as teachers of the next generation of scientists and engineers. Most professors are good teachers, but some operate their research labs like a business.
From my experience in academics for the past twenty years, I think the modern professor is, at its core, strikingly similar and fulfil the same roles as professors 100 years ago. In essence, they are teachers in the lab and classroom. To be teachers, you must have good ethics, and good responsibility for those you teach and educate. Second, you inculcate good values and operating systems in students, so that they can take these values to work and live a fulfilling life knowing that you will be rewarded if you put in the effort and work hard. Third, the professor is to explore a topic of his interest and within his capabilities to help distil new knowledge which he will share with the world first in journal articles, and later in textbooks or research monographs or reference textbooks. All in all, to sustain a career as a professor, you must be willing and love to learn new things with good ethics.
Category: education,
Tags: professor, teachers, ethics, teaching role, research role,
Looking at life with a scientific lens 