Does the average college professor spend the majority of his day teaching, or does he spend it writing and researching? I have heard more than one person equate “being a college professor” with “teaching,” but would a professor introduce himself at a party by saying he teaches a course on literature, or by saying he is doing research on a particular author’s writings?
I would particularly like to hear from professors and students.
By “college,” do you mean tertiary level education; that is, beyond high school? Because in some other countries besides the US (which I assume you live in) there exists a distinction between colleges and universities.
It varies. The bigger and more prestigious a University is, and the more senior the professor is, the more likely he or she spends more time doing research and publishing than teaching. But this still vairous from institution to institution.
Good point. Yes, I mean post-high school education in general: anything from a small liberal arts college to a large state university.
It also depends quite a bit on where you teach.
In my limited experience with my engineering professers I found that some univeristies require a prof. to do quite a bit of research while others allow concentration on teaching.
My father was a Dean at a Liberal Arts university. He spent most of his time working on his next publication, but held graduate seminars and was a graduate advisor for many grad students.
He also continued to teach an intro course, that I don’t think took much effort after the first few iterations, and, as Dean, spent a considerable amount of time on administration (which I’ve gathered was a bit like being a Field Marshall in the political infighting).
Just my impressions as his kid.
My mom was an ABD lecturer at another university, and her gig was more like that of a teacher. She spent her out of class time reading, doing course plans and grading papers.
They both got the summer off, so we always spent it at some other university somewhere else in the country where my father would get a summer course gig.
And he had a few (every 7 years) sabbaticals where we went and lived somewhere else (Japan or Hawaii, in our case) while he cooked up a book on an NSF grant.
Hope that helps.
I work at a large state university.
Most of the the professors I work with teach four classes, which is 12 hours a week. The rest of the time, they are usually advising students, attending some kind of committee meeting, grading papers, talking to prospective students, etc. Not a whole lot of research going on.
Different universities have different priorities. I did my undergraduate work (in physics) at a small liberal-arts college, and the department culture there was very teaching-centric; while we didn’t have any big names, the professors were smart and almost always available during the day. It was kind of shock coming here (one of the better physics institutions in the U.S.) for graduate school and discovering that at least half of the professors couldn’t care less about teaching. At least one professor has said to me that he tries “not to let teaching interfere with my research.” My impression is that kind of attitude is pretty common at the better-known universities, i.e. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Berkeley, etc. (At least in the natural sciences.)
I don’t work at a university, but I attend one. In my department, there’s one Prof this quarter who’s not teaching, but doing a research project. The other Profs are mainly into teaching. This is just my small department at one university, but it seems reasonable.
Scotcho
At my two community colleges, we spend most of our time preparing, planning, teaching, grading, recording, Googling (for plagiarists), taking care of bureaucratic paperwork, helping students, and more.
Those who have extensive research projects to do will take a semester off for a sabbatical.
Well I attend a public College in NYC. And pretty much to answer your Question, it really depends. THe Libral arts Adjuncts teach alot, and often at 3 or 4 diffrent schools. THey don’t make much (compaired to full Profesors) and dont have the benefits ethier. Mostly they are trying out diffrent schools untill they make a good fit, and hang around till they get tenure. (assuming they are in it for the long haul).
It pretty much the same for teachers in the scineces, but they do more research as they move toward that PHd And tenure.
Once a Full profesor of any disipline, most profesors spend alot of time out of the class room, doing research/working on a publication.
THen again, I’m just a student and could be way off base, but it’s what I’ve notced
I am “instructional faculty” so I introduce myself by saying “I teach in the X and Y programs of Z University.”
What I do: Today I got up and graded papers. I then went to the U and grade more papers. I helped interview two candidates for a support position and gave my recommendations. I then met with two graduate students to help them develop the lesson plan they will teach in one of my undergrad classes tomorrow. I sent e-mails to 23 groups of students plus 4 individuals, reporting grades or asking after work that hasn’t been turned in. I read my e-mail, then went home. After dinner, I graded papers until about 10 minutes ago. Then I got on line and replied to e-mails from the students I’d contacted earlier in the day (plus trying to track down one whose e-mail address is no longer operative).
Tomorrow I’ll go in at abot 10:00, have an evaluation of a colleague notarized and sent, grade papers until 1:00 when I’m meeting with someone else’s student who wants to ask me bquestions. Then I’ll have office hours, during which I’ll make the copies for my aforementioned grad students. I will introduce class at 4:00, then observe their teaching until 6:00. Then I will pack up everything I haven’t yet graded and grade it Wednesday on an airplane.
Somewhere in there, I occasionally read, write, and order textbooks.
I am PhD-level support staff at a state University. Most of the tenured faculty I work with will teach 2 classes. If they don’t have enough research $, they might find themselves teaching 3. 4 is near;y unheard of in my experience. Most of the time is meetings, research, guiding grad students, and workng on proposals.
I’ve been in it for the long haul for 13 years, but it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere. Still, we remain dedicated.
Am I correct in assuming that when one works with grad students, research and teaching are being done at the same time?
I attended a small liberal arts college, and the professors there all concentrated on teaching, though I think most remained engaged in research.
Not necessarily. Some graduate-level courses are basically brainstorming workshops, i.e. the professor and the “students” (who may be a mix of grad students and other professors) are actually hashing out a particular topic. Other graduate-level courses are venues for the professor to expound on a particular research topic to a receptive audience: sort of a term-long peer review session. But a good many graduate-level courses are just like undergraduate-level courses, only covering more advanced material.
It varies tremendously depending upon the school. I’m employed in the biochemistry department at a graduate school. Professors here usually will do a week or two’s worth of lectures per semester, and the rest of the time is spent doing research, writing grants, preparing publications, and the administrative duties associated with running a lab. Of course, much of the research is done by students, rather than faculty members, so in a sense, there is constant, ongoing teaching taking place, just with a very targeted student population.
When I was an undergrad, however, only a few of my professors were involved in research in any manner. For the most part, teaching was by far the main part of their job.
I’m sure different departments and different institutions handle things a bit differently, but I hope this helped a bit.