mealsome
Apr 12, 2011
Writing Feedback / GRE Essay on working in professions for faculty [2]
I'm taking up GRE this month. I don't have much guidance in preparation. Would very much appreciate if someone can give feedback on my essay.
The task is to analyze the following issue:
"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."
As it is, we are living in a world with the amount of knowledge increasing at a previously unimaginable speed which raises great challenges to the educator. How will the faculty increase the quality of instruction? Should they stay solely in the realm of academic, or participate the professions pertaining to their courses they teach? As I see, the working in professions can contribute to the quality of education by improving the time-effectiveness and pragmatism, but faculty should not pay too much time for that.
First of all, in the result of rapid development of science and technology, many knowledge taught in colleges and universities turn out to be wrong, or at least out of date, after the students graduate, especially in the applied fields, such as engineering, computer science, law and so forth. For example, a student whose major is astronomy attended a college in 2005 and learned that there are nine planets in solar system, nonetheless, the number of planets in solar system was changed into eight because of the new definition of planet. Consider me, a student in biology major, who have learned the structure of pUC18 , one kind of vector used in the genetic engineering, in the book of molecular biology, but find more novel and effective vectors have taken the place of pUC18 in the real research work. However, a faculty concerning the profession work, such as researches in the domain of his own, he will touch in the frontier of the knowledge which has not contained by the textbooks available currently. Apparently, it will improve the quality of instruction dramatically, if the faculty cut down the outdated knowledge and present the new one in class.
What's more, the aim of education is not only to impart the knowledge contained in the textbooks but also to develop the capability of students to transfer the knowledge they have learned into the approaches to solve the real handicaps they may meet in the practical work. Staff experienced in real professional matters, faculty in the universities will understand the way the subjects they are teaching are used in practical works, and combine the knowledge and practical usage in his lectures which, hence, will contribute to the increasing of the ability to solve real problems for students. Otherwise, the faculty just teach the knowledge which they get from their teachers and reading books and which may do nothing with the reality. Another advantage of professions work is that faculty will gain comprehensive understanding of the course that they are teaching deriving from the experience of working in professions including the research jobs or community service. Undoubtedly, combining the experience and understanding stemming from real work with the teaching will make the lectures the faculty offered more attractive.
Notwithstanding the advantages mentioned above, faculty should find a balance between profession work and teaching duty. As we know, one main task for faculty is to conduct lectures and seminars in college and universities, which will take a large amount of time and energy and which will be undermined by too much profession work through attracting time from that for preparing the class.
In summary, in one hand, faculty can't stay in the academic world only for preventing the consequence that students become obsolete in discussing the recent researched. In another hand, faculty can't pay too much for profession work which in turn will disturb the main task-teaching.
I'm taking up GRE this month. I don't have much guidance in preparation. Would very much appreciate if someone can give feedback on my essay.
The task is to analyze the following issue:
"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."
As it is, we are living in a world with the amount of knowledge increasing at a previously unimaginable speed which raises great challenges to the educator. How will the faculty increase the quality of instruction? Should they stay solely in the realm of academic, or participate the professions pertaining to their courses they teach? As I see, the working in professions can contribute to the quality of education by improving the time-effectiveness and pragmatism, but faculty should not pay too much time for that.
First of all, in the result of rapid development of science and technology, many knowledge taught in colleges and universities turn out to be wrong, or at least out of date, after the students graduate, especially in the applied fields, such as engineering, computer science, law and so forth. For example, a student whose major is astronomy attended a college in 2005 and learned that there are nine planets in solar system, nonetheless, the number of planets in solar system was changed into eight because of the new definition of planet. Consider me, a student in biology major, who have learned the structure of pUC18 , one kind of vector used in the genetic engineering, in the book of molecular biology, but find more novel and effective vectors have taken the place of pUC18 in the real research work. However, a faculty concerning the profession work, such as researches in the domain of his own, he will touch in the frontier of the knowledge which has not contained by the textbooks available currently. Apparently, it will improve the quality of instruction dramatically, if the faculty cut down the outdated knowledge and present the new one in class.
What's more, the aim of education is not only to impart the knowledge contained in the textbooks but also to develop the capability of students to transfer the knowledge they have learned into the approaches to solve the real handicaps they may meet in the practical work. Staff experienced in real professional matters, faculty in the universities will understand the way the subjects they are teaching are used in practical works, and combine the knowledge and practical usage in his lectures which, hence, will contribute to the increasing of the ability to solve real problems for students. Otherwise, the faculty just teach the knowledge which they get from their teachers and reading books and which may do nothing with the reality. Another advantage of professions work is that faculty will gain comprehensive understanding of the course that they are teaching deriving from the experience of working in professions including the research jobs or community service. Undoubtedly, combining the experience and understanding stemming from real work with the teaching will make the lectures the faculty offered more attractive.
Notwithstanding the advantages mentioned above, faculty should find a balance between profession work and teaching duty. As we know, one main task for faculty is to conduct lectures and seminars in college and universities, which will take a large amount of time and energy and which will be undermined by too much profession work through attracting time from that for preparing the class.
In summary, in one hand, faculty can't stay in the academic world only for preventing the consequence that students become obsolete in discussing the recent researched. In another hand, faculty can't pay too much for profession work which in turn will disturb the main task-teaching.