Why do Professors LOVE Busywork?
November 2, 2010 3 Comments
I think it’s about time I bitch about how much I hate busywork. Actually, this seems to be a recurring, talking about things that I hate but… such is life. So, you’re paying $10-20 thousand a year to “learn” at your average university, only to discover that this learning wasn’t really learning at all – the professors were handing you piles of busywork with no real goal other than to make it seem like you’re actually doing something. Sometimes I feel like I’ve learned more by reading Wikipedia articles and watching the History Channel… and those are free.
Whatever happened to learning things that are worthwhile that you can take outside of the class? You’re forced to sit through 4 years of school to gain a degree that only serves as a mechanism to get your foot in the door and in actuality teaches you little to none about your chosen profession. I’ve learned a hundred times more outside of the classroom than in it… maybe it’s time to bring learning back into the classroom? Step it up, profs. Stop the busywork. After all, I am helping pay your salary…
This is not to say ALL professors operate like this, but I feel a vast majority do. Hell, most professors = epic fail. What do you think?
Alright Adam, I think I can speak on this seeing how I am up and coming in the professoriate myself. The reality is, to be frank, most professors cannot teach. It’s as simple as that. A PhD (and I’ll spare you the long history of the evolution of the degree) is basically an authorization to conduct research. Just as a JD is an authorization to practice law and a MD is an authorization to practice medicine. A PhD is not a teaching degree. In fact, if you polled all your professors and excluded those you earned a degree in teacher’s education; you will find that NONE of them took any classes on the dynamics of teaching or adult learning while doing their doctoral studies. Furthermore, most of them did not have a teaching assistantship experience….which does not necessarily teach one how to teach but it’s better than nothing.
The confusion stems from the fact that these people are experts in their fields. Although they may very well be experts, that does not mean they know how to communicate the information in laymen’s terms. With that said, some professors try to compensate by assigning loads of busy work in order to distract from the lack of teaching effort. It’s a natural human defense mechanism for people use another action to make up for an ability that they lack. I do not excuse this behavior, but I understand it. I personally sought training in teaching adult populations (since college students are adults) in order to increase my ability as an effective educator. However, the truth of the matter is that’s not what doctoral students are trained to do. They are trained to do research and I think the expectation is they will hopefully learn how to teach the areas in their discipline to others during sometime in their matriculation in the program. Nevertheless, I do think it’s unfair to students who seek knowledge to be subjected to subpar teaching methods.
Very well said James, your response was longer than my actual post…
Maybe universities should stop assuming and actually require classes for professors to make their teaching methods more effective and less of a waste of time, as that is what school often feels like.
If I take your class spring quarter we’ll see what I think of your methods! Haha.
I assure you Adam my lectures are executed with precision and perfection. I deliver my best hence I expect nothing less than excellence from my students. Lol.