How to break into becoming a college
professor.
Read.My.Mail
Look over
I’ve had a wonderful fifteen years here as
pastor but I’ve been thinking recently that our time to move on is coming. I’m
not burned out, but I am worn out. Lately I’ve been thinking about teaching at
one of our colleges. I think the reduced pace and opportunity to read and study
would be a more refreshing ministry than pastoring—at least if teaching at the
college level is about the same as I perceived it to be 20 years ago. So I have
two questions: (1) Can you describe to me the daily work of a college professor
(besides class lectures) and (2) How do I "break in" to college
teaching? --A pastor
Great question! Actually to be
honest with you, I get a dozen or so emails every spring just like yours.
However, most only ask the second question—how to "break in." You’ve
asked the more important question—"What is the daily work of a professor
like?" Too many pastors imagine the life of a college professor different
than it really is.
As you know I teach the freshmen
introduction to pastoral ministry. I see the same thing there. Some of these
bright-eyed freshmen are so excited about going into the ministry--but their
picture of the work is restricted. Some
imagine the ministry is getting paid to take ski trips with the youth or to get
a worship band together and practice several nights a week. It is my job in
this first class in the ministry major to help them see the actual daily work a
minister really does. We interview ministers about what they do, talk about the
work, and each student spends three or four hours each week shadowing a
minister observing local church ministry. Some are shocked the minister has to
do "office work" or "go visit the hospital more than once a
week" or that they "attend lots of meetings." For some it is a
testing of their call. So your thoughtful question asking what a college
professor actually does shows your insight--you are not naïve enough to
assume the actual work is what you seemed to see as a student 20 years ago.
So what does a college
professor do? It varies
from person to person, of course. Professors
who are finishing their doctoral dissertations have a different schedule than
those already finished. Professors with
children at home have a different schedule than empty nest professors. So you'd need a solid research project to see
what they do on average. I can't give
you that, but I can tell you what I do--since I keep a running
record of my time. After all--time is
all I've got in life…so keeping fairly careful track of where I spend it is a reminder
to me of how it is running out! Here's
is how I spend my time as a college professor:
1. Preparation & Grading
By far preparation and grading
takes up the largest part of my time--almost 30 hours a week. Classes are
hungry monsters--they eat up content ravenously! I worked at my denominational headquarters for
24 years and learned a lot from reading and traveling to speak every week. I was pretty well known for having "good
stuff" I gave at seminars. But I'll
be honest with you--when I entered teaching that content was all gone in the
first three weeks. I had to start
digging furiously. I still have to. Teaching a normal load is like having twelve
messages to prepare a week. But they are
harder than messages--students need solid content that is "testable"
and they ignore your stories (they love them but know you won't test on them). So you've got to dig up what they need to
know, arrange it in a way that is testable, then (and here is where the real
time is spent) figure out how they can learn it without just telling it to
them.
Probably the biggest change in
education since you attended college is a professor can no longer get paid for
standing up and talking about their subject area for an hour pretending to be
teaching. The trick is to get students
to learn the content without your talking it into them. That takes at least twice the preparation
time--first finding the right content (the easy part) then figuring out how
they can acquire it in an interesting, fun, and collaborative way. All this means you don't just produce words
out of your mouth but paper out of your printer and photocopier. Professors today (at least the good ones) are
"educational designers" not "lecturers." They design the total classroom experience to
create a positive learning atmosphere, then they manage the activities that
cause learning in the students. This means you spend lots of time at the
computer making these things, then lots more time at the photocopier each day
making handouts, group project sheets, or overhead transparencies (most college
professors don't have a secretary do their photocopying--they do it on their
own.)
But once you've created all
these learning activities who will grade them? A pastor seldom grades the parishioners (other
than secretly). College professors must
turn in official grades at the end of each semester knowing that your students
have parents who have lawyers. So you
have a rubric clearly stating what is required and what loses points, but you
can't delegate your grading--you've got to do it yourself. This means if you required 40 students in your
worship class to produce a two-page typed list of principles for leading music
you have to read and grade them today, because tomorrow they have a similar
assignment due on prayer in worship. And
this is just one course--you'll have three other courses with things due
tomorrow too.
I don't mean all professors teach
like this. But the better ones do. So,
if you went into teaching would you plan to be a mediocre professor or a good
one? Your answer will determine how much time you'd
spend on preparation and grading. With up to 30 hours a week invested in
preparation and grading you can readily see how a college professor can get a
couple dozen free hours a week…just "drop the record" and "talk
through the textbook" in class and give a machine-graded midterm and final
exam. If you have taught for 30 years
and are about 60 years old you can survive doing that (in some schools). But if you are trying to "break in" (or
really care about the craft) you can't.
In fact, even after you've taught a course five times in the last five
years, you'll spend hours fine-tuning it.
But you know that--any worthy preacher knows they can't just pull out a
message from the last church and preach it again without considerable fine
tuning to the changed day, changes situation, and changed audience. And, of course even if you do get your act
together after a few runs through a course, the gained time is gobbled up by
more and better feedback on grading. (A "grade" isn’t feedback--students
expect a chat room-type response to their work or they consider you lazy.)
So, would you like studying the
content until you have determined what the students should know? Would you like designing an educational
learning experience for each class to cause learning without you doing all the
talking? Would you like typing up handouts and activity
sheets for each class and running them off on a photocopier? Would
you like to read 40 (or in lower level classes up to 60) papers on the same
subject and providing feedback to the students that is readable, corrective and
affirming? Would you like to do this up to 30 hours a
week to be a “good professor?” If so, then you'd like about half the work of
a professor. Now, the rest of the work.
2. Actual in-class time
Class time is what most students
see. It is the tip of the proverbial iceberg. It is like preaching to the pastor--it is what
people see and presume is your primary work.
Most college professors teach four courses each semester--12 hours a
week. If you are not prepared, these
hours will be embarrassing to you and painful for the students. If you've done your preparation these hours
are just swell. Well, usually. As a pastor you preach every Sunday to your
people, so let me compare it a bit.
Imagine that you had to preach at
3. Student Appointments
Teaching at a college is no way to
escape people. After all, remember our
parishioners live where we work!
Students have lots of daylight free time (most don't start
studying until after you and I go to bed!
They are hungry to talk to a trustworthy adult. I spend about 13 hours a week meeting with
students. Some professors (like my
colleague
Most effective professors are
available at least 10 hours a week for student appointments. Some colleges
(like mine) simply require it. In the
department where I teach most of my colleagues have their appointment schedule
hanging right on their office door and students can simply fill in the blanks
and use up their week. Many post the
schedule for the entire semester and some students sign up for regular appointments
months ahead of time.
But personal appointments aren't
the only time you spend with students. Most professors are expected to mentor a
number of students each semester. That means regular developmental appointments
with the same person over four months. And
almost every professor does "Independent Studies" with students. Independent
studies are sort of tutoring--a student meets with you regularly through the
semester for course credit. They do all
the regular assignments of a course and you advise them, tutor them and grade
them. For me this current semester I
have 15 scheduled mentoring relationships or independent studies.
But that's not all. About half way
through the semester all bets are off on student appointment ratios. The period is called "advising
weeks." Students in college are
assigned a professor as an "academic advisor." You are responsible to see they make good
choices and take the right courses. You
do this by meeting with every advisee personally during the three week period
and working through their schedule for the following semester, "signing
off" on the registration form to take joint responsibility for the
schedule for how they plan to spend this year’s $15,000 on courses. It is not uncommon for a professor to have 50
advisees (my colleague
So if you want to be a college
professor ask yourself if you'd like to spend time in student appointments
every week--at least ten hours but probably more. Would you like talking about
the issues 18-22 year olds talk about?
Are you willing to personally mentor several students? Would you enjoy the tutoring atmosphere of an
independent study? Could you survive an
extra 50 appointments during "advising weeks" and still keep up your
classroom excellence? If so then you
would like that 20% of my job.
4. Committees
Colleges and universities are run
by committees. It's considered a "governance issue.” That is, the faculty needs to have their nose
in just about every decision made affecting the academic outcomes of an
institution (which is everything, even the food service!) How to do this? Committees!
Churches have committees too, of course, but on a college campus
everyone is piled up in one place day and night (even many professors live
within walking distance) so "meetings happen." Your department will have meetings to plan,
decide, re-plan, reverse, plan again, decide, decide again, table, consider and
sometimes even make final decisions. Education
is process oriented—thus educational administration is not real results
oriented either! There are food service,
committees, strategic planning committees, faculty retreat planning committees,
Faculty development committees, student services committees, curriculum
revision committees, event planning committees, visit day committees, and
should-we-drink-coffee-in-the-library committees and committees to appoint
other committees, and committees that evaluate other committees. There are even committees that accomplished their
task long ago but keep meeting to rehash the long-completed task or to evaluate
the task’s effect. As a professor you
will automatically be appointed to a few handfuls of committees and you will be
expected to attend and take assignments.
I spend about 4 hours a week in committees. Actually many faculty spend more than four
hours a week in committees. I don’t and I'm hoping my dean doesn't read this
and assign me another dozen!
Do you like committee work? Would you enjoy 4-5 hours a week on committees
that do things only tangentially related to your personal work in the classroom?
Are you a “team-ball player” and able to
do assignments for others to raise the tide so all the boats can rise? If so then you might like this half-day of
the job.
5. Writing
If you become a professor you
might not spend so many hour writing. I
do, I'm a writer. But even if you are
not a writer, professors are expected to publish something somewhere, sooner or
later. The really smart ones publish in
journals read by other professors in other schools. Others write for the masses acting as
"translators" of the discipline by putting content in readable form
for the average person. Some write
abstracts or reviews of other books.
Some don't write at all and survive for a time--though in many schools
they are the first to be "released for other duties" when a financial
crunch comes along. The best scholars
spend far more time than four hours a week.
Of course if you land a job teaching at college after your comprehensive
exams and you still have a dissertation to write--you'll be spending far more
than four hours a week writing that mammoth work. I only spend about four hours each week
writing (you are reading the result of one of those mornings). If you become a college professor you might
write less than four hours a week, but if you do, they'll expect you to
counterbalance your lack of writing by carrying a heavier load in other
areas--like mentoring, committee work or representing the institution's
interests in speaking
So would you like writing? Is your dissertation already done or could you
finish it while doing all the rest of this stuff? Or would you settle for being a mediocre
teacher until it gets done then try to break the habit later? Can you write something that somebody wants
to publish? If so you might like this
half-day of the job.
6. Email
The supremacy email arrived in the
mid 1990's and changed everyone's work. It affected those of us who are college
professors faster. Our young students
were "early adopters." Phone
calls are dead--email is in. I receive
only a few actual phone calls from students in an entire semester--mostly
emergencies. Students expect me to
communicate by email or IM. This is
handy for me since phone calls don’t interrupt and I don’t take phone calls
anyway during live appointments. When
I'm free to return phone calls (At
The communications world is
changing. In the emerging world phone
calls are increasingly considered a "demanding imposition." In this world people who are considerate and
respectful of others' time use email or leave telephone messages instead of
demanding people drop everything and take their personal phone call at the
exact moment they call. Younger people
represent this emerging culture best, so they email their professors. However most students assume the professor
will answer their email in the next 12 hours.
Since I write a regular Internet column I get a hundred or more emails a
day from people off campus so I have to sort out the students. To do that I
have a filtering system that searches the subject line of all my incoming
emails (for a code word all my students know) then their message gets popped to
the top of my in-basket. They are my first concern so they have the primary
access to me.
Besides student emails there are
about another hundred organizational emails every week that requires a fast
reply (or a faster click of the delete button). These are the easy ones.
Greater time has to be invested reading or participating in the more serious
debates and discussions between your scholarly colleagues. For instance this year I'm a participant in
on-going discussions between the science department and religion
departments--some weeks that luncheon inspires a dozen thought-requiring
emails. Reading them or responding takes
time. Combined together all email might
cost an efficient reader-thinker-typist three or four hours a week. For me it takes more because I respond to the
off-campus emails generated by my "Tuesday Column" and respond to
pastors, former students, and denominational leaders. My filters pile up these
messages and I handle them once a week.
So it costs me about six hours a week.
So, would you like spending a
couple hours a week directly answering email from students and colleagues? Or
(better yet) be willing to stay active for student IMs? Are you willing to get
back to students within a day of their email?
If so, you'd like this part of being a college professor.
7. Obligatory show-ups
Every job has some stuff you're
obligated to show up for. So does
teaching. By “obligatory show-ups” I
mean things you ought to attend where you don't have to lead but merely show
your face and support. This doesn't
include committees--where you have to contribute. Obligatory show-ups on the college campus are
like 50th anniversary celebrations for pastors, or the graduation
receptions to youth pastors. For a
college professor there is an "implied obligation" to show up for
about ten hours a week, though many professors can't pull that off without
draining other obligations. But you are
certainly expected to show up some at
the student chapel. Poof! There goes about three hours a week if you go
regularly. A college professor is
supposed to support the arts, so you sense an obligation to show up at a few
orchestra performances or to hear the chorale, or to be there for a musical
from time to time. You’ll want to attend
at least one or two of the Friday night student-led gatherings. And a good “team-ball professor” really ought
to be at some of the sports events occasionally, especially if you've got some
of your own students playing. And
whatever your discipline you've got to make some showing at whatever the
students are doing in your area. For
instance I teach worship--so I am "obligated" in a way to at least
show up at some of our student-led worship services around my campus (there are
a half-dozen every week). And there are information meetings by the college
personnel department, or reports to the staff by the President, or "Town
Meetings" called by your dean, or a special colloquium presentation or
lecture series presented by your own department, the
Most colleges expect you to be
involved in the community too. Indeed will have to show evidence of your
community involvement each year and for most schools it is a criterion for
continued employment or promotion. So
you'll want to show up for the board of Habitat for Humanity or the
So would you like to give about a
half-day a week showing up for this or that event that may or may not be your
real preference for using that time? As
a pastor you're probably already used to this--in fact this is one area where
you might make a gain if you become a college professor!
7.
The time budget outlines above shows
why some professors do not read at all through the school year. These professors catch up each summer on
their reading—like their students do collateral reading the final week of
classes. But most professors try to at least “keep
even” through the year. If you are a
college professor you ought to know what is recently written in your
field. A professor of microbiology can't
run their classes the rest of their life on what they learned in graduate
school in the 1980s. Neither can a professor in religion teach
students how to run a 1980's church (Ok,
Ok there are a lot of 1980's
churches-- I take that back!) But
seriously, imagine a professor of worship who was not aware of Robert Webber's recent
book The Younger Evangelicals. Or
at least some of the more then 100 books on worship that came out in the last
12 months. The better your students are
the less you can wait until summer. I have several students who have "Amazoned"
any book by Bill Hybels, Andy Stanley, John Maxwell, or Robert Webber the very
week it comes out and they're asking me about it the following week. It's not cool when your students are reading
books before you knew they were published. This means setting aside enough time
to read at least one book a week is sensible planning--especially if you're not
going to read a lot over summer. For me
that is about three hours a week.
So would you enjoy the pressure to
be current in your reading? I suspect
you would--most effective pastors already read a book every week or so. So you'd probably like this part of the job. The difficulty is not in wanting to read so
much as disciplined scheduling of sanctified time to read. If students see you reading they assume
you're “not busy” and they can wander in and lay their latest crisis on your
shoulder for prayer and counseling. Professors who read the most have
"reading hideouts" where they flee to get caught up on their reading
(and I'm not telling where mine is).
8. Fellowship with colleagues
I saved the best for last. A good
professor is not a lone ranger. One of
the best aspects of teaching is who you get to do it with. Pastoring is
sometimes lonely work--even on a staff.
Being a college professor is to be a part of a team. There is no competition. Nobody ever asks, “How many did you
have?” All your faculty colleagues are
more interested in quality than quantity.
This is the big benefit of teaching.
I get to spend about three hours a week with my colleagues: thinking
together, imagining the future together, solving the church's problems together
(or the University’s, or the country's), debating each other at lunch, talking
about the most recent discoveries in science, or psychology, or biology or
management or religion and trying to find points of connections and
convergence. We eat meals together, have
serendipitous coffee breaks together, walk to chapel together, go out for
dinner together, and some of us even eat Sunday dinner together on campus every
week! It amounts to about three hours
minimum and something far more. It is by
far the most wonderful time investment on this list and I don't even need to
ask you if you'd like this--I know you would.
So, would you like doing this?
This is a pretty hard job even
though it is really rewarding. Some
don’t work as hard as others, of course. Like being a pastor, the quality and quantity
of your effort is largely up to you.
There are pastors who seldom make hospital calls, never read a book, and
prepare their messages by listening to a cassette tape in the car. They can survive. And, there are professors who "get
by" by completely chopping off whole segments of the above list and mumble
through old lecture notes. They can
survive too--at least if they already have a job and are on the downward side
of 60. But a new professor can't. Most institutions constantly seek to
"upgrade their stable" of professors. The standard is higher for new professors. Educational institutions aren't looking for
"new hires" that fit somewhere in the middle of the present
faculty. They want new professors that
"raise the average" or “benchmark excellence” for the rest of the
faculty. So you’ll have to work harder
if you are a new professor, so the above list may be closer to what you’ll
do. Even if you put in fewer hours, you’ll
be doing the same things.
OK, I know…this list adds up to almost
80 hours a week. That’s a lot of
hours. But it is accurate--based on my
own records of the most recent five months. Of course I’m an empty-nester and my wife is
working on her PhD so I can easily work this much. People with little kids at home can’t. Others
choose not to for other reasons. I work
hard because I love this work so much. I
don’t feel overworked most days. But
while I may not be overworked, I admit to being out of balance.
So, how does a college professor
get their life back in balance again?
One word: summer!
So, are you still interested?
If so, then I'll answer your
question #2 "How
do I "break in" to college teaching?"
So what do you think?
________________________________________________________________________
To suggest additional insights write to Keith@TuesdayColumn.com