One of the great leadership discussions today centers around teaching, but most of the talk seems to come from politicians who are prolific with visions-sans-funding, senior academics from big name institutions who do research, and parents whose kids are caught in the maelstrom.

I told a friend of mine that I thought it would be interesting to hear from someone who teaches at a “no-name” public college and he said he knew just the guy—and he did.

When we first talked this prof told me that he had students who weren’t sure whether the Earth revolved around the Sun or the Sun around the Earth. (That knowledge did not give me a warm and fuzzy feeling about the future.)

So starting today and most Thursday’s I’ll be sharing posts with you from a very cool guy who has been teaching college for 20 years.

Some background: He did his undergraduate work in physics at Duke University and his graduate studies at Texas A&M University, where he switched emphasis to astrophysics. His primary research interests are in the fields of variable stars and the history of astronomy and space exploration; he’s authored almost 40 publications; these days he’s a Professor of Physics and Astronomy.

I’m calling him CandidProf, because the only way he can write really candid posts is to remain anonymous.

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Handling Unprepared College Students (part 1)

Long ago, I decided that I wanted to be a scientist. So, I went to college and studied physics. Then, I went to graduate school, where I began my studies in ultra low temperature physics before shifting my emphasis to astronomy. Eventually, I became a professor of physics and astronomy. When I was in graduate school, I thought that being a professor would be doing research and then teaching. The teaching looked easy. After all, all you need to do is to explain things that you know about, right? But, it is not that simple.

Graduate school teaches you how to study your field and do research. It does not prepare you to teach. That is something that you have to learn on your own. Most colleges and universities have some teaching resources for faculty. But, striving for teaching excellence is still largely something left to individual faculty to figure out on their own.

Teaching is a big responsibility. You are expected to impart not just knowledge, but wisdom and skills. But, teaching is also an exercise in leadership, particularly in college. You do not simply download knowledge into student brains.

In pre-college education, a great deal of schooling is to teach basic knowledge. In college, you teach what to do with that knowledge and how to acquire more. In other words, you lead them to learning. So, a good college professor needs to have at least some leadership skills.

But leadership also requires followers. You can motivate some people to follow you. But unless someone is willing to be a follower, it is hard to lead them. Many new-to-college students do not realize that they need to follow. They expect you to do all of the work for them.

One of the tasks of a professor is to teach students to follow you and to learn. You can’t make them learn. You can’t put knowledge into their heads. You show them how to do it for themselves. You guide them and direct them. Then, they have to study. Unless they do some of the work, you can’t teach them.

Getting the students to that point is being a good college professor.

Unfortunately, some students have not the background to even be led.

Add your thoughts and be sure to join CandidProf next Thursday.

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Image credit: DAEllis