Requiring Teaching Certification at the Collegiate Level?

Both Roy and Bill make very salient points. One of the nice things about DegreeInfo is the ability to witness the exchange of divergent points of view in a professional way.

Please allow me my one and a half cents...

One difficulty is drawing such a sharp distinction between the requirements for high school and college teaching is the assumption that something miraculous occurs in the few months between high school graduation and enrollment in college courses. Having taught at both high school and college levels, I can assure you that there is not a huge difference between most 18 year-old 12th grades and most 18 year-old college freshman.

I agree with Roy that colleges and universities have different goals for their students than do high schools. Undergraduate college education is the time when the transition between the teacher-dependent high school learner and the independent self-directed and self-regulated researcher occurs. To assume that learners arrive this way as freshmen if they have not been trained to do so as high schoolers is naive. If high school exists to teach "just the facts, ma'am", then the goal of becoming the independent learner who is "beyond needing a teacher to wipe their noses" needs to occur in college. I suggest that undergraduate education is (supposed to be) designed to do just that.

In high school, as Roy has pointed out, the curriculum and teaching is prescribed--the learner has little choice beyond a few elective classes. During undergraduate studies, a combination of prescribed learning (aka general education) and self-directed learning (aka your major) occurs. For general education, the learner is allowed to choose between a (usually) narrow range of courses. The major is, of course, decided by the learner and generally offers more choice and flexibility (depending, of course, upon the field of study). Ultimately, the learner should emerge as the type of independent researcher that Roy describes, one who is ready to enter the workplace or seek graduate study in a specialized area of the learner's choosing.

Now, back to teaching...I find that Roy's description of the college teacher is more appropriate for those teaching graduate courses than those teaching undergraduate courses, since the goals of the two programs are different. Graduate students should definately not need a "nose wiper" at all. Masters students should be engaged primarily in indepedent (or, as appropriate, collaborative) projects, research and evaluation. Doctoral students should be treated as peers and collaborators with their professors in research professional activities.

Unfortunately, neophyte professors (or graduate student instructors) are often given the foundational undergraduate courses to teach, as many full professors, preoccupied with their research, cannot be bothered with introductory topics. Therefore, at least in theory, the most essential courses to facilitate the transition from dependent to indepedent learning are often taught by those with the least amount of tools and experience to offer.

Boy, you can sure tell that I am a college professor! I can't seem to shut up Oh well, it's no wonder that we're called "lecturers"

Tony Piña
Lecturer, Cal State University, San Bernardino

 

Excellent post & very well said, Tony

 

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By Jingo I think there is a DA program offered by a seminary in Indiana. I give you permission,, Unk to giddyup on over there and enroll.