Tomorrow’s Professor Listserve

 

MESSAGES 31-40

 

Greetings:

Welcome to Tomorrows-Professor™ Listserve. By all means feel free to offer comments, reactions, ideas, and suggestions (informal is just fine) that can be shared with the approximately 1,200 other members (mostly graduate students, postdocs, and beginning faculty in science and engineering at U.S. and Canadian universities). Looking forward to hearing from you.

Richard Reis

Here are the titles of the first 40 postings. Copies can be found at:

http://cis.stanford.edu/structure/tomprof/listserver.html

--------------------------------------------------------------------

1 Establishing Your Absence

2 Quick Starters

3 NSF New Century Scholars Workshop

4 First Things First

5 Tenure Tips

6 Warm-up Time

7 Leverage - A key To Faculty Efficiency

8 Class preparation Time - Can You Overdo It?

9 How Our Students See the World

10 Potpourri

11 Helping New Faculty Find the Time

12 Increasing Use of Teaching Portfolios

13 Items for Inclusion in a Teaching Portfolio

14 Teaching and Learning Personal Philosophy Statements

15 Teaching Goals and Strategies

16 Tele-Mentoring Catching on with College Students - What About Faculty?

17 Improving Student Learning While Saving Faculty Time

18 A Contrasting View of Personal Teaching and Learning

Philosophy Statements

19 The Scholarship of Teaching

20 Ethically Problematic Behaviors in Science

21 Teaching Large Classes: Strategies for Improving Student

Learning

22 Interesting Uses of Interactive Questionnaires

23 Graduate Teaching Courses in Science, Mathematics,

Engineering, and Technology

24 Educational Methods in Engineering

25 Elements Found in Most Successful Proposals

26 Redefining Scholarly Work - An Example from Civil Engineering

27 Teaching Engineering - Another Course Example

28 New Faculty Reward Structures

29 Textbooks -Retreat, Renaissance, or Revolution?

30 Information Technology In The United States - Relevance to Higher Education

---------------------------------------------------------------------

31 The Academic Job Talk.

32 ASEE - New Engineering Educators Presentations

33 Breakthrough Technology to Improve Teaching and Learning

34 Faculty Time Savers

35 The "Baseline Themes" Approach to Increased Classroom Participation and Interaction

36 The Scientific Career Ladder: Strategies for Success

37 Consulting and Other Industry Relationships

38 Sources of Faculty Stress

39 The Designated Dozen: Twelve Books Every Science and Engineering Professor Should Have on Their Shelf, or in Their Department Office

40 Time Pressures, Faculty Development, and Institutional Rewards and Recognition

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Tomorrow’s Professor - Msg. #31 The Academic Job Talk.

(6/8/98)

 

Folks:

One of the most important talks a Ph.D. student or postdoc will ever give is the "academic job talk" presented during the campus interview for a professorship possition. An excellent talk could get the person the job, while a poor talk will almost surely eliminate them from contention.

Dr. Michele Marincovich, director of the Stanford University Center for Teaching and Learning, has counseled hundreds of students and postdocs about their academic job talks. Here is her advice:

----------------------- 491 words ----------------------

 

The Academic Job Talk

Dr. Michele Marincovich

Stanford Center for Teaching and Learning

General Tips:

* Make sure that your talk has a broader context, so that the importance and implications of your work are clear, not merely implied.

* If, when you write your talk, you focus on what you want people to be thinking about as they leave your talk, it will help you concentrate on the essentials.

* Don't wait to prepare your job talk until the last minute - it is more than just a "brain dump" of your dissertation. It's very important to be able to go beyond your dissertation.

* Be prepared enough to allow yourself to be spontaneous; preparation will also help you handle the unexpected.

* Make your talk interesting with good examples, relevant anecdotes, and significant details.

* If speaking to a mixed audience, avoid highly technical or specialized terms.

* Academia is changing and now includes previously underrepresented groups. Use inclusive language - she as well as he, for example - and language that is respectful of all groups.

* The biggest correlates of effective teaching are enthusiasm, organization, and the ability to engage your students.

* Using humor in your job talk can be risky, but if it comes naturally to you, use it. But you don't have to, so don't fake it.

* There will usually be a "Question and Answer" period. There is no way to predict all the questions you might be asked, but you can practice by having friends listen to your talk and and then ask you the hardest questions they can think of.

* Being a good public speaker helps - a well delivered talk will carry your message more effectively.

Practicing and Nervousness:

* Practice/ do your talk in front of friends who can give feedback.

* Try to view any nervousness in a positive way, as energy or dynamism.

* Few speakers reach everybody all the time--don't focus on unresponsive audience members.

* Some audiences (especially in science and engineering fields) will be serious and unresponsive on purpose to make it more challenging or simply because they're concentrating on the presentation and critiquing it.

* Stay in touch with your audience, but don't try to decide the success or results of the talk during the talk.

---------------

Note:

If you follow these guidelines and practice several times before your visit, you should do quite well. There is, however, one important follow-up action for you to take. Write a thank you letter to your host saying how much you enjoyed the visit, mentioning by name the specific people you spent a reasonable time with, and making reference to any matters or observations that you found particularly worthwhile. Conclude by indicating your understanding of the next steps, and be sure to enclose any additional materials you promised to provide. Writing such letters may sound obvious, but you'd be surprised how many applicants don't do it - and, therefore, what a difference it makes when you do.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Tomorrow's-Professor Msg. 32 ASEE - New Engineering Educators Presentations

(6/11/98)

Folks:

I realize that most of you won't be able to attend the American Association of Engineering Educators (ASEE) meeting in Seattle at the end of the month. Nevertheless, I thought you might like to see the listing of the sessions sponsored by the New Engineering Educators (NEE) division, under the leadership of president Kevin Taylor of Purdue University. Since these topics should be of interest to most science and engineering faculty, we will find a way to display the highlights of some of the talks in future Tomorrows-Professor postings.

Regards,

Rick Reis

reis@cdr.stanford.edu

------------------ 513 WORDS ------------------

1998 ASEE NEW ENGINEERING EDUCATORS (NEE) SESSION LIST

*** TIPS ON PROPOSAL WRITING

*** TRICKS OF THE TRADE OUT OF THE CLASSROOM

*** TRICKS OF THE TRADE IN THE CLASSROOM

*** RAP SESSION

*** PROMOTION AND TENURE

*** NEE BUSINESS MEETING/LUNCHEON

*** FAMILY ISSUES FOR FACULTY

-----------

*** TIPS ON PROPOSAL WRITING

Session 0575 - (Sun., June 28, 2:30-4:15 p.m.)

* Tips on Proposal and Grant Writing, Linda Martinez

* The Engineering Education Scholars Program:Preparing a New

Generation of Faculty, Eric Matsumoto, et.al.

* Open Discussion of What Works & What Dosen't

*** TRICKS OF THE TRADE OUT OF THE CLASSROOM

Session 1275 - (Mon., June 29 to 8:30-10:15 a.m.)

* Miami University - Alumni Teaching Scholars Program: A Model of

a Teaching Enhancement Program, James Stenger, Karen Schmahl

* Integrating Problem Solving and Communication in the Structural

Engineering Laboratory, Sara Wadia-Fascetti, Michael Tarnowski

* What, Why, How of Homework, Lloyd Feldmann

* Teamwork: Implications for New Faculty, Stephanie Adams, Karan Watson

* Using Gantt Chart Software in Managing Student Team Projects, Gary Randolph

*** TRICKS OF THE TRADE IN THE CLASSROOM

Session 1675 - (Mon., June 29 ñ 4:30-6:00 p.m.)

* All Lectures are Not Created Equal, Marilyn Barger, et. al.

* Adventures in Cooperative Learning: An Ongoing Experiment,

Sandra Yost, N. Mohankrishnan

* Lessons Learned by a Novice Engineering Educator: Introducing a

Cooperative Learning Technique to an Introductory Engineering

Class, Deborah Mechtel

* Innovative Teaching Methods in the Civil Engineering Curricula at the Pennsylvania State University, Douglas Schmucker

* Process Education to Improve Engineering Education, Donald Blackketter, et. al.

*** RAP SESSION

Session 1975 - (Mon., June 29 ñ 7:30-9:30 p.m.)

* This is an opportunity to meet other "NEW" engineering educators

in an informal setting.

*** PROMOTION AND TENURE

Session 2275 - (Tues., June 30 ñ 8:30-10:15 a.m.)

* Presentation for Tenure and Promotion - Quality and Quantity, Bob Lahidji

* Getting a Good Start on Tenure the First Year, Jerry Samples, et. al.

* A Successful Path to Tenure and Promotion, John Williams, et. al. Martin Pike

* Optimizing Mentor/Mentee Relationships in Academia, Barbara Marino,

* Analysis of Factors That Aid in the Promotion/Retention of Engineering Technology Educators, Nicholas Akinkuoye, et. al.

*** NEE BUSINESS MEETING/LUNCHEON

Session 2475 - (Tues., June 30 ñ 12:30-2:00 p.m.)

* This is an opportunity to get involved in ASEE on a national level.

We are always looking for volunteers to help manage the division and help in planning and organizing sessions.

 

*** FAMILY ISSUES FOR FACULTY

Session 3675 - (Wed., July 1 ñ 4:30-6:00 p.m.)

* Excelling in Two Careers: A New Team Approach, Ben Humphrey

* Student Attitudes Toward Men vs. Women Faculty in Technical Disciplines, Nancy Denton, et. al.

* The Architecture and Engineering Profession in Transition, Daniel Davis

 

-------------------------------------------------------------

Tomorrow’s-Professor Msg. #33 Breakthrough Technology to Improve Teaching and Learning

 

ITEM: ELECTRONIC BOOKS TO OPEN NEW CHAPTER

Is a book a collection of words, printed on sheets

of paper bound into a volume? Or is a book just a

collection of words, period? Soon technology will

let us choose.

At least two small Silicon Valley companies,

SoftBook Press, Inc. in Menlo Park and Palo Alto-based NuvoMedia, Inc., have opted for the latter definition. And next Monday they'll announce some fascinating information appliances: a new generation of electronic books, a significant step toward an all-digital era of book-selling and reading.

Dan Gilmore, San Jose Mercury News, June 12, 1998

 

Folks:

I don't know if this electronic book technology will catch on soon, but here at Stanford an even more fundamental breakthrough is all the rage!

Regards,

Rick Reis

reis@cdr.stanford.edu

------------------------------ 460 words ----------------------

Built-in Orderly Organized Knowledge Device

Announcing the new Built-in Orderly Organized Knowledge device called B.O.O.K. The "BOOK" is a revolutionary breakthrough in technology: No wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on. It's so easy to use even a child can operate it. Just lift its cover. Compact and portable, it can be used anywhere-even sitting in an armchair by the fire-yet it is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD-ROM disc.

Here's how it works........Each BOOK is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets of paper (recyclable), each capable of holding thousands of bits of information. These pages are locked together with a custom-fit device called a binder which keeps the sheets in their correct sequence. Opaque Paper Technology (OPT) allows manufacturers to use both sides of the sheet, doubling the information density and cutting costs in half.

Experts are divided on the prospects for further increases in information density; for now, BOOKs with more information simply use more pages. This makes them thicker and harder to carry, and has drawn some criticism from the mobile computing crowd. Each sheet is scanned optically, registering information directly into your brain. A flick of the finger takes you to the next sheet.

The BOOK may be taken up at any time and used by merely opening it. The BOOK never crashes and never needs rebooting, though like other display devices, it can become unusable if dropped overboard. The "browse" feature allows you to move instantly to any sheet, and move forward or backward as you wish. Many come with an "index" feature, which pinpoints the exact location of any selected information for instant retrieval.

An optional "BOOKmark" accessory allows you to open the BOOK to the exact place you left it in a previous session-even if the BOOK has been closed. BOOKmarks fit universal design standards; thus, a single BOOKmark can be used in BOOKs by various manufacturers. Conversely, numerous bookmarks can be used in a single BOOK if the user wants to store numerous views at once. The number is limited only by the number of pages in the BOOK.

The medium is ideal for long term archive use; several field trials have proven that the medium will still be readable in several centuries, and because of its simple user interface it will be compatible with future reading devices.

You can also make personal notes next to BOOK text entries with an optional programming tool, the Portable Erasable Nib Cryptic Intercommunication Language Stylus (Pencils).

Portable, durable, and affordable, the BOOK is being hailed as the entertainment wave of the future. The BOOK's appeal seems so certain that thousands of content creators have committed to the platform. Look for a flood of new titles soon.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tomorrow's-Professor Msg. #34 Faculty Time Savers

Folks:

A panel presentation at recent workshop at Stanford University for beginning faculty in manufacturing education brought the following comments on saving faculty time. LET'S HEAR FROM OTHERS ON WHAT WORKS FOR YOU.

Regards,

Rick Reis

(reis@cdr.stanford.edu)

---------------------- 767 words ---------------------

FACULTY TIME SAVERS

6/15/98

Professor Kyle Catani - University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Professor Wendell Gilland - University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Professor Sunuil Kumar - Stanford University

Professor Lisa Pruet - University of California, Berkeley

 

* Limit the number of different classes you teach (number of preparations) to one, or at most two per semester. Insist on this arrangement and trade-off almost anything else to get it!

* Keep in mind that the time required to be a GREAT teacher is many times that required to be a GOOD teacher, and act accordingly. (Teaching preparation is more like a gas than a liquid or a solid, it consumes all the "space available.")

* Teach a course that has been taught before and get (beg, borrow, or barter) the syllabus, notes, exams, and homework assignments from others who have taught the course. Do NOT worry that you will be seen as weak or lazy - you will NOT. You want to do a good job right from the start - you can be creative and innovative later.

Better yet, teach a course in which other faculty are teaching other sections so you can leverage off the infrastructure already in place.

* Arrange your teaching schedule so that all your classes meet on the same two, or at most three, days a week (T, Th, or M,W,F). This arrangement will free you for uninterrupted blocks of time for non-urgent but important matters.

* Try and teach and undergraduate and a graduate course in the same field (supply chain management for example). Each contributes to the other and is a great way to leverage.

* Try open blocks of office hours where students can come in an out at will. They catch up on what is going on as they come in, explain things to each other, and leave when they have seen and heard enough. This approach can be surprisingly efficient and effective, and it helps students learn from each other not just from you.

* Use and reuse as much as possible. For example, try VIDEOTAPING YOUR OFFICE HOURS. That's right, video tape your discussions with students during open "free for all" office hours and make the tapes available to other students to watch.

* Post answers to FAQ (frequently asked questions) on your course Web site. Every time you answer a question for a student find a way to share the question, and answer, with other students in the course AND with students taking your course in the future. More "use and reuse."

* Reduce lecture time, invest in discussion and assessment time. Students read the book anyway, so do something complementary with your lecture time (you will be surprised at what this does for your attendance). Put another way, "Reduce the broadcast effort, amplify the feedback path." - L. Leifer, Stanford University.

* Students learn from each other. Faculty need to realize this fact and leverage from it. Get students to capture, reuse, and share what they learn, and then YOU use the best of what they come up with the next time you teach the course.

* Co-author papers with students. You get points all the way round with no down-side, and the students can do at least part of the work.

* Spend time with more senior faculty, take them to lunch, get to know them, and pick their brains. Even if you get contradictory advice, your movement up the "learning curve" will be tremendous - and every one likes to give advice.

* Volunteer up front for certain service assignments. Most faculty would just as soon not do any service or committee work but this is not reasonable or even desirable. You need to pull your weight so why not be proactive and volunteer for service assignments that have high leverage for you. Examples include serving on the department graduate admissions committee (gives you a first look at the best students in your field), and serving as coordinator of biweekly department seminar series (highly visible, brings you in contact with visiting experts in your field). NOTE: "It is easier to say NO to things you don't want to do if you have already said YES to things you do want to do."

* Don't answer your phone every time it rings! Let it go on to voice mail, then block off one or two periods during the day for returning calls. Do the same with e-mail.

* Do NOT do consulting until after you have tenure. It is a time-sink of the first order and does little or nothing for your research productivity.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Tomorrow’s Professor Msg. #35 The "Baseline Themes" Approach to Increased Classroom Participation and Interaction

 

Folks:

William Michael Kallfelz of Georgia State University describes an interesting approach he has developed to be more responsive to his students' learning styles. He can be reached at <gt8623a@prism.gatech.edu>, for further discussion.

----------------------------- 763 words -------------------------

The "Baseline Themes" Approach to Increased Classroom Participation and Interaction

 

Background

I am a graduate student (ABD) in physics but have been an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Georgia State University (GSU) for almost three years. During this time I have taught an average of 2-3 courses per quarter, in addition to juggling the completion of 4 master's degrees (physics/geophysics/applied mathematics/philosophy) at Georgia Tech and Emory, and work on my thesis topic. I really identified with the comment that class preparation is like a "gas" rather than a "liquid" or "solid." (Tomorrow's-Professor Msg# 8, 3/16/98.) To add to this, GSU is much more of a teaching-based institute than a research-based one, like Georgia Tech, so they run a pretty tight ship and even adjunct faculty are kept pretty much under the microscope. Add to that still, the typical student I deal with is a freshman/sophomore with little or no interest in mathematics, more often than not lacking in basic prerequisites.

I tried to swim upstream by compensating for all these factors through everything short of literal spoon-feeding. My evaluations stank and I still had to fail a lot of students.

The Approach

My job satisfaction, evaluations, and even relations from fellow faculty members have improved when for the sake of necessity like a jazz musician I'd walk into a class with a "baseline theme" (built around some interesting prototypical example(s)) upon which I'd "improvise" based on student reaction and feedback. This enabled me to let the syllabus "breathe" while not at the same time falling behind, and ensuring a greater cross-section of class participation and interaction. Every class is different. ("Same drama, different actors" -Goethe) This "baseline" preparation would for me take as little as 20 minutes even for a two-hour lecture! (As opposed to 2 hours --of course this "improvisation" approach only works if you'd taught reasonably similar material, otherwise it's improvisation comedy.) Perhaps these ideas seem obvious but it was a helpful change of paradigm for me.

The idea is 'to show, not tell." Here is an example from my "Business Calculus" class:

I want to talk about exponential and logarithmic growth/decay,

Problem: Most of my students understand "exp" and "log" as buttons on a calculator, and that's about it.

Solution 1) (standard) Spend a bunch of lectures talking about exp(x) and log(x) as functions, and inverses of one another,

assign a bunch of homework no one does, give a quiz everyone

flunks.

Solution 2.) ("baseline") I walk in and say: Can we think of quantity Q whose rate of growth is directly proportional to its instantaneous amount? (They've taken derivatives and integrals by now until they're almost blue in the face) They stare blankly. I write: "dQ/dt = kQ" We spend about 5-10 minutes QUALITATIVELY looking at what that sentence MEANS.

In other words we do qualitative feedback/feedfoward analysis on the differential equations which gives them of course a feel for thinking in terms of how the rates couple with quantities. Then depending on how they catch on, I'll go through the tricks which everyone memorizes (but forgot) solving the differential equation to get: Q(t) = Q(0)exp(kt) We graph this and re-do the feedback analysis looking at the slope of the curve at some points. To get them to pay attention. I let Q(0) be my principal $, and we therefore understand continuously compounding interest in this fashion.

I'll do the same thing above for in the case of: rates inversely proportional to amt. We stumble across logarithmic growth.

Inadvertently, they unwittingly learn about exp(t) and log(t) as

functions, inverses of each other, as these properties unfold while we go through the graphing procedure. Gradually letting this example unfold (which takes 3 minutes to prepare, 1.5 hours to develop) they not only see exp and log in this rate-based fashion, but inadvertently the basic concepts (no one learned in precalc) like "function," "inverse function" get activated in this dynamic, heuristic approach.

The 'improvisation' aspect specifically arises in that I may have a class who is on average more algebraically predisposed. I let them stop me and we go through the aforementioned formal definitions (of inverse log, exp) within this context. On the other hand I may have a class who on average is more visually predisposed, whereupon I'll do less formal defining and do more drawing graphs until they really understand the domain-Range properties of Log, exp. The review is built into the problem, under a new penumbra everyone grasps. The example is porous enough to take an entire lecture, yet the manner is leisurely, interactive, and the material very salient.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tomorrow's Professor - Msg. #36 The Scientific Career Ladder: Strategies for Success

 

Folks:

Below is my summary of a talk, "The Scientific Career Ladder: Strategies for Success," given on June 22, at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center by Catherine Jay Didion, (awis@awis.org) executive director of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS). The organization has 76 chapters and over 6,000 members nation-wide. The URL is: http://www.awsi.org.

Rick Reis

reis@cdr.stanford.edu

----------------------- 401 words --------------------

* AWIS is the association FOR women in science, not OF women in science. It welcomes men who support its goals and it sees men as "part of the solution, not part of the problem."

* While attraction of women into science study and into science careers is important, so is their retention in these areas.

* Women in particular need affirmation that they are not alone in the problems they experience as students and as professionals. Men tend to blame external factors for their difficulties, women tend to blame internal factors, i.e. themselves.

* In a recent survey of graduate students in science, 85% of the men, but only 57% of the women said that "others in their department treated them as colleagues."

* Women need to try out a variety of coping strategies, even ones that seem awkward at first. Like "trying on cloths, if they don't fit you can discard them."

* The "tyranny of the token," refers to the fact that women (and minorities) have to tread a fine line between acting like their white male counterparts and being who they are.

* Men and women have very similar ambitions in terms of postdoc, academic, and industrial careers in science.

* According to the AWIS project on academic climate, the following are the top issues that all faculty say need to be addressed at their academic institutions:

* Recruitment, hiring, and retention

* Tenure and promotion

* Dual careers

* Family and work

* Communication

* Mentoring faculty

* Mentoring students

* Informal networking/socializing

* Career development

* Young faculty face a large number of often conflicting demands on

their time. "Tenure is never having to say, 'Gee, I'd love to serve

on that committee'."

* Women face the "three clock problem: (1) the biological clock, the

(2) institution clock, and (3) their partner's clock."

* Successful women in industrial science careers say they have become so by:

* consistently exceeding expectations (77%)

* developing styles with which male managers are comfortable

(61%)

* Seeking out difficult assignments (50%)

* Having influential mentor(s) (37%)

* Three things (there are more) women can do to improve their science career success and satisfaction:

(1) Get involved in their professional societies, support is

available.

(2) Seek (apply for) external awards, they bring validation

from peers.

(3) Seek out and talk with colleagues, and not just those "above

you." Often, "horizontal mentors" can provide support at

they move on to other positions and organization.

End

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Tomorrow's Professor - Msg. #37 Consulting and Other Industry

Relationships

Folks:

>From time to time I hear from untenured faculty who express an interest in doing consulting, but aren't sure if doing so is a good idea with respect to their tenure and promotion. Below are notes from a discussion on this subject with Hau Lee, professor of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management at Stanford University.

Hearing about your experiences would be most welcome.

Rick Reis

reis@cdr.stanford.edu

 

---------------------- 889 words ----------------------

Consulting and Other Industry Relationships

"Engaging in consulting and other industry projects can be important for a successful professorial career in engineering, as well as some sciences. In my field (industrial engineering, and in particular supply-chain management) there is a trend toward placing more and more value on such activities, sometimes even in tenure decisions. The key is to do it well, leverage such activity towards research and teaching goals, learn from your mistakes, develop the right principles, and maintain the discipline that enables you to use these activities to further your teaching and research.

"There are a number of reasons for faculty, both beginning and experienced, to develop working relationships with industry. Engineering is, after all, an applied field and industry, in addition to being a good reality check, is an excellent source of ideas, data, and problems. I have found "tremendous wisdom and experience out there." Relationships with industry enrich my research, teaching and professional development. In addition, consulting and other collaborations with industry can provide research support, additional income, and help with the placement of students.

"Such experiences will enable you to say to students and colleagues that you have seen the work of government and industry. They give you a more seasoned credibility while providing you with an important window on what is truly relevant.

"With respect to new faculty and their research, let me make the following point: At the Ph.D. stage you have been guided mostly by your advisor in terms of what research you do. As a new professor you are responsible for selecting your own topics and your own direction. You have to find your way and do what is relevant to you and not to your advisor. Working with industry can provide you with insights to help you determine your own direction.

"With respect to consulting, however, I caution young faculty not to move too fast with arrangements outside the university structure. Don't do this only for financial gain, you simply don't have the time! I urge young faculty to stay away from expert witness or pure service assignments which can cause considerable stress while doing nothing for your teaching and other forms of scholarship. If you do choose to do consulting, I recommend you:

* abide by university regulations and make sure the work does not interfere with teaching and research;

* choose subjects within your areas of expertise and interests;

* set up rules for pricing (e.g. travel time, court time, teaching, initial meetings,...) but be prepared to be somewhat flexible if needed later;

* always look for teaching and other scholarship opportunities through such engagements;

* spell out clearly the terms of confidentiality and publication rights; and

* identify and work with individuals and managers who have strong interests in the success of the engagement.

"In truth, most young professors are not likely to be hired as consultants. This is because senior professors are more well known and are hired for their expertise as consultants. Young professors are less well known and are more likely to be engaged for their research capabilities in a particular area, usually under a research contract or industrial gift arrangement. It is often better for new professors to bring work into the university through research contracts or gifts. With this approach everything is above board, which is particularly important if you are using students where you don't want there to be even the appearance of a conflict of interest or commitment.

" Other examples of faculty-industry relationships include:

* company gift funds, usually for less defined research activity and without specific deliverables,

* company partnerships with university research centers or affiliate programs,

* foundation-funded research studies, and

* company-government-university research partnerships.

When engaging in such arrangements you should:

* make sure there is an explicit delineation between sponsored research and gift funds;

* seek a clear understanding of expectations and deliverables, including the intent to publish parts of the work;

* specify the participation and involvement of company personnel;

* recognize the importance of periodic site visits and management briefings;

* demonstrate your willingness to listen, observe, and change focus when necessary;

* actively solicit coauthorship with industry participants;

* don't "nickel and dime" everything. Think of the long-term relationship;

* spell out clearly confidentiality terms and publication rights; and

* involve students as much as possible.

"There are a number of ways for you to get started with consulting and other industry projects. Former advisors, and even former student colleagues, can be good sources. As time goes on, your own former students and postdocs will provide contacts, as will liaisons from industry. Word-of-mouth after a certain number of successes, visibility from publications and presentations, referrals by colleagues, and even cold calls into the university have all worked for me.

"I try to develop a teaching case or find other ways to integrate the material into my courses. Often I am able to write an application paper from the work I do, sometimes with a coauthorship from someone in industry. In addition, I can usually find ways to extend the work I did with industry and the data they provide me with, by stimulating doctoral students to work on such problems in their dissertation research. With all this kind of leveraging it's hard to see why I wouldn't want to develop such collaborations."

 

------------------

Tomorrow’s Professor Msg. #38 Sources of Faculty Stress

Folks:

You are encouraged to send comments on books you have read of particular value to graduate students, postdocs, and beginning faculty. Here is one such report that should in fact be of interest to all faculty.

Rick Reis

(reis@cdr.stanford.edu)

------------------ 511 words ----------------

Sources of Faculty Stress

Walter Gmelch, author of COPING WITH FACULTY STRESS* , interviewed more than 4,000 faculty in more than 100 institutions across the United States and in so doing identified five major sources of stress:

REWARDS AND RECOGNITION - inadequate rewards and insufficient recognition in teaching, research, and service.

TIME CONSTRAINTS- having insufficient time to keep informed of current developments and to prepare for classes, made worse by numerous meetings, interruptions and other demands on faculty time.

DEPARTMENTAL INFLUENCE - attempts to influence departmental and institutional policies and direction while at the same time recognizing that one lacks authority.

PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY - high self-expectations and the realization that professional identity rests upon the extent of scholarship, publications, and presentations.

STUDENT INTERACTION - conflicts with students over evaluating, advising, and teaching. [5]

Upon further analysis Gmelch found:

As faculty received tenure and moved to higher academic ranks of associate and full-professor, not all areas of faculty stress declined....only the stress from time constraints and professional identity declined with age and experience.... Married women professors experienced more stress from time constraints and personal identity. Overall, some stress factors are associated with lower rank and untenured status as well as gender, marital status, age, and experience.

Gmelch notes that there is a difference between distress and eustress. Distress is caused by negative stress such as conflicts with students or colleagues, whereas eustress is positive stress whose source is pleasant factors such as receiving tenure or publishing a paper. He goes on to list ten most troublesome stress traps for professors. They are:

1. Imposing excessive high self-expectations.

2. Securing financial support for scholarship.

3. Having sufficient time to keep abreast with developments in

field.

4. Receiving insufficient salary.

5. Striving to publish one's scholarship.

6. Having too heavy a workload.

7. Job demands interfering with personal activities.

8. Feeling progress in career is not what it could be.

9. Receiving interruptions from telephone and drop-in visitors.

10. Attending too many meetings.

The remainder of Gmelch's book deals with ways of coping with faculty stress. His approaches are based on the following propositions:

1. The individual is the most important variable; no single

coping technique is effective for all faculty at all institutions.

2. Faculty cannot change the world around them, but the can

change how they relate to it.

3. Coping techniques must be sensitive to cultural, gender,

social, psychological, and environmental differences in

individuals and institutions.

4. Faculty who cope best develop a repertoire of techniques to

counteract different stressors in different situations.

5. A faculty member's repertoire of techniques should

represent a holistic approach to coping, such as exercise,

social support, sound dietary practices, self-management

skills, personal hobbies, and supportive attitudes.

COPING WITH FACULTY STRESS is a small (85 page) book packed with a great deal of practical advice. It should be on the desk of every faculty member and university administrator.

* W. H. Gmelch, Coping With Faculty Stress, London, Sage Publications, 1993, pp. 26-27, copyright © 1993, Sage Publications, Inc., reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Inc..

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Tomorrow’s Professor Msg. #39 The Sesignated Dozen: Twelve Books Every Science and Engineering Professor Should Have on Their Shelf, or in Their Department Office

 

Folks:

Here is a recent list, prepared for a summer workshop on teaching and research, of twelve books that should be available to every begining faculty member in science and engineering. Your additional suggestions and comments are always welcome.

Rick Reis

reis@cdr.stanford.edu

---------------------- 653 words ------------------------

Twelve Books Every Science and Engineering Professor Should Have on Their Shelf, or in Their Department Office

 

NOTE: Because of e-mail formatting difficulties, titles of books are not underlined, they are placed in [ ].

 

General References

* Committee on Undergraduate Science Education, National Research Council, [Science Teaching Reconsidered: A Handbook.] Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1997.

* Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy, [Reshaping the Graduate Education of Scientists and Engineers,] Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1995. Seminal report on the status of graduate education in science and engineering with specific recommendations on how to improve the academic preparation and career success of graduate students and postdocs in these fields.

* National Science Board, [Science and Engineering Indicators - 1998,] Washington, DC: US. Government Printing Office, 1998 THE source of quantitative information and analysis regarding science, engineering, research, and education in the United States. Available biennially in even numbered years..

Preparing for Academic Careers

* P. J. Feibelman, [A Ph.D. Is Not Enough,] Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1993. A classic, this 110 page book, offers pithy and insightful advice on all aspects of a research career in science (and engineering).

* R. Reis, [Tomorrow's Professor: Preparing for Academic Careers in Science and Engineering,] Piscataway, NJ: IEEE Press, 1997. Designed to help you prepare for, find, and succeed at academic careers in science and engineering. Looks at the full range of North American four-year academic institutions while featuring 30 vignettes and more than 50 individual stories that bring to life the principles and strategies outlined in the book.

Succeeding as a Professor

* C. I. Davidson and S. A. Ambrose, [The New Professor's Handbook: A Guide to Teaching and Research in Engineering and Science,] Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing Company, Inc., 1994. Quickly becoming a classic, this book is the right source for everyone making the transition to new faculty member in science and engineering. Covers both teaching and research.

* M. L. Whicker, J. J. Kronenfeld, and R. A. Strickland, [Getting Tenure,] Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1996. A brief, practical guide on the tenure process with concrete advice (including the Ten Commandments of Tenure Success) for graduate students, postdocs, and junior faculty on how to maximize their chances of getting tenure.

* P. C. Wankat and F. S. Oreovicz, [Teaching Engineering,] San Francisco, CA: McGraw-Hill, 1993. "This is a fine compendium of >>>theoretical and practical information about engineering education. Nothing else like it has been published, either as a teaching resource or a guide to the literature, and it will be invaluable to anyone seriously interested in the profession." Richard Felder, North Carolina State University

* E. L. Boyer, [Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate,] Princeton, NJ: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1990. Arguably the most influential book on the work of the Professorate in the last decade, Boyer's classic lays the foundation for the four types of academic scholarship: research, integration, teaching, and application.

* P.J. Frost and M. S. Taylor, [Rhythms of Academic Life: Personal Accounts of Careers in Academia,] Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1996. Offers support, guidance, and advice for those contemplating or already involved in academic careers. It is a comprehensive work that surveys important topics relevant to the world of academia, such as publishing, research, teaching, pedagogy, teamwork, sabbaticals, and tenure. Written by a diverse group of scholars mainly from the information and organizational sciences area, much of what is said has application to all engineering and science disciplines.

Time-Life Balance

* S. R. Covey, A. R. Merrill, and R. R. Merrill, [First Things First,] New York, NY: Simon & Shuster, 1994. Goes beyond the familiar reminders and lists, calendars and appointment books, and even planning and prioritizing, to adopting the "importance paradigm" of putting first things first by "doing what's important rather than simply responding to what's urgent."

* W. H. Gmelch, [Coping With Faculty Stress,] London, SAGE Publications, 1993. Eighty-five pages packed with practical advice on how to deal with the whole range of academic pressures, including how to tackle the ten most troublesome stress traps for professors.

--------------------------

 

 

Message # 40 Time Pressures, Faculty Development, and Institutional Rewards and Recognition

Folks:

Richard M. Felder, professor of Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University, and Rebecca Brent, adjunct professor of Education at East Carolina University, have collaborated frequently on a number of important studies having to do with teaching and learning reform. They codirect the American Society of Engineering Education's National Effective Teaching Institute and regularly present teaching effectiveness workshops on campuses around the world. Below are my notes from a standing-room only presentation and paper they gave on, Faculty Development: Getting the Sermon Beyond the Choir, at the ASEE meeting in Seattle on June 30, 1998.

Send me an e-mail message if you would like a copy of the complete paper.

Rick Reis

reis@cdr.stanford.edu

---------------- 747 words -----------------

Faculty Development: Getting the Sermon Beyond the Choir

TIME PRESSURES

"There are a number of reasons for this faculty resistance [to do more to improve teaching and learning], most of which have at their base the inescapable fact that time is generally faculty members' scarcest and most precious resource: there is never enough of it to do the things we have to do and want to do. First-class research - writing proposals and doing the things necessary to get them funded, supervising graduate students, attending and presenting at conferences, writing papers, and actually planning and carrying out the research - is a full-time job. First-class teaching - planning and updating lessons, creating appropriate challenging but fair homework assignments and examinations, learning about,. importing, and implementing new instructional methods and materials, doing classroom research and curriculum development and presenting and publishing the results, and dealing with the myriad of problems that students routinely present (classroom management, cheating, emotional problems, etc.) - is also a full-time job. There is a limit to how many full-time jobs one individual can hold down.

"Faculty members find different way of dealing with this dilemma.

1. The superhuman professors. - Some faculty members manage to put in the time needed to do excellent jobs of both research and teaching, but there are not nearly enough of them to populate our faculties.

2. The pre-retirement retirees - Some manage to get tenure and thereafter do little or no research and poor to adequate teaching. Fortunately, there are not too many of this type either.

3. The researchers - These faculty members - few at some institutions, a large number at others - have no real interest in teaching. They joined a faculty to pursue their research in an environment that grants them almost complete autonomy, and the only reason they teach is because it is required. They are not about to devote any more time to teaching than they can help.

4. The teachers - These have made the decision that teaching is their most important job, and they spend most of their careers defining their craft. Some just teach and teach very well; others are active in educational scholarship - writing texts and instructional software, importing and developing new instructional methods and materials, and attending education-related conferences and publishing in educational journals.

5. The majority - Most faculty members value and enjoy both research and teaching, but time constraints force them to put their emphasis on one or the other. Although they would genuinely like to be excellent teachers, they conclude that research is a higher priority and they must devote as much of their limited time as can to it."

 

FACULTY DEVELOPMENT

* Category 5 is the key to educational reform.

" Keys to making teaching workshops work:

* Make the workshop content relevant to the participants' courses, students, and problems.

* Include both technical and pedagogical expertise on the workshop facilitation team.

* Emphasize the content relevance and technical credentials of facilitators in promotional materials.

* Keep content practical and ideas easily implementable.

* Be authoritative

*Don't be dogmatic

* Call on the participants' expertise.

* Be ready for tough questions and difficult (skeptical, hostile) participants.

* Practice what you preach."

"Faculty development beyond workshops and consultations - what to do?

* Form an interest group

* Set up a listserver.

* Publish a newsletter

* Facilitate course and curriculum reform programs.".

 

INSTITUTIONAL INCENTIVES AND REWARDS

"There is a limit to how much lasting reform can be accomplished solely through faculty development efforts, no matter how well executed. Unless the faculty incentive and reward system is modified to put teaching and educational scholarship more on par with disciplinary scholarship, only a minority of faculty members will choose to make the sacrifices necessary to change their teaching in significant ways." ......

"A few institutions have implemented a contract system, wherein faculty members are allowed to specify the percentages of their effort that they wish to allocate to teaching, research (including educational research), and service, subject to rules about minimum allocations in each area. Their contributions in each of these areas are evaluated based on their annual reports (or, for those who allocate a large percentage of their time to teaching, formal teaching portfolios), and their overall performance rating is a weighted average of their ratings in the three areas, with the weighting factors being their allocated percentages. If faculty members say that they are focusing on teaching and educational scholarship, their advancement would depend primarily (but not entirely) on how well they carried out that function, and similarly those who claim to be primarily researchers would advance primarily on the basis of their research accomplishments."

-------------

 

-------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: Postings 1-40 can now be found at: http://cis.stanford.edu/structure/tomprof/listserver.html

Anyone can SUBSCRIBE to Tomorrows-Professor Listserver by sending the following e-mail message to: <Majordomo@lists.stanford.edu>

subscribe tomorrows-professor

 

To UNSUBSCRIBE to the Tomorrows-Professor send the following e-mail message to: <Majordomo@lists.stanford.edu>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

unsubscribe tomorrows-professor

------------------------------------------------------------------------