WEP Graduate/Faculty Networking Lunch Seminars
 

Balancing Research & Teaching
A major benefit of being a faculty member at a research university is that you are involved in both research and teaching. Your job will always be challenging and interesting. However, both teaching and research can become consuming and a big challenge is balancing the two.

Before taking a position with a research university you should ask yourself if you want to be responsible for both teaching and research. On the negative side, it can be overwhelming. On the positive side, you are never bored!
 

Typical Requirements

Teaching
• Teach 2 to 4 courses per year for graduate or undergraduate students
• Hold office hours
• Develop new courses (occasionally)
• Receive decent SRTE's (student evaluations - Student Ratings of Teaching Effectiveness)
Research
• Publish about 2 journal articles per year
• Publish 1 or 2 proceedings articles per year
• Secure consistent funding (write proposals, conduct research)
• Present at conferences (1 or 2 per year maximum)
Guide Graduate Students through Teaching and Research
• Guide graduate students who work with you on research projects, teach them how to research, write, speak, ....

(Tenure Note: In past years, research has been the strongest factor considered for granting tenure. Now teaching is becoming more and more a part of the decision.)
 

Maintaining Balance
You need to balance:

1. Course Development - In the first 2 or 3 years you will be very involved in the development of your courses. In following years you will be more focussed on course revisions with only occasional course development.
2. Establish a Research Program - To establish a research program you will need to write lots of proposals!
3. Write Publications - Publications are crucial to tenure and to establishing yourself as an expert - this leads to more successful proposals and more funding.

Time Management - Make time for important activities.

1. Set aside a block of time (about 2 hrs, 3 days a week) for preparing and writing journal articles. (Publications are crucial to tenure and to establishing yourself as an expert - this leads to more successful proposals and more funding.)
2. Set aside time for teaching preparation. This is most difficult when you are just getting started. Realize that you will always feel you could have done more. Try not to get caught up in what you "should have done" and instead note improvements for next time and move on.
3. Set aside time for proposal writing. It can be difficult to make yourself sit down and write proposals. In the beginning, you will write a lot of proposals with little success. You need to keep trying until you find the right fit and are successful. Having articles published will give you name recognition and credibility and will aid in the success of your proposals.
4. Schedule time to work with graduate students. This takes a lot of time so limit the number of students, especially at first.
5. Have one day a week when you do not schedule teaching or meetings. Use this time to work in your office taking care of things, writing proposals, and doing research.

Common Mistakes:

1. Spending too much time on teaching. It is easy to get caught up in preparing and teaching classes. Be aware that it is hardest at the beginning and that you should expect low SRTE's (Student Rating of Teaching Effectiveness) from your first course. As you gain experience and confidence your teaching and efficiency will improve.
2. Not dedicating blocks of time to writing publications. You need uninterrupted time to write in. Plan to work at home.

Being forced to balance your work is not necessarily a bad thing.
It keeps the job challenging, interesting and fun!

Incorporating Research Into Teaching
Share your experience with your class. When you are covering an equation, model or theory in class that you have used in research share your experience with your class. It always gives students a boost in interest to see the real applications of what they are learning (this can be seen in SRTE comments and class reactions.) It is also fun for you as a teacher because it is something you know very well and can discuss with confidence.

As you learn more through research, add it to your class. This keeps the class involved and up to date with current understanding and advances. It is a good way to demonstrate the value of research and the connection of research to education.

Use a simplification of your research problem as a project for the class. This gives them something real to work on and provides an excellent opportunity for you to share your research.

Let a class help you solve a problem. Have your class (especially graduate classes) help you solve a problem.

• brainstorm
• discuss getting from Point A to Point B
• make it clear that you don't have an answer so they'll be more creative

Developing Teaching Skills
1. Read your SRTE's. (Student Rating of Teaching Effectiveness)
2. Talk to other teachers - especially teachers with experience. (PSU has a system where you can have a mentor who has teaching experience.)
3. Attend teaching seminars - These can be time consuming, but they are also rejuvenating. Try to come away from each seminar with at least one new thing to try. Often you can get ideas from teachers in different disciplines including the Arts. (National conferences and workshops may also be useful, but it can be difficult to commit the time to attend these.)
4. Join the American Society of Engineering Education (http://www.asee.org/) (ASEE) - You will receive periodicals (Journal of Engineering Education & ASEE Prism) that offer new ideas.
5. Try your own mid-term evaluations - Ask your students pointed questions about your course. Use good suggestions and improve.
 

Bring current events into your class room. If you see a relevant current event in the news, bring clips into the classroom to discuss. This gives students an impression of how the course relates to the real world and proves that your course is current. (For example: Peggy Johnson brings in articles about natural disasters that undermine bridges and other structures. She uses these to discuss remediation design, repair, etc.)

Tell your students how the course has changed from last year. Show that your course is dynamic and current by explaining the improvements you have made. If you responded to SRTE's tell them! Give students an opportunity to shape the future of the course with their feed-back and comments. If you use a mid-term evaluation, try to incorporate their suggestions into the second half of the course and tell them how their feed-back has caused change.

Professor Vasundara Varadan reminded us not to discount the value of PR. Bringing research into the classroom demonstrates the benefit of research at teaching institutions. There is generally a belief that research detracts from teaching and that we need to turn that image around. Also, let your students know what your job entails - if you have to cancel a meeting or class let them know why.

Involve undergraduate students in research. Including undergraduate students in research proposals is a great way to get them involved. It prepares them for the future and brings a fresh and open-minded person to your research team.

Some of the best teaching is done with graduate students while researching. Working with graduate students as researches provides many opportunities for teaching and guidance on a one-on-one, real world basis.

What if none of my proposals are funded? or ... worse ... What if all of my proposals are funded? In the beginning of your career you will write a lot of proposals without a real feeling of if they will be funded. Once you get rolling it does become easier to judge. If too many of your proposals are funded, you can take on a post-doc to help manage the work load.

Professor Mary Frecker suggested that teaching graduate courses can be a good way to identify potential students for your research. At some institutions, graduate students are still looking for advisors and research opportunities and this is a good way to connect with them.

Professor Janie Irwin raised the issue of electronic presentations. She and other faculty at the meeting had experimented with electronic presentations (power point) in their courses. They found that it was a lot of work for an uncertain benefit. Power point can be useful, but you have to invest a lot of time to create dynamic, interesting slides (e.g. animated slides or progressive worksheets). This is not something to try in your first year of teaching. (The one benefit noted is that you can put your presentation on the web.)
 

Resources:

American Society of Engineering Education (http://www.asee.org/)

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