I agree with the previous comments that it is difficult to find a balance between personal and professional life. But if I become an instructor in the future, I will try to be friends with the students in the class (if the class size is not that large) and probably share personal feeling as well as stories with each other. Bringing some emotion factors to the classroom definitely can help students learn better and sometimes even help instructor to know the strength and weakness of each student.

Well said. It seems like the entire PhD experience is an exercise in discomfort. But you’re right, without leaving our comfort zones we’ll never get away from the outdated conventions of pedagogy.

Well said. I have felt the same. It is weird that education is one of the few fields that experiences such extreme pressure. If you get a decent job at some local company, nobody is going to say “ha, that’s not a Fortune 100 company”, they’re going to consider the specifics before determining if it is a good job. But when it comes to education, it is common to hear someone dismiss a college outside the top 25 rankings (even if it is a bad fit for you, and the college you chose is perfect).

You internalize this to such a degree that you feel like a failure yourself if you can’t make it. What a toxic system…

I think what compels me to remain in the field of education is my truly unfaltering belief that humans (young ones in particular) are endowed with an unlimited capacity to learn, if provided the appropriate environment and resources to do so. I know that sounds pollyannaish but I ‘ve chosen my words carefully. I have personal evidence that supports it, and there is a growing body of research behind students with learning differences (often referred to as disabilities) and even those with mental challenges are often capable of learning more than they are taught. Which means to me that it is the adults responsible for educating (the teachers) than the learners whose perspective is limited.
Thanks for sharing. I think you will [continue to] be an exceptional teacher because of your passion and your commitment to learning.

I enjoy reading your post and your metaphor of “cooking”. Studying in VT for over 2 years sometimes get me think about the difference between Western and Asian way of teaching. Personally, I always felt stressed out by my teachers on all subjects before college. I feel that the situation may be caused by the large population, limited resources, and fierce competition followed. Cultural difference can be the second cause as Asian people tend to believe that education is the only way to get a desirable life, especially for poor families. Hence, too much attention is paid on education, so does the stress. At current stage, I just wish that if I will come back to Asia to teach in universities, I can practice what I learn here and focus more on diversity, universal precautions, and mindfulness.

Thank you for bringing this point up, Debjit. Education was always considered a pursuit to expand one’s thinking and understanding first and foremost before the industrial era.
But the human population was also more in control and tribal/colonial living was still dominant as well.

I often think about how humans have created so many problems -for themselves and for all of the Earth’s inhabitants – simply by ignoring the need to control how many of us exist. I wonder if we examined/studied the conditions under which some of the greatest (and worst) thinking of humanity occurred if we wouldn’t have a better grasp on what is important to derive from an education as both teachers and learners.

I imagine if we did we would have a better perspective on what is important to know and how to connect with the wisdom of our forebearers. Perhaps we could also cure the flawed perspective Edelstein notes of “a liberal arts education grounded in the humanities ‘ being ‘almost universally viewed as the opposite of vocational education.’

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You are still welcomed to join the Ethics class, haha. I think it is really great for our department to let us have Future Professorate certificate in order to be eligible for teaching. This helps a lot for the potential instructors to be well educated and get prepared. Just like you, I really appreciate all the communicating and education course offered here in VT (they are not normally offered in Chinese universities), which definitely will make me a better educator in the future.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Now, online forums and tutorials are one of the most helpful learning tools for me. I couldn’t imagine this when I started my college. I am really curious about how the learning culture will be changed again in the future.

Thanks for the post. I really enjoyed the focus on humans rather than in the technologies. As I mentioned in another post: Educators play an important role in the higher education systems, they are the ones who form professionals to go contribute to the world, but also they raise the new and future mass of professors. In other words, professors have an important role in how the world is shaped through the actions/contributors of those they have “educated”. However, in the current, and for multiple reasons, the relationship between higher education and the ideal role of professors is affecting the relationship between professor-student, which ultimately affects the citizens we sent to the world.
I am going to focus on the relationships with PhD students in the engineering fields of higher education. Nowadays, is it worth to ask the question why is the ratio of international vs National students increasing? Are PhD students the one with more opportunities in the market?

First, to put graduate students in context, PhD students are not regular students, they are professionals that have chosen to continue study for many more years in stead of being part of the work-force, probably in higher positions and good salaries. However, are they being treated this way? Studies show that PhD students suffer from this and this.

In that context, I believe schools need to do this, control for fairness, provide development resources, etc. But the most immediate and direct connection between students and the university is the perforadora and advisors. So I advocate for them Toni corporate in the recurrent teaching practices new views. For example, use empathy.

Two words: “dialectical materialism”. End of.

On a serious note as long as we (the current generation or even a subset of our generation) realize that things are not what they should be, change will come. Granted that we should not expect change to come in a day, but remember the saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” I will be more than happy if it take a 100 years for the system to change, however what would be worse is if the system was allowed to remain as it is for all eternity. Also I’m not sure if most Americans understand “technical British” terms.