tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post9036050204260535181..comments2024-03-25T02:33:41.590-05:00Comments on FemaleScienceProfessor: An Anecdotal Account of An Alarming Absence of AwarenessFemale Science Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15288567883197987690noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-45388543553256251002008-11-26T15:35:00.000-06:002008-11-26T15:35:00.000-06:00There's no reason anyone would know what we do wit...There's no reason anyone would know what we do with our time, especially if they've never worked in a lab. <BR/><BR/>I learned this in my first year teaching a big intro biology class, when the students seemed to assume I was off playing Guitar Hero when I wasn't teaching or holding office hours. I realized I had no idea what my professors in college did all day, either.<BR/><BR/>Since then, in the first lecture for every class I give a five-minute blurb about my research. I tell them that I enjoy teaching, and take it very seriously, but that if I devoted all of my time to teaching, the University would fire me. This helps them understand why if they drop by outside office hours, I sometimes look frantic and ask them to come back later. As an added bonus, every year we pick up a sharp undergraduate volunteer or two who learned about our research from my first-day-of-school pitch.<BR/><BR/>This one change converted my classroom criticisms from caustic to constructive and complimentary.<BR/><BR/>Argh.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-46079529266693604302008-11-21T17:32:00.000-06:002008-11-21T17:32:00.000-06:00Certainly can commiserate, considering the conside...Certainly can commiserate, considering the considerable consequences.Female Science Professorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15288567883197987690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-15947334109939257182008-11-21T17:20:00.000-06:002008-11-21T17:20:00.000-06:00Belittling the bothersome banalities of beer-soake...Belittling the bothersome banalities of beer-soaked bookworms is beneath you.<BR/><BR/>Ok, I don't really concur with the sentiment of that sentence, but you must admit that all the B's are nice.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-48769830560515189352008-11-21T07:31:00.000-06:002008-11-21T07:31:00.000-06:00In fact, a lack of understanding of what professor...In fact, a lack of understanding of what professors do can be alarming if that lack of understanding is on the part of taxpayers and state legislators who provide some (although less and less these days) of the funding for higher education in the U.S. The perception that academics have easy lives can be dangerous if the people with that perception are providing (at least some of) your funding.<BR/><BR/>That said, I also see academics who think that people who work in industry only work 9 to 5 and never on weekends. Having worked in both environments, I think the misunderstanding goes both ways.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16841050534289566202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-91260086886240573862008-11-21T07:19:00.000-06:002008-11-21T07:19:00.000-06:00I'm glad to know scientists have trouble with this...I'm glad to know scientists have trouble with this, too. I thought it was just those of us in the humanities. When I tell students that I do research, they look completely flabbergasted. What could there possibly be to research in the humanities? How can you do research without a lab? Where are the Bunsen burners?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-63273704527819694082008-11-20T21:49:00.000-06:002008-11-20T21:49:00.000-06:00I've had similar experiences. I wrote about it a ...I've had similar experiences. I wrote about it a while back.<BR/><BR/>http://mybiasedcoin.blogspot.com/2007/09/what-do-professors-do.html<BR/><BR/>One thing I proposed at the end of the blog entry was to actually keep track of how I spent my time. I ended up quickly finding I didn't have the time or energy to keep such a log. And context switches happen so often it's hard to actually do. It would make an interesting experiment, though.Michael Mitzenmacherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02161161032642563814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-91914987448407972612008-11-20T21:48:00.000-06:002008-11-20T21:48:00.000-06:00I had a conversation about the fact that graduate ...I had a conversation about the fact that graduate students also take classes just this week in my seminar. <BR/><BR/>Who knew that this would be news... apparently the prevailing notion was that I taught my 3 hours/week and otherwise was free to work on my thesis. I wish.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-46074443086152661782008-11-20T20:31:00.000-06:002008-11-20T20:31:00.000-06:00Well, this is why in the first meeting of every cl...Well, this is why in the first meeting of every class, after I give my students my Email address, I carefully describe my average work week and say that there will be times that I will not be available to them, and I might have to miss a class or two each semester (there will be a substitute).<BR/><BR/>One point I always make is that my research grants support a number of undergraduate and graduate students that work in my lab, and that overhead costs account for more than a few more.EliRabetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07957002964638398767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-63029567270188303312008-11-20T20:06:00.000-06:002008-11-20T20:06:00.000-06:00Last time a team-taught an undergraduate course I ...Last time a team-taught an undergraduate course I started getting e-mails from students wishing me a good trip to Bahamas, and telling me how nice Bahamas was at that time of the year.<BR/>After a few e-mails I realized the other professor was playing a prank on me and told students to do that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-18927279348341872972008-11-20T14:36:00.000-06:002008-11-20T14:36:00.000-06:00It is quite true that the absence of awareness in ...It is quite true that the absence of awareness in this case was not actually Alarming. Perhaps I should have stopped at 6 A's.Female Science Professorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15288567883197987690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-79819146511856471652008-11-20T14:18:00.000-06:002008-11-20T14:18:00.000-06:00At my University which has a heavy focus on resear...At my University which has a heavy focus on research, many undergrad students are under the illusion that they pay our meal ticket and hence we are accountable solely to them. <BR/><BR/>In reality tuition fees amount for something like 35% of the budget, with the rest being paid for from endowments and research funds.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-31335845376464610922008-11-20T14:02:00.000-06:002008-11-20T14:02:00.000-06:00After going through a school system for 13+ years ...After going through a school system for 13+ years being taught by teachers whose sole function is teaching, it shouldn't be surprising that undergrads would expect the same of their professors.<BR/><BR/>There is a lot of adjusting that must be done going into higher education - and understanding the role of a professor is part of that. I can remember many classes I took as a freshman when classmates accidentally addressed a professor as Mr. or Mrs. so-and-so instead of "professor"...Dorfiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04987744952435962665noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-73465639496932707372008-11-20T12:11:00.000-06:002008-11-20T12:11:00.000-06:00I realize that 70%+/- 5% of the title is there to ...I realize that 70%+/- 5% of the title is there to add more As, but it's certainly not alarming. Do you know what kinds of hours plumbers work? Or middle managers at chemical companies? Or how much a CEO really works? I don't know about plumber hours, but I know about management hours and journalist hours simply because of my parents, like everyone else. <BR/><BR/>Frankly, I don't think it's other people's responsibility to feel for your hard workdays, including your students, when you meet them professionally. Especially if you don't communicate to them what it is that you do and only assume that everyone in the world knows what you do for a living in detail. (No idea whether FSP does or not in general, just a note along the lines of others'.) <BR/><BR/>I can see how the general assumption of laziness could be a little insulting. However, locating yourself in the universe in a little more specific way than saying "I am a professor" when you introduce yourself gives the people you are introducing yourself to free reign to make whatever assumptions they like. Specifying what you DO rather than your job title, given how little obvious correlation there is between the two, helps tell people both who your are and what professors do. ("Senior Design Engineer" tells you more about what such a person might do than "Professor" does. Even many other job titles are obscure - what does a "Human Resources Coordinator" do? Who knows? We expect Human Resource Coordinators to tell us these things.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-11203795345235245662008-11-20T11:47:00.000-06:002008-11-20T11:47:00.000-06:00Same thing here. I know that professors do researc...Same thing here. I know that professors do research because my dad is one. But my friends in undergrad never knew. I remember I similar incident. I can't recall the whole conversation but my friend told the professor that she wants to be like him because she thought that professors lead very easy lives. I clearly remember him exclaiming: "What? Do you think we have nothing to do in life but teach you and then go home?" Then he started explaining that when professors are not in the classroom they are working on their research, attending conferences and meetings... and all other sorts of things professors do. We did not become aware that professors actually do research until we became involved in some of the research projects in our senior year.Houda Nashawihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00500123079353641279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-8661925754196471292008-11-20T11:34:00.000-06:002008-11-20T11:34:00.000-06:00Just wanted to register how impressed I am with al...Just wanted to register how impressed I am with all those A's.<BR/><BR/>I'm always glad to hear when professors find ways to gently introduce students to the idea that teaching is only part of their job. I deal with this carefully (so that means "rarely"), because I know that 90% of the things one can say along the lines of "teaching is only part of my job -- I was hired to do research, too" gets heard (and repeated!) by students as "Prof. X says that she doesn't care about teaching; she just does it so she can do her research."Notorious Ph.D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/08700875559325201086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-46741941668669545012008-11-20T11:27:00.000-06:002008-11-20T11:27:00.000-06:00It is very dependent on what sort of university yo...It is very dependent on what sort of university you have. At my Undergraduate University, I would say that many students didn't fully understand that some of their professors were very busy (this lack of understanding tended to center around the liberal arts professors, which probably has more to do with them not having labs) though probably the ignorant and knowledgeable were 1:1. At my Graduate University, every undergraduate I spoke with (I advised a group) was firmly convinced none of their professors would teach without being required to and it was the lowest priority imaginable for them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-88342812314857539242008-11-20T10:55:00.000-06:002008-11-20T10:55:00.000-06:00If students aren't aware of what their professors ...If students aren't aware of what their professors actually do, maybe we're not doing a good enough job of making it known. A great way to do this is to try and incorporate a little bit of your own and your colleagues research into the courses you teach. Or trying to make them realize that what you are teaching them was brought about by research done at academic institutions.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-59173802820693273982008-11-20T09:22:00.000-06:002008-11-20T09:22:00.000-06:00people can hardly be expected to know what they do...people can hardly be expected to know what they don't know anonymous. perhaps lecturers and professors aren't communicating with students as effectively as possible?<BR/><BR/>just a thought.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-16558211327673152752008-11-20T09:17:00.000-06:002008-11-20T09:17:00.000-06:00I did my undergraduate studies at a research unive...I did my undergraduate studies at a research university and understood from day one what my professors were doing because they talked about it and students got involved in it... now i am a year in as an assistant professor at a research university and i realized that almost none of the students in my chem for non-majors class understood that we did research primarily. This came up when we were talking about solar energy and i said that i work on that... by the end of the day, they thought it was pretty cool that they had a prof working in that area. Maybe just talking about our research to undergrads is the way to go.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-35841399665761765572008-11-20T08:54:00.000-06:002008-11-20T08:54:00.000-06:00during my master's work, i was a graduate TA for s...during my master's work, i was a graduate TA for several labs in which i actually had to teach (my current ph.d program uses grad TA's mostly to proctor exams). the undergrads were always amazed to hear that i had exams, that i couldn't meet with them any old time because i would be in class, and finally until i started talking about my research, they had no idea.<BR/><BR/>also, i want to weigh in as a grad student: i HATE the team teaching method. i find that it encourages redundancy, either overlap in teaching or complete skipping of important subjects, and figuring out what is going to be important to learn for your benefit is easy but what the professors think should be tested is completely different.<BR/><BR/>my student $0.02quietandsmalladventureshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13882640501776166034noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-75514086943616391752008-11-20T08:31:00.000-06:002008-11-20T08:31:00.000-06:00I just graduated from college but I will say - I d...I just graduated from college but I will say - I didn't really realize research EXISTED until I got involved in a lab during my freshmen year. I was a first-generation college student. I think for a lot of people that don't have knowledge of the university system, scientific reports seem to appear out of the ether.Ivy Abidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05542202639918552300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-71161865851628278652008-11-20T07:47:00.000-06:002008-11-20T07:47:00.000-06:00An alarming but very common absence of awareness.....An alarming but very common absence of awareness... Not only do many students I've encountered think academics exist only to teach, but also seem to think that we also take the whole summer off just because classes stop. I've lost count of the number of times a student has emailed me in July or August only to express surprise that I respond before mid September.<BR/><BR/>Actually, it's not just students. My extended family also regularly asks "when do you finish up?" or "when are you off?" as summer approaches, convinced (despite my explanations) that my workload disappears as soon as the undergrads are out the door.Not Just Academichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01032887423006916040noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-36270068907970563002008-11-20T07:16:00.000-06:002008-11-20T07:16:00.000-06:00I had a undergrad friend who "worked out" the numb...I had a undergrad friend who "worked out" the number of hours a professor puts in based on the activities of a particular prof he was fairly close to. My friend concluded that profs work no more than 20 hours a week. This was one of the top profs in the department; he was surely working 60+ hours a week in reality. Lots of undergrads just don't know what research/scholarly activity involves, even undergrads who are kind-of friends with professors. And they have no idea about service requirements.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-28687607262074908182008-11-20T00:37:00.000-06:002008-11-20T00:37:00.000-06:00Same in my university. Boggles my mind everytime I...Same in my university. Boggles my mind everytime I hear it from a student.<BR/><BR/>And we have the same crazy team teaching model (occasionally interspersed with a co-teaching model).<BR/><BR/>-fellow woman physical scientist in research university.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com