What possesses a Ph.D. to become a lecturer?

[161927]

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[dienekes88]

Some people have trouble finding work, because they can't manage to find tenure-track positions or even non-tenure track position. They then have to lecture (sometimes at more than one university) in order to make enough money to support a family.

 

[Lukkie]

maybe they want to help people.

 

[flaahless]

After 6+ years of grueling education and research, what makes a science Ph.D. decide, "OK, enough of that. I'm going to lecture introductory science courses from now on!"

They enter the classroom and start teaching, and don't stop for decades.

Do grad students go into grad school thinking, "Wow, I hope I could be an undergraduate lecturer one day."

I'm not talking about research professors who teach undergrad classes on the side. I'm talking about strictly lecturing Ph.D.'s, of which there are MANY in undergraduate education, and they tend to teach the pre-med prerequisite classes.

And a disclaimer: this is not a trolling thread, I am just curious about what motivates these kinds of people.

What motivates you? The same probably applies to them.

 

[coldweatherblue]

people rise to the level of their incompetence. (this is some business management BS but it's often true).

A person just keeps studying; going to work every day trying to learn something and get better. Then one day he finds himself in a position that he's pretty happy about. It may not be what he dreamed off, but it's better than what he has now. So he's content, and stays that way for a long time because he doesn't need to rise any higher. Research isn't for everyone and I doubt there are enough jobs out there for every Ph.D. Plus some people love teaching.

 

[ChemGrad08]

I think the premise of this question is somewhat offensive. A lot of people go into science PhDs to teach, and just suffer through the research for a few years. There's no other way to teach college science than to have a PhD, so if you want to make a little more money and not have to deal with hs kids then your only option is to get a science PhD. What makes you think they are settling?

 

[dienekes88]

What motivates you? The same probably applies to them.

Money, chicks, power, and chicks.

Somehow, I don't think that applies to lecturers.

 

[161927]

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[135892]

A parallel situation:

A medical student gets his MD and goes through a residency.

Then, he decides not to practice and instead spends the rest of his career writing novels.


(Maybe not the best analogy. But do you see my point?)

no...

So, the med student figured out that medicine wasn't for him and followed his passion... Is there something wrong with that?

 

[Maxwell Edison]

In some cases, it's a contractual requirement. At my undergrad, most professors were required to teach something.

It is not, however, because they excel at people skills in most cases. My favorite example was a biochem lecturer who stammered and mumbled incomprehensibly. One day, he asked for someone to hand him a textbook (most of us didn't bring the monster to class), and when nobody offered it up, he challenged the class for someone to be "man enough."

 

[161927]

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[Gobblox]

Well...heres the breakdown of how a university works.

There are two types of universities. A teaching university and a research university(There are also varying degrees of each within that spectrum).

In a teaching university...you guessed it...the PhD's are hired to teach.

In a research university, they are hired to do research. Now, there are two main types of PhD's, Principal Investigators and Post-Docs. The Principal Investigators are the ones who have their own labs and are usually the ones teaching you. The Post-Docs are hired from the budget/grant given to the Principal Investigator and are used primarily as researchers in the given labs.

Now...the university demands that a given principal investigator teach X amount of classes for the university in exchange for lab space, more funding, ect. Many schools have and option called a "Buy-Out" where the principal investigator may use some of his grant money to pay the university to NOT have to teach classes. In my experience, few to none of the Principal Investigators choose this option. I only know of two who choose this at my school(FSU), one is a Nobel Prize Laureate and the other invented Taxol(an old treatment for cervical cancer).

This by no means is the situation across the board but more of a guideline. Every school has their own rules. I have seen though that with the rapid rise of PhD's nowadays, there are quite a few who are hired on STRICTLY a teaching basis and do no research.

On the other hand, there are quite a few researchers who LOVE to teach. Remember, they are PhD's because they LOVE science and therefore LOVE to talk about it. Teaching fits them perfectly.

In terms of teaching "Pre-Med Requisites", all of the pre-reqs are MAJORS classes. You dont just see Pre-Meds in these classes. For Example, in General Chem I, you can see everything from Pre-Med to Engineering in that class.

Hope this shed some light...if not then /fail.

 

[ChemGrad08]

A more appropriate analogy than PI/post doc would be academic/industry. PIs in academics generally teach and do research (direct grad students in research), in industry they just do research. Post doc is just another training stage that you have to go through to get an academic (research) job.

 

[Mandarin142]

You may not realize it but Ph.D.'s often don't teach because they want to. They teach because its their job requirement. At my university, you can't run a research group/lab on campus unless you teach. Basically, the university gives you resources, funding and laboratory space and you pay back the favor by teaching intro courses. This has been the setup for several decades.

 

[Flaxmoore]

A parallel situation:

A medical student gets his MD and goes through a residency.

Then, he decides not to practice and instead spends the rest of his career writing novels.


(Maybe not the best analogy. But do you see my point?)

You'd be Michael Crichton, MD (1969, Harvard Medical School).

 

[dienekes88]

You'd be Michael Crichton, MD (1969, Harvard Medical School).

Whoa. Never knew that.

He also graduated Summa Cum Laude from Harvard as an undergrad.

Not bad.

 

[bioteach]

Some people actually have the career goal of teaching at the college level. If you want to do that full time you need a PhD.