Part 1 - 2

02 Education

Now listen to a lecture related to the topic in step 1. Fill in the blanks of the note diagram below with keywords or key phrases used in the lecture.

W: Now, I want to address a debate among universities today. An increasing number of universities have shifted their focus away from research and toward better teaching methodologies.

Basically, these schools are encouraging their faculty to focus on teaching methods rather than on research methods.

I think this is a good thing. Let’s talk about why.

Colleges are frequently concerned about their place within national ranking systems, but today’s ranking systems are now more concerned with teaching.

Many believe that ranking systems focus entirely on research−you know, publications, new discoveries in the field, stuff like that.

Granted, this is the way rankings used to be, but now most ranking systems are starting to pay attention to how university teaches its students.

So the idea that a college’s ranking is based mostly on its research used to be true, but not so much anymore.

Also, nowadays public intellectuals − professors famous for their accomplishments – a lot of them are focusing more on teaching what they know to people rather than on conducting a whole lot of research.

They’re the type of professors who make their knowledge accessible. A professor’s chance of becoming a public intellectual is far more likely if he or she makes a special effort to make research relevant to the public.

That’s what good teachers do. They take material and make it not only understandable but also interesting.

In a way, these types of public intellectuals are teaching the public through their work.

It’s far more important to create more materials that can teach the public then tons of materials that only a choice few can understand.

It’s all about quality, not quantity. In other words, you don’t need professors producing lots of difficult-to-understand, academic research − you need them to produce materials that the average person finds engaging.

Finally, those who spend more time on teaching become better teachers.

One popular idea about universities is that research is directly related to the quality of education.

Now, I am a professor − take it from me, my ability to teach you guys and my ability to conduct research are entirely unrelated.

One of my fellow colleagues in the department − I won’t name names, he’s a great researcher and he produces some of the most incredible work in his field, but the guy… I’ve sat through several of his lectures and he, well, he just really can’t deliver an engaging lecture.

In many cases, research and teaching are entirely unrelated. Ultimately, I think it’s better for both the students and the university to have professors focus on teaching methods.

Essentially, the university is here to help you guys learn, right? So it’s our job to teach you.