• Introduction
• Teacher as Information Conveyor
• Teacher as Facilitator
• Blaming the Administrators
• Shifting Markets
• The New University
• The Professional Teacher
• References
• Printable Text of Article

© Copyright 1998-99 by Peter J. Denning (pjd@gmu.edu)  The right to make additional exact copies, including this notice, for personal and classroom use, is hereby granted. All other forms of distribution and copying require permission of the author.

Section Six: The Professional Teacher

In our current environments, teaching is perhaps the area of greatest stress for faculty. As discussed above, digital recordings, on-line assessment, and databases are taking over many familiar faculty roles. It is possible, but by no means assured, that machines can make inroads into the teacher’s roles of inspiring, motivating, guiding, coaching, and managing students. By intelligently automating the routine parts of teaching, the technology can enable the faculty to spend more time on the human side of their roles, and to reach more students without losing the quality of interaction.

No amount of automation can displace the primary social function of a teacher: the expert, respected member of a professional community. Teachers are a community’s representatives for the young and for others who seek recognition as a practicing member of that community. Students see a degree not as a receipt for attending classes, but as a certification for admission into a social network -- the network of people already in the community. The teacher is already a member of the social network to which the student seeks entry. The teacher can show the student the ways of the community and the practices and skills needed to function in the community. The teacher can be an ally to vouch for and endorse the student’s entry when the time comes. The social networks of the elite colleges and universities wield much influence and control much wealth. This is why so many are willing to spend $150,000 to wear the Harvard Crimson at graduation.

An analogy with physicians is helpful. You don’t become a physician by obtaining an MD degree. You become a physician when the community of physicians declares you to be a physician. To achieve that status, you must achieve certain milestones including the MD degree, residency, licensure, and membership in a medical "college". Your teachers are central to your realizing your dream to be a physician. You do not look to your medical teachers simply to dispense wisdom about medicine or guidance about treatments; you want them to help you become a doctor. You look to your teachers to transform you from rank-amateur beginner to practicing professional. This is an awesome responsibility for a teacher.

Nonetheless, many faculty feel disoriented as teachers in the world of multimedia, web-based modules, TV links, liveboards, chat rooms, and other affects of information technology. They have not been trained as coaches and managers, and their institutions offer no significant development programs to help them learn; and yet at some point they will be evaluated more on the results produced by their students than on the opinions of their faculty peers. They are professionals but do not see that this is the primary reason that students come to them. Herein lies the major opportunity for professional success of teachers.

In spite of the stress, the good news for students and teachers is that learning is more than information transfer, that automation can affect at most the information-transfer part of learning, and that the teacher is indispensable.

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