Behind The Curtain Of Higher Education: Faculty Aren’t Trained
Nicholas Ladany
If you ask a college professor whether education is essential to learning and performance outcomes, the response would undoubtedly be a resounding “yes.” However, when it comes to teaching itself, most faculty members have never received formal, skills-based training on best practices in teaching and learning.
Historically, higher education has operated under the assumption that possessing advanced, subject-specific knowledge—demonstrated by a degree and the title of “professor”—is sufficient for teaching. Professors are then left to instruct as they see fit, often under the vague umbrella of academic freedom. Imagine if we applied the same approach to training surgeons: study biology, then perform surgeries as you wish, under the guise of “medical freedom.”