“If you know something without having lived it, your audience experiences a credibility gap,” John Maxwell.
I am fortunate to work with intelligent and highly driven students. They have certain expectations of their faculty, having worked hard to attain and maintain enrollment in a private, liberal arts university. I find that their high expectations challenge me as a professor and, in turn, I provide academically rigorous coursework.
But my students’ expectations can be intimidating to new faculty or those interviewing for positions in our department. When a candidate comes provide a teaching demonstration as part of his or her interview process, our students typically will look at him or her and ask “what have you done in the industry?”
Notice that the students don’t ask candidates what they know? They figured out early on that it matters more what experiences and connections their faculty bring to their jobs. It is these things that will serve the students well in the classroom and in their post-graduate job searches.
Don’t get me wrong, the students want knowledgable professors, but they place a lot of value in their professors having lived what they know. It is, after all, the experiences that lend credibility to and understanding of the knowledge.
CatherineJNyman says
BergsEyeView profkrg brilliant ideas for coaching quotables #coachingsuccess
mindycrary says
Hi profkrg, thank you for RT’ing me. I appreciate it! Have a great day!!