College Professor Teaching Duty List

Respond to the two lists, noting differences or points of
comparison with your duty list. Note for your peers, which duty you find to be
most inspiring to your vocation and which duty you deem most challenging to
fulfill.

Duty List 1

Chapter One: To Be a Professor

1.  Basic
Roles

•  To Teach:
To guide students through the learning process, both in content and skill, so
they can make an informed decision about the material.

•  To Speak
for the Course Material: To present material accurately and in a way that
students can understand it, appreciate it, and see the world a little
differently because of their new knowledge.

•  To
Inspire Intellectual Values: To inspire students through a vision and model of
intellectual excellence and help them acquire the skills and values to make
that vision a reality in their own lives.

•  To
Certify Students’ Knowledge and Ability: 
To evaluate how well each student masters the course objectives and to
declare that level to the student and to the academic community.

•  To Advise
Students Academically: To provide students with advice on their programs of
study and how to pursue their academic learning with an eye toward their future
career plans.

•  To Be a
Practitioner of the Discipline: To critically engage with our subject matter in
way that will support the work that we do in the classroom.

2.  Agents,
Cooperation, Power, and Autonomy

•  To Carry
Out the Institution’s Educational Commitments: 
To teach students on behalf of the university, thus fulfilling its
educational commitments to students.

•  To Act
for the Good of Higher Education: To act in cooperation with all stakeholders
to support the quality and commitments of the institution.

•  To Use
Power Wisely: To use the power of being a professor in a supportive manner, not
taking advantage of the professor-student relationship.

•  To Use
Autonomy Wisely: To make decisions regarding class and student issues in a way
that supports and encourages student learning.

3.  An
Ethical Dimension

•  To
Understand the Ethical Dimension of Teaching: To recognize that professors make
ethical decisions that have potential to benefit or harm students.

Chapter Two: What to Teach

1.  The
Audience’s Knowledge and Abilities

•  To Know
Our Students’ Level of Knowledge and Abilities: To select material based on our
students’ academic knowledge and abilities so they will be challenged, yet
successful with our assistance.

2.  The
Purpose of the Course

•  To Design
the Course in Light of the Overall Program: To design the course in a way that
provides students with a specific set of knowledge or skills that will
contribute to their overall education.

•  To Guide
Students Through the Curriculum: To provide students with guidance in what to
study and to teach the curriculum in a way that meets the educational goals of
both students and the university.

3.  Truth,
Excellence, and Knowledge

•  To Guide
Students to Knowledge of Truth and Excellence: To provide students with the
analytical skills and opportunities to learn from and across traditions, to
examine multiple viewpoints, and to develop their knowledge of what is true and
excellent.

4.  Values

•  To
Support Values of Social Responsibility and a Just Community:  To teach students about social responsibility
in a way that will benefit society and to promote values that will help
students engage in ways that promote a just community.

Chapter Three: How to Teach

1.  Preparation

•  To
Prepare: To create a class structure and develop content in such a way that
students have opportunities for inquiry, reflection, and learning in each and
every class.

•  To
Prioritize: To adjust our responsibilities and activities in a way that allows
us to prioritize what takes place in the classroom.

•  To Share:
To provide students with an overview of the course to give them information
they need to make informed decisions as learners and to help them to see the
way the course content fits into the bigger picture of their learning and the
discipline as a whole.

2.  Accurate
Representation

•  To
Accurately Present Information: To accurately represent the words and ideas of
those whose work we are using in a way that is clear and understandable to
students, allowing them to make their own judgments and recognize the values of
a commitment to truth and objectivity.

3.  Promoting
Intellectual Inquiry

•  To
Promote Intellectual Inquiry: To spark intellectual inquiry and to create
learning experiences in which that interest can be stimulated and encouraged.

•  To Create
an Environment for Inquiry: To create a safe classroom environment in which students
can take the risks necessary for knowledge.

4.  Offensive
Conduct

•  To Manage
Offensive Conduct: To guide students through the process of managing their
thoughts and ideas toward content which may be offensive, but has educational
value, while at the same time avoiding offensive content or conduct that has
negative consequences for teaching and no redeeming educational value.

5.  Neutrality

•  To
Maintain Neutrality on Controversial Topics: To present various viewpoints in a
neutral way that allows students to evaluate the options and make a
determination based on the evidence, without “shortcutting” their learning by
doing the work for them.

6.  Examinations
and Grades

•  To
Provide Feedback: To provide students with feedback on their current progress toward
the objective standards and what they need to do to master those standards in a
way that is supportive and meaningful.

7.  Confidentiality

•  To
Maintain Confidentiality: To preserve confidentiality in the professor-student
relationship by considering the student’s stake in controlling the information
and the purpose for which we have access to that information.

Chapter Four: Beyond the Classroom

1.  Relations
with Students: What’s Not Obligatory

•  To Decide
Our Level of Involvement Beyond the Classroom: To decide whether or not to
engage in student organizations and activities outside the classroom since
there is no ethical obligation to do so.

2.  Relations
with Students: What’s Not Permitted

•  To
Maintain Appropriate Relationships with Students: To avoid any type of
relationship with students that would take away from the ability to honor our
university obligations or would use our power in a way that does meet the
educational purpose of that power.

3.  Scholarship
in Support of Teaching

•  To Make Informed
Decisions about Our Content: To engage in scholarship that supports our
teaching by increasing our knowledge of what and how we teach.

•  To
Demonstrate How Knowledge Develops: To model for students how and where ideas
come from, through our own pursuit of knowledge and answers in theoretical and
applied research projects.

•  Publishing
To Present Research for Professional Review: To present the results of our
research for professional review to maintain academic credibility and to test
our own theories.

Duty List 2

Chapter 1: To Be a Professor

a)  Basic
Roles

  1. To
teach

  a.
To help students understand course material

  b.
To guide students through course material

  c.
To help students develop skills necessary to progress’

  d.
To assist student who need additional help

  2. To
certify student’s knowledge and ability

  a.
To judge how well student’s master course material

  b.
To certify student level of achievement to the academic community

  3. To
act s academic advisors

  a.
To focus students on career objectives

  b,
To identify programs of study available

  4. To
engage actively in one’s intellectual discipline

 

b)  Agents,
Cooperation, Power and Autonomy

  1, Act
as members of the university or college, not as independent contractors

  2.
Interests of the institutions’ educational commitments to the students

  3. Acts
within cooperative venture aimed at the good of higher education

  a,
Student, active learners

  b.
Teachers, guides

  c.
Colleagues, each course part of general educational effort of each department

  d.
Parents, taxpayers, foundations-all for financial support

  4.
Professors, autonomy and power in the classroom

  a.
Determine tasks to be done

  b.
Determine who will do each task

  c.
Evaluate student performance

  d.
Determine overall classroom environment

  e.
Determine materials taught and texts used

  f.
Determines exams, assessments, and make-up policies

  g.
Determines own grading scale

  5.
Faculty and departments, autonomy and power at institution

  a.
Act on behalf of institution

  b.
Creates and maintains curriculum

  c.
Determines courses to be completed

  d.
Certifies progress of each candidate

  e.
Determines overall departmental environment

 

c)  An
Ethical Dimension

1. Arguments against ethical obligations of professors

  a.
Teaching seen as an art subject to personal whims an matter of taste

  b.
Little hinges on what is taught or gestures made

  c. No
dramatic impact or consequences result from actions

  d.
Academic freedom provides unconditional freedom if  behavior not specified  

    in contract

2. Ethical Obligations independent of institutions
regulations

  a.
Arises from considerations of justice

  b.
Arises from good that will be produced

  c.
Arises from harm that will be avoided

  d.
Stems from need to treat students, colleagues, or subject with respect

    deserved

3. Individual and Institutional obligations serious

  a.
First must be acknowledged

  b.
Discover content and source of curriculum

  c.
Review obligations in selection of course material

  1.
Consider department curriculum

  2.
Consider departments obligations in designing curriculum

  3.
Determine individual, department, and institutional obligations

  4.
Encourage fidelity to all obligations

 

Chapter 2: What to Teach

a)  The
Audience’s Knowledge and Abilities

  1.
Consider level of student’s learning

  2.
Consider student level of education

  3.
Consider student prior knowledge

  4.
Consider student reading and writing skills

  5. Know
the student audience

  6.
Select material students will find demanding

  7.
Select materials students will be able to evaluate with assistance

  8.
Honor institutions commitment to intellectual advancement

  9. Make
materials choices appropriate and relevant to student learning needs

  10.
Structure class to include the variety of student needs

b)  The
Purpose of the Course

  1.  To give students opportunity for intellectual
advancement and knowledge

  2. To
give students opportunity to gain some piece of what they need for overall

    education

  3. To
be determined by department-faculty as a whole

  a.
Defines goals and designs curriculum

  b.
Help define and support goals and curriculum in teaching

  4. To
teach main topics key to study

  5, To
be true to course curriculum and course design set in course descriptions 

c)  Truth
Excellence and Knowledge

  1.
Choose works that represent a diversity of cultural truths

  2. Use
discretion in designing courses

  3.
Select works appropriate and relevant to course, truth, and excellence

  4.
Honor the intended purpose of the course when selecting materials

  5.
Guide students to true beliefs by selecting materials backed up by justifying

    evidence of validity

  6.
Teach views generally accepted by experts working in the area  along with their

    supporting evidence

  7.
Present competing sides with strengths and weaknesses

  8.
Inform students in low-level courses of the existence of competing views and

    ensure the teaching of these in specifics
elsewhere in curriculum

  9.
Teach students intellectual skills and values necessary to analyze, evaluate,
use, and

    synthesize knowledge given

  9.
Limit our teaching to the areas in which we have specific expertise

d)  Values

  1.
Preliminary Points

  a.
Focus is on teaching certain values, not just discussion or debating of values

  b.
Endorsement of teaching these certain values must also maintain the right

    to design courses to test understanding of
values

  c.
Selection of materials and values to be taught must be a part of the

    course description

  d.
Assurance that values are directly relevant and appropriate to course

    curriculum and study, not based on personal
whim

  e.
Assurance that personal obligations and responsibilities are met and

    and followed by adherence to  professional codes of conduct

  2.
Arguments to support

  a.
Appeal to universities social responsibility

  b.
Appeal to universities character as a just community

  3.
Limitation to arguments

  a.
Concern for the teaching of very general values

  b.
Lack of established permission and qualifications of professors to

    address general values without
compromising other obligations

  4.
Primary obligations to be considered

  a.
To fit the course to knowledge and abilities of audience

  b.
To honor the intended purpose of the course

  c.
To guide students to knowledge that is true and excellent

  5.Limitations
of  teaching of  specific values

  a.
Inability to follow individual professors through courses to determine

    appropriate values instruction

  b.
Inappropriateness and dangers of converting topology into topics

    concerning social issues without violating
course obligations

  c.
Unwarranted redesigning of courses to teach values without

    violation of other obligations of instructors
and institutions

  6.
Appropriate Incorporation of Values

  a.
Present materials that honor the purpose of the course

    1. 
Add relevant and appropriate materials to reflect relevant and

    appropriate values

    2. Take time to introduce values as part of
the core curriculum

  b.
Present materials that guide students to knowledge

    1. Present balanced and competing sides o
controversial issues

    2. Allow students to form justified
beliefs based on truth of facts given

    3. Allow students to exam all reasonable
sides of controversial issues

Chapter 3: How to Teach

a)  Preparation

  1.
Provide structure and content relative to best facilitate student learning

  2.
Provide standard preparation as a general rule

    a. Pick the text

    b. Set the course requirements

    c. Set office hours and times for
tutorials’ 

  d.
Set test schedules

  3.
Other necessary preparation

    a. Establish a structure to help students
proceed as free inquirers

    b. Establish structure to help students
form their own rationally based

    true beliefs

    c. Share plans with students in form of a
formatted syllabus

    d. Prepare to explain the syllabus and
preseasons behind it

    e. Share structure and materials of the
course as outlined in the syllabus

    f. Explain all course requirements

    g. Share changes in course that affect
student learning as they develop

    h. Revise instruction to fit student needs

    i. Prepare to change syllabus as needed
from one course offering to the next to

    meet student abilities and needs 

b)  Accurate
Representation

  1.
Teach what we know

  2.
Teach material as presented

  3.
Teach materials accurately before moving beyond it to other works

  4.
Allow students to form their own intelligent discoveries rather than teaching

    them our own

c)  Promoting
Intellectual Inquiry

1. Define adequate coverage by how much students are lead to
know

2. Lead students through critical examination of material

3. Limit the amount of material to promote student
intellectual acquirement

4. Provide each student with a reasonable chance at
knowledge

5. Give assignments that require student to investigate
material outside of class

6. Supplement lecture with small labs, discussion sections,
and peer groupings

7. Avoid appeals to authority and give students reasons for
material presented

8. Encourage students to demand justifying reasons

9. Present material in creative and interesting ways

10. Make classroom environment comfortable and safe for
students to feel free to take

  intellectual
risks

11. Be encouraging, demanding, critical, and constructive

12. Base criticism on standards relevant to course content
and goals

13. Create an environment conducive to inquiry

14. Treat all students the same

15. Maintain am appropriate environment

  a. Control and
guide professional conduct

  b. Control and
guide student conduct

16. Teach students rules of argument that govern
intellectual exchange 

d)  Offensive
Content

  1.
Guide students beyond any feelings of offense to honest, objective appreciation

  2.
Avoid conduct that has negative consequences for teaching and no educational
value

  3.
Avoid conduct that needlessly interfere with a reasonable student’s learning

  4. Teach
works which contain false claims to display falsehoods and show why they are

    are false

  5.
Teach works that are greatly offensive to guide students

    a. Guide students to an understanding of
what and why they find offensive

    b. Guide students to an objective
evaluation of the work

e)  Neutrality

  1.
Teach the views generally accepted by experts

  2.
Teach different options representing each fairly and accurately

  3. Put
forth the best, most persuasive evidence available to increase student

    understanding

  4.
Avoid leading students to knowledge by teaching it alone

  5.
Allow students to examine and assess competing theories for themselves

  6.
Teach by example

  7.
Direct students to arguments behind positions taken

  8.
Teach students to assess arguments in relation to competing ones 

f)  Examinations
and Grades

1. Obtain and share regular information on student progress

2. Maintain an effective system of evaluation throughout the
course

3. Design assignments to provide the right information to
students

4. Test only what is relevant to the course

5. Emphasize varying parts of material relative to varying
degrees of importance

6. Return work with comments and explanations that will help
students proceed

7. Tell students when and how their progress will be
evaluated

8. Schedule evaluations so both teacher and students have
time to assess and redirect

9. Return evaluations in time to be of material use to
students

10. Use grades to serve educational purposes

  a. Allows
students to be grouped according to ability, knowledge, and interests

  b. Indicates
where students fit best-career choices

  c. Used as ways
to support rather than subvert attempts to teach

  d. Allows
ungraded work to be used to determine how far each student

  has
progressed

  e. Allows
teachers to see how to best direct future efforts

11. Eliminate conflicts of interest

12. Avoid grade inflation

13. Monitor grading practices by comparing grades with other
faculty

g)  Confidentiality

  1.
Consider a student’s stake in controlling information

  2.
Consider the purpose for which we have access of information

  3.
Share information that falls within professor/student relationship only with
those who have legitimate claim to the relative goal of guiding student
knowledge

    a. Share with the registrar, advising
staff, and faculty

  b.
Share with with departmental advisory and review committees

  4.
Avoid posting grades with readily accessible identifiers

  5. Avoid
leaving papers to be picked up by student

  6.
Avoid sharing confidential information with parents

  7.
Avoid sharing confidential information with potential employers

  8.
Avoid sharing confidential information with department colleagues

  9.
Override ethics of confidentiality when the safety of student or others is in
question

  10.
Report academic dishonesty

Chapter 4: Beyond the Classroom

a)  Relations
with Students: What’s Not Obligatory

  1. No
obligations to interact with students on a personal level

  2. A
general obligation to support institutional activities

  3. No
general obligation for personal counseling or advice to students

  4.
Obligation to refer students with personal issues to appropriate university
counseling

  5. No obligation
for professors to interact with students be young the classroom

• 

b)  Relations
with Students: What’s Not Permitted

  1. Must
not cause needless harm

  2. Must
not break promises without sufficient justification

  3. Must
not violate moral rights

  4. Must
not forsake any relationship that distracts from our ability to honor our

    obligations as their professor

  5. Must
renounce any relationships that result in a misuse or abuse of our power to

    serve for any purpose other than
educational

  6. Must
not become friends with students

    a. Give all students equal consideration,
advising, and evaluation

    b. Do not show favoritism, sympathy or
influence based on friendship

    c. Do not violate the obligation of equal
consideration based on acts of

    friendship

  7.
Refrain from any conduct that lessens the credibility and worth of our
evaluations

  8. Must
not misuse and abuse power to engage students in extracurricular activity

  9. Must
not become romantically involved with students

  10.
Must maintain professional distance

c)  Scholarship
in Support of Teaching

  1.
Obligation to know areas that are taught

  2.
Obligation to make informed choices about what to teach

  3.
Interweave teaching and scholarship

  4.
Maintain relativity of research and teaching

  5.
Engage in scholarship that informs choices of what to teach

  6.
Engage in scholarship that informs choices of how to teach

  7.
Study journals devoted to different and the latest teaching strategies

  8.
Study journals that evidence the most current studies

  9.
Serve as a scholarly role model for students 

d)  Publishing

  1. Duty
to present the results of scholarship for professional review through

    publication and presentations

  2. Need
to test our own theories as creditable views

  3. Need
to submit our theories for publication and professional presentation.

Comparison List

Chapter 1: To Be a Professor

a)  Basic
Roles

• Guiding students to this goal entails mapping out the best
way to proceed, directing their attention to the most important details,
helping them develop the skills necessary to progress, and assisting those who
need help. 

b)  Agents,
Cooperation, Power and Autonomy

•  Our
relationship to our students is intended to be such that they are active
learners and we are their guide.

•  Our
relationship with our colleagues is intended to be such that each of our
courses is part of the general educational effort by our department, college,
and university.

c)  An
Ethical Dimension

• We have ethical obligations to our students, our
colleagues, our university, and in general to all those who join us in the
activity of higher education.

Chapter 2: What to Teach

a)  The
Audience’s Knowledge and Abilities

• Our obligation to fit the subject matter to the students’
knowledge and abilities derives from the university’s commitment to
intellectual advancement and knowledge. 

b)  The
Purpose of the Course

• Universities establish degree programs and offer courses
within them on the general premise that each program, and each course within
it, is designed to lead students to knowledge in a particular area. 

c)  Truth
Excellence and Knowledge

• Our obligation is to guide students to knowledge of what
is true and excellent. 

d)  Values

•  If we
select the material for a course with the teaching of certain values as one of
our central aims, then this aim should be part of the course description.

Chapter 3: How to Teach

a)  Preparation

• Providing the necessary structure and content entails
preparing the course and each class in it. 

b)  Accurate
Representation

• We must also represent the material accurately to teach
such intellectual values as a commitment to truth and objectivity. 

c)  Promoting
Intellectual Inquiry

• We are obligated to promote intellectual inquiry, to aid
those students who attempt it, and to make success in it a necessary condition
of success in our course. 

d)  Offensive
Content

• Our one obligation concerning offensive conduct per se is
to guide students beyond any feelings of offense to an honest, objective
appreciation of whatever they find offensive. 

e)  Neutrality

• Here again, our job is to help students see that a
reliance on authority is incorrect, not to avoid any behavior that might
encourage them to fall into it. 

f)  Examinations
and Grades

• To guide students, then, we must obtain and share with
them regular information on their progress, and this requires an effective
system of evaluating their work throughout the course.

g)  Confidentiality

•  When we
elicit information on students’ academic abilities to better teach and advise
them, the information falls within the professor-student relationship and its
confidentiality is protected by the requirements of that relationship.

Chapter 4: Beyond the Classroom

a)  Relations
with Students: What’s Not Obligatory

• There is, then, no general obligation for professors to
interact with students beyond their courses – f o r example, by advising
student organizations and attending their social functions-even though
professors who do so often strengthen the university’s educational environment. 

b)  Relations
with Students: What’s Not Permitted

• We must not cause needless harm, we must not break
promises without sufficient justification, and we must not violate any moral
rights. 

c)  Scholarship
in Support of Teaching

•A professor has an obligation to engage in research and
scholarship because these are integral to conscientious teaching. 

d)  Publishing

• The bottom line is that we need to test theories of our
own that we would teach as creditable views and submitting them for publication
and professional presentation is generally our best available option.