Example Career: Education Teachers, Postsecondary

Career Description

Teach courses pertaining to education, such as counseling, curriculum, guidance, instruction, teacher education and teaching English as a second language. Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.

What Job Titles Education Teachers, Postsecondary Might Have

• Assistant Professor
• Associate Professor
• Education Professor
• Professor

What Education Teachers, Postsecondary Do

• Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
• Supervise students' fieldwork, internship, and research work.
• Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.
• Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as children's literature, learning and development, and reading instruction.
• Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.
• Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
• Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in professional journals, books, or electronic media.
• Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues.
• Advise students on academic and vocational curricula and on career issues.
• Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
• Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
• Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.
• Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students.
• Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks.
• Write grant proposals to procure external research funding.
• Participate in student recruitment, registration, and placement activities.
• Serve on academic or administrative committees that deal with institutional policies, departmental matters, and academic issues.
• Advise and instruct teachers employed in school systems by providing activities, such as in-service seminars.
• Compile bibliographies of specialized materials for outside reading assignments.
• Perform administrative duties, such as serving as department head.
• Serve as a liaison between the university and other governmental and educational agencies.
• Provide professional consulting services to government or industry.

What Education Teachers, Postsecondary Should Be Good At

• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).

What Education Teachers, Postsecondary Need to Learn

• Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Sociology and Anthropology - Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures and their history and origins.
• Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
• Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.