《研究生經曆:安·e·奧斯汀訪談》

本文最初發表於CFT的通訊2002年春季號，教學論壇。

安·e·奧斯汀(Ann E. Austin)是密歇根州立大學高等、成人和終身教育(HALE)項目的副教授。Austin博士是2000- 2001年高等教育研究協會(ASHE)的主席，她此前曾在該協會擔任董事會(1985-1987年)，擔任會議項目主席(1992年)，以及多個委員會的主席和成員。她也是美國教育研究協會J部門(高等/高等教育)的現任項目主席，此前她曾在J部門執行董事會任職。她目前是《高等教育評論》、《卓越大學教學雜誌》和《範德比爾特大學出版社高等教育叢書》的編委會成員，《南非高等教育雜誌》的顧問委員會成員，以及《普通教育雜誌》和《教育管理季刊》的編委會成員。beplay登录网址手机端1989年，安·奧斯汀是ASHE“前途學者獎”(現在稱為“早期職業獎”)的第一位獲獎者。1998年，她被《變化》雜誌提名為“美國學院的40名青年領袖”之一。Austin博士是今年GradSTEP大會的全體發言人。她的演講涉及到大學和教職員工如何幫助他們的研究生更好地為職業生涯做準備，無論這些職業是在學術界還是在校外。此外，奧斯汀博士還為研究生們提供了寶貴的建議，幫助他們擁有成功的畢業經曆。以下是範德比爾特學習技術中心媒體與技術設計團隊主任蒂姆·奧特曼(Tim Altman)的采訪節選。

奧特曼:你能解釋一下影響你教學和研究方法的一些因素嗎?

奧斯丁一個重要的影響是，我的研究重點是教師的職業生涯。早期職業教師如何體驗他們的工作?他們遇到的挑戰是什麼?怎樣才能得到學校的支持，使他們取得好成績，讓學校和學生都覺得這是一個好局麵?所以我的很多研究實際上都集中在早期職業教師在教學中會遇到什麼樣的挑戰，以及他們如何學習如何教學?當我在做研究的時候，我經常學到一些我想應用到我自己職業生涯中的東西。事實上，正是對早期職業教師的研究最終讓我說，“如果我對早期職業教師如何學習如何教學以及做他們工作的其他部分感興趣，我認為我應該開始研究研究生教育中發生了什麼，社會化的時間將為早期職業教師做好準備。”我們在早期教師職業研究中經常發現的一個問題是，剛開始從事教師職業的人通常沒有太多的教師經驗。他們對教師的全部職責也沒有太多指導。在某些領域，他們可能做過助教，但即使是做過助教的人，也往往沒有得到任何關於如何成為助教或如何進行教學的係統指導。 So, many faculty spend the first couple of years in their first appointment trying to figure out how to do this job well. What often happens for early career faculty is that someone who wants to teach well but knows that they do not have a lot of experience teaching will spend more and more time on their teaching in an effort to prepare very well for class. This often diminishes the time they spend on their research. Therefore their progress toward tenure may become jeopardized. In addition, even as they’re spending more and more time on their teaching, the work is not really guided by any real understanding of how students learn. It is usually just an effort to put more and more content into a course rather than to think about the learning processes. Reflection on this led me a few years ago to decide that I should study what happens in graduate education to investigate how we are getting people ready for the professoriate.

奧特曼您研究生時期的經曆是如何塑造和指導您現在指導研究生的?

奧斯丁那件事對我影響很大。我在密歇根大學讀研究生，在高等教育研究中心。我曾與許多不同的教授合作過，但我與兩位教授的合作非常密切:時任教育學院院長的瓊·斯塔克(Joan Stark)和社會學家澤爾達·甘姆森(Zelda Gamson)。我對他們做了不少研究。他們有非常不同的風格和方法，這種多樣性對我很有好處。我對他們的欣賞之處在於，他們為學生提供了與他們合作的機會。他們想辦法讓我和其他研究生參與他們的研究。除此之外，斯塔克教授還讓我從事行政工作。這很合適，因為我正在學習高等教育。我試著為和我一起工作的學生提供類似的機會。 I try to consider whether there are papers I might want to write that students might help research and write. Another thing that each of these professors did was that they interacted with me in a personal as well as a professional way. I came to know them and their families well. They came to know me well. It was certainly a professor-student relationship, but it became a friendship, also. They were not afraid to incorporate the friendship into our work together. I think that has influenced a great deal the way I work with students. I decided that I needed to create relationships with students that are both collegial and friendly. So my own inclination in terms of working with my students is usually that we have very open, collaborative working relationships. We’re working on a research project, or on their dissertations or work they’re doing. I’ve learned also that it is important for the student and the faculty working together to think about their mutual expectations. What is it that a student might need from me? I have one student I am working with now who told me when we started working together that she needs an advisor who will reach out, not just let her go off on her own for a while. She needs an advisor to help her stay on track. That’s important to me, to have students feel free to say what they need. I have learned that I also need to say clearly what I expect. I have a husband and three children, so I have a life that includes a lot of responsibilities. I say to students with whom I work that they need to plan how they’re going to do their work. If they want me to read 30 pages, it’s not going to work if they give it to me at 5 o’clock one evening and expect to have it back by 8 o’clock the next morning. I need to integrate my work with them into other responsibilities that I have. So part of what I learned from my own professors is that working hard together, coming to know each other more personally, and being able to speak clearly about expectations coming from both directions is important.

奧特曼:所以研究生和導師之間的交流遠遠不止是交易，而是關係?

奧斯丁:絕對的。我認為90%是關係。現在，在某種程度上，這對我來說是特殊的-我幾乎不可能在工作中不與我的學生聯係-但我絕對認為這在師生關係中是至關重要的，特別是在導師和研究生的關係中。我們知道在博士教育中有大約50%的流失率。大約有一半進入博士教育的學生沒有完成學業。當我第一次知道的時候，我很震驚。我認為這是巨大的。這有很多原因，當然也有很好的原因，有些人開始讀研究生，然後決定這不是他們想要走的路。有人會認為有些人會決定不繼續下去。但我也從我所做的一些研究中了解到，經常有博士生進入研究生院，他們希望能夠培養一些人——不是所有人，但有些人——與教員之間所謂的師徒關係。 A relationship where they really are connecting, where there is some guidance for the student, where there’s a sharing of mutual scholarly interests. I’ve interviewed a number of students who say “this hasn’t happened for me and I’m losing my enthusiasm and my sense of my goals here.” So, I think it’s very important for advisors to realize that students are hoping for some kind of relationship that goes beyond just the transaction of saying “here’s my course list” or “here’s my paper” or “here’s the proposal.”

奧特曼問:為了為他們的職業生涯做準備，研究生應該做的兩到三件事是什麼?

奧斯丁例如他們應該做的一件事是與不止一個而是多個教員建立關係。我之前講過顧問扮演的一些重要角色。但我也相信，研究生本身需要對他們的教育非常積極主動。這不僅僅是出現和做工作的問題，即使一個人是非常優秀的研究員或非常優秀的助教。成功還需要更多的東西。我們在研究中了解到，在研究生院最成功的學生是那些積極主動的人。他們考慮的是他們想要的機會。他們對自己說，他們想在某一特定領域有一份學術之外的職業，或者他們想成為一名教授。他們會問自己什麼樣的經曆能幫助他們朝那個方向發展?因此，我認為研究生們需要做的一件事就是尋找其他教職員工，他們可以和他們談論他們的目標，他們可以和他們進行對話，他們可以說，“讓我談談作為研究生的我，讓我談談我的激情，讓我興奮的問題。 What does this mean for a career I might have, what does this mean for work I should do in graduate school?” Students need to get input from faculty members about what this means about the careers they can have and the work they can do in graduate school. So, one of the things I think graduate students should do is seek out those relationships, and actually say to some faculty members, “I really want to connect with you, talk with you regularly. Would that be possible?” Sometimes it evolves naturally, but it doesn’t always. Secondly, graduate students should be looking at the array of opportunities that a university offers. What I mean is in addition to the immediate opportunities of going to classes and having an advisor, or maybe working on a research team or being a teaching assistant, there are many other opportunities, such as lectures delivered by visiting scholars or by someone applying for a position. It takes a little bit of effort, and it’s something special that one has to add to one’s calendar. But those are critical. If students hear a lecture delivered by someone applying for a job, that gives them a sense of what’s going on in the academic labor market. That’s an example of taking advantage of opportunities. Graduate students also need to find out what career support is available on their campus. Many universities have offices that help students think through not only their disciplinary expertise, but also what one actually does in a logistical kind of way as one is thinking about one’s career. It takes additional effort to say “I’m not just going to work on my immediate day-to-day responsibilities. Instead, I’m going to think of this university and the scholarly opportunities it offers in the broadest way.” I think that’s really important. Another important step that graduate students can take is to think about how they can organize what I call developmentally focused opportunities. What I mean by that is, if you’re on a research team you may learn certain parts of doing the research, but you may not have learned how to write a grant proposal, or how to seek foundation or government support. Or you might not be on that research team at the time that the team is engaged in dissemination of information. So a graduate student who is thinking carefully about how they might progress developmentally might say “here are the experiences I’m having on this research team, but let me talk to my professor about other aspects of work involved in research.” Then that student, with the guidance of that professor, might consciously seek out other opportunities that they could have. So, if you hadn’t been involved in writing a proposal you might say “that’s not part of my assistantship, but I’m not going to be confined to my assistantship. I’m going to go volunteer my time somewhere else.” That’s what I mean by a student thinking through all the parts of career preparation. Advisors have to help with that, but I think students can be very proactive about that.

奧特曼你認為助教對研究生的職業生涯有多重要?

奧斯丁我認為如果一個研究生有誌成為學院或大學教授，成為助教是非常重要的。其實我很喜歡當助教，但我的專業不允許，因為沒有本科課程可以教。但我肯定地認為，如果一個碩士或博士生所從事的領域有教書的機會，那麼抓住這些機會是非常有幫助的。如果你想成為一名教員，這是非常重要的。即使你最終不打算教書——例如，如果你打算在高等教育的領導和管理方麵工作——教學也是非常重要的，因為它是大學或學院的核心內容之一。理解教學是非常有幫助的，所以我肯定會鼓勵研究生去做，如果他們可以的話。我在研究中發現的一個問題是，在某些領域，尤其是科學領域，有很多研究生想要獲得教學機會，但他們的指導老師經常鼓勵他們不要走那條路，而是繼續從事研究。顧問可能會說，“繼續做研究;不要花時間去教學。”原因之一通常是該學生是研究團隊的一員，團隊需要研究生的貢獻。 Also, especially in the sciences, their future success often depends on what kind of researchers they are. I’ve often talked with graduate students who are not being encouraged by their faculty to teach, but the student wants that opportunity. My thought is that if a doctoral student or master’s student really wants that opportunity, even though they might be heavily involved in research, then I would like to see the university find ways to give the student that opportunity. In the long run providing those opportunities to teach will be very helpful to higher education because there is such national interest inside and outside academe in the quality of undergraduate education. So, if we in the university who are preparing graduate students don’t think about how we can actively prepare them to teach, then I think in a way we are not addressing the strong national interest in the quality of teaching and learning that happens in our universities.

奧特曼關於提高研究生教育，你對大學有什麼建議?

奧斯丁我想到了幾件事。首先，在碩士和博士項目中，教師和學生應該共同努力，為他們的職業生涯準備我所說的係統性機會。這將涉及到教師和學生一起探索各種可用的職業。一個博士生可能不僅在考慮在學術界的職業生涯;人們在實驗室、工業和商業工作有很多機會，特別是在科學領域。學生和教師應該共同努力，探索研究生教育所需的職業選擇和各種準備。這將是一個強有力的建議。我相信，我們的研究生課程通常是圍繞著研究活動組織起來的，這些活動是非常重要的。我是研究的倡導者，自己也做了很多研究——但我確實認為我們的研究生需要了解許多職業選擇，然後在研究生院有機會為不同的職業選擇做準備。

我要提出的第二個建議來自我的研究。我和同事在研究生教育方麵所做的研究中發現的一個問題是，研究生往往得不到關於他們的進步的頻繁而明確的反饋。如果他們參加了課程，他們當然會得到成績。但在很多情況下，他們並沒有與指導老師進行定期對話，指導老師會坐下來跟他們說:“讓我們探討一下你的目標是什麼，你想在哪裏發展職業，你在這裏有什麼機會——研究、課程、教學等等——讓我們評估一下你做得怎麼樣。”這些對話通常需要相當坦率。作為一名研究生教授，我一直試圖在自己的實踐中給出更明確的反饋。我發現有時這很難。有時很難對某人說:“在你的研究技能、作為老師的能力或寫作方麵，你真的沒有取得應有的進步。”我最近和一個學生聊天，他說他有興趣成為一名教師，但他沒有做他需要做的事情，比如寫文章、發表文章或在會議上發言。我需要對他說，“你的目標和你的行動不匹配。”

我的第二個建議是，我認為作為研究生教師，我們需要致力於為學生提供更密集和更集中的反饋機會。說起來容易做起來難。我認為另一個需要注意的領域——這也是院長、研究生院院長和研究生院可以發揮作用的領域——是幫助學生發展與其他學科和領域的人直接溝通和工作的能力。也就是說，對跨學科工作的欣賞，以及如何去做。盡管有一些例外，研究生教育通常是建立在你的專業領域的高度專業化的基礎上的。它的大部分內容都不是跨學科的。重點放在專業上有很多原因，但我認為，當大學考慮如何讓他們的研究生為未來的角色做好準備時，無論是在學院內還是在學院外，我們需要考慮如何為我們的研究生提供機會，將他們的專業知識應用到他們當前學科以外的問題上。我認為在我們的社會、我們的國家和世界上的問題，博士們被要求解決的問題往往是跨學科的問題，我相信大學需要思考如何幫助研究生學習如何在跨學科的環境中工作，如何在專業之外的項目和問題上工作。其中包括:提供更密集的建議，更多地關注為人們的職業發展做好準備，更多地關注幫助研究生看到他們的學科在更廣泛的問題和更廣泛的學科中的地位。