{"id":311,"date":"2023-01-23T09:18:14","date_gmt":"2023-01-23T17:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/teaching-in-dornsife\/?page_id=311"},"modified":"2023-02-06T15:10:49","modified_gmt":"2023-02-06T23:10:49","slug":"blog-post-77","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/teaching-in-dornsife\/faculty-blog\/blog-post-77\/","title":{"rendered":"Professionalism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Helping students enter the working world<\/h5>\n

By Ben Pack<\/strong> – April 20, 2021<\/p>\n

In the past year so much has changed that I\u2019ve often been tempted to focus solely on surviving \u2013 getting through another week\u2019s lessons, making sure the grading is done in some sort of reasonable time-frame, supporting and caring for the loved ones in my life. But as we head towards lower Covid numbers (as of this writing in California, and fingers crossed for other places soon too) we\u2019re going to be heading back out into a world that undoubtedly will look different from the one we left in early 2020. To me this has begun to raise questions about how to prepare students for what we used to call \u201cthe real world,\u201d meaning life after college. It\u2019s not going to look the same as it did when we entered the workforce as instructors, and a whole set of assumptions \u2013 from the skills that are needed to the kinds of clothes you wear to work (or on Zoom) might need to change.<\/p>\n

As much as I\u2019d like to believe in learning for the sake of learning, students get college degrees because they hope it will lead to a career they want. They are eager for knowledge about how what we teach in a class will apply to the real world \u2013 whether that\u2019s calculus, history or writing. As we head towards graduation for this year\u2019s seniors and the summer where many students will look for internships and early job opportunities, I want to reflect on how we might adjust pedagogy to reflect what the \u201creal world\u201d looks like now.<\/p>\n

Creating professional connections in the classroom<\/h4>\n

I (and others) have written about the value of guest speakers in online classrooms before, but it\u2019s worth bringing up again because these experts (especially outside of academia) have been on the frontlines of what the working world looks like. By bringing in speakers, students can learn not just about a class topic from another perspective, but how people in their chosen career paths have adapted and the new expectations they will run into and the skills they will need to acquire. See the posts on online speakers here<\/a> and here<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n

Make classroom practices reflect the world we want to work in, not the work-hell we fear<\/h4>\n

As a student, I can\u2019t tell you how many times a teacher told me that \u201cin the real world, you can never turn something in late.\u201d I\u2019m sure this is true in many places, it just wasn\u2019t very true in my experience. What\u2019s been more accurate is that in the real world you can\u2019t hide from deadlines and ghost when you mess up, but you can be honest and ask for help when you need it. For example, when my grandmother died in the first month of my first job out of undergrad, I was terrified that my boss would shut me down if I asked for time off. I\u2019d absorbed the mentality that I was in a cut-throat business and that I wouldn\u2019t be forgiven for skipping work and the associated deadlines, even for a funeral. I debated flying back east in secret for 24 hours, before finally bucking up the courage to explain the situation to my boss. Guess what? He was more than understanding. And of course he was \u2013 he was someone who was worth working for.<\/p>\n

The pandemic has taught us that anyone can get sick or lose a loved one, and that compassion is necessary for surviving together. But the students who thrive in my class have learned to practice self-advocacy and seek help. As a professor, I can assist them in building those skills, not by punishing them for a failure to comply, but through compassion and encouraging them to speak up. When we encourage students to share what\u2019s happening, we can better help them succeed in a variety of situations. College isn\u2019t the only time they will face challenges of work-life balance.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure someone will counter that students need to develop tough skins and knuckle under. But when students tell me stories about teachers who enforce arbitrary rules in the name of preparing students for the \u201creal world\u201d I\u2019m skeptical. What \u201creal world\u201d is this? According to whom? And even if it is true, fear of retribution isn\u2019t a skill I want to teach, especially when I can foster independence and self-advocacy instead.<\/p>\n

Let students know you support them beyond the classroom<\/h4>\n

In the final weeks of the semester, I begin to reinforce for all my students that although we\u2019re heading into the end of our class, we\u2019re still just beginning our professional relationships together, and that they\u2019re always welcome to come see me in the future, or ask for help. And while I don\u2019t tell this to every student, I am trying to make a stronger effort to tell my best students that if they need letters of recommendation in the future, I\u2019m there to support them. I\u2019m doing this because I remember how stressful it was asking for recommendations from professors, especially after I\u2019d been out of their classes for a couple semesters. It felt like I was adding more work onto someone else\u2019s\u00a0 plate. Except in the case of being a full-time professor, it\u2019s part of my service to the university, and a way to help my students succeed beyond my classroom. I\u2019m hopeful that making my support explicit will mean one less barrier when these students take their next steps into the professional world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":260,"featured_media":0,"parent":220,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-311","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nProfessionalism - Teaching at Dornsife<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/teaching-in-dornsife\/faculty-blog\/blog-post-77\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Professionalism - Teaching at Dornsife\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/teaching-in-dornsife\/faculty-blog\/blog-post-77\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Teaching at Dornsife\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-06T23:10:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/teaching-in-dornsife\/faculty-blog\/blog-post-77\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/teaching-in-dornsife\/faculty-blog\/blog-post-77\/\",\"name\":\"Professionalism - 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