Letter: Letters: Teach the teachers

From BOB WARD

As a recent graduate I share Jim Baggott’s misgivings about a move towards
a two-tier (teaching versus research) system for Britain’s universities
(Forum, 4 April). However, one benefit of such a change would be a much
needed re-examination of teaching methods in higher education.

It seems that only then will there be widespread realisation within
the academic community that the ability to teach well is not, for most people,
an innate skill but instead is the product of good training.

Considering that they are such an essential part of undergraduate courses,
lectures are often presented in a remarkably poor manner, as any student
who has dozed through an hour of barely audible monotone in a stuffy lecture
theatre will testify.

It is surely an anomaly that university teachers, unlike their counterparts
in schools, are not required to attain some standard level of proficiency
before they are set loose on students.

At present, teaching is an undervalued skill in our universities and
until some formal training is introduced it will be our students, not teachers,
who suffer. Training should begin at postgraduate or postdoctoral level
and need not be restricted to those who intend only to teach. Oral presentations
are a vital, but often neglected, part of research as well, whether it is
a paper to fellow scientists at a conference or a proposal to potential
sponsors in a boardroom.

Bob Ward University of Manchester