Education is a career that thousands are choosing to pursue in life. While most college have an education program, most of them cater towards early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescent young adult, while people are left wondering about how to become a college professor. This paper outlines the opportunities that come along with a degree in postsecondary teaching for college freshmen and their parents. Postsecondary teaching is a rewarding profession for college freshmen because of the responsibilities, the benefits of educational growth, and the salary benefits.
There have been several credible sources used to produce this report. This includes current websites, published books and articles, and statistics from government sites. This paper covers the basic details about postsecondary teaching, such as what it is, what education is needed, and salary benefits. This paper, however, does not include job availability, job location, specific course requirements, costs to continue education, or college options for continued education. For more information, it will be located in the appendices.
Key Terms – Bachelor’s Degree – An individual that has completed at least three years in undergraduate school, depending on the course of study – Master’s Degree – Generally refers to someone who has completed at least one year of graduate school – Doctorate Degree – Generally refers to someone who has completed at least three years of graduate school WHAT IS POSTSECONDARY TEACHING? Postsecondary teaching is not talked a lot about in colleges, which leaves college freshmen and their parents wondering about this as a future profession.
Understanding what postsecondary teaching is can be a useful tool especially when freshmen are deciding what they should study. This section will include details about postsecondary teaching and the general responsibilities of the job. What Freshmen Need to Know As a freshman, there are several questions regarding college in general and what career path should be chosen. Postsecondary teaching allows for a teaching career and/or technical education teaching or becoming a college/university faculty, and can also be used for graduate teaching assistant.
As a postsecondary teacher, there will be a variety of academic subjects that will be taught to students who are past the high school (secondary) level. The classes are taken for self-improvement and/or working towards a degree and career. 1 Postsecondary teachers are also in charge of keeping track of grades, papers, and have available office hours for any questions. The profession offers meetings to discuss ideas and concerns that may arise. While the degree offers several benefits, it also involved a selfsatisfaction attitude.
College students may lack emotional stability, and this can play an important role in being a college professor. Nearly 30% or more drop out of college because of emotional difficulties. 5 Although postsecondary teachers need to be widely available for students, there is time to focus on much more, such as receiving a higher education and moving forward in the profession. What Parents Need to Know Parents of college freshmen may be concerned if their child choses to pursue a career in postsecondary teaching.
It may be a concern that there will be high levels of stress, burn-out, and even getting remotely bored at repeatedly teaching the same material. The level of stress greatly varies and will depend on the class size, students, and if there are a lot of assignments, it would also mean more work for the postsecondary teacher. It’s known that there is a lot of burn out in education, and while that is true in some cases, it can depend on the other faculty, the location, the amount of work, and the environment. A simple solution to most of these issues is to communicate it to someone who has authority if it starts to be too much.
If a postsecondary teacher becomes bored by teaching the same topic over and over again, there are ways that can make it different, such as: asking students different questions to see variety, adding or deleting information, etc. WHAT EDUCATION IS NEEDED? Education is a very important part to having a career. With continued education, this allows for better salary and a better position at the job. As a college freshman and parent, it can be confusing as to exactly what education for this profession is needed.
This section will include what is needed and also options with moving on to master’s and doctorate degrees. What Freshmen Need to Know Most freshmen can think of one topic they enjoy learning about or want to learn more about. To use an example, look at psychology. If psychology is something a student enjoys and wants to learn more about, however, nothing interests them as a profession with psychology, they can major in psychology and then move on to teach it. In order to teach, there needs to be a minimum of a bachelor’s degree and continue with schooling to receive a master’s degree.
Most colleges, especially community colleges, will accept those who only have a master’s degree. 2 Community colleges will have a more distinctive role in adult education. 6 Moving forward to private or public colleges, there may be a demand for someone who has a doctorate degree and will look past anyone who only has a master’s degree. In this case, it’ll be possible to teach at a community college while working towards a doctorate degree, that is if interested in wanting to move on to a private college at a later time.
What Parents Need to Know Since postsecondary education varies in several different subjects, it can give students and parents a wide variety in colleges (undergraduate or graduate) options and from there it can be decided on how far the student wants to go in continued education. Once the student graduates with a bachelor’s degree in their preferred subject, money is not lost since they can teach at a community college. In addition, once they decide to go on to receive higher education, they can focus on a more detailed subject if need be.
For those who have began teaching at a college or university, there is a broad choice in institutions. 6 This makes location easier and gives students more options WHAT IS THE SALARY? Salary is one of the most common questions when it comes to a profession and rightfully so. If salary is low, students and parents must decide if it is a good choice and know if there is potential for growth in the company. If salary is high, students and parents must know what level of education is required for that amount of salary.
What Freshmen Need to Know You will find that postsecondary teachers receive more money than a teacher in the public school system. One reason is that they must continue their education, which means more money for the higher the education. In 2014, the median pay for postsecondary teachers was $70,790 per year. 3 This includes those with a master’s degree and those that continued on to get their doctorate degree. Going back to the psychology degree, if it was your chosen profession and you wanted to move on to be able to teach psychology at a university, your work-life earnings would be near $2,366,000.
However, with a doctorate, you would have the potential of receiving up to $3,157,000. 4 With these statistics, you could make almost a million-dollar difference. What Parents Need to Know As a parent, there are certain concerns about paying off student loans and wondering how students will be able to make enough money. Teaching is known for not having a high salary, but generally that is referring to public education (teaching elementary, middle school, or high school) and does not refer to those who chose to teach postsecondary.
Like most professions, salary will vary on location and education. For postsecondary, there is a wide range depending on how high you want to go in education. CONCLUSION This paper has provided evidence that postsecondary teaching is an admirable career option for college freshman, which includes the definition of the field, the education possibilities, and the salary. Postsecondary teaching helps to build relationships with students and other faculty, while helping others reach their goals, all while teaching their preferred subject.
This profession is rewarding and is something for college freshmen and their parents to be proud of doing. With the continued education, students are able to have growth, both mentally and academically. Lastly, the salary poses a reliable source of income for college freshmen and parents who may have concerns for student loans and basic necessities of living. Postsecondary teaching can change lives and bring new opportunities to anyone’s life, which makes it an excellent profession for college freshmen to take, especially knowing their parents fully support their decision.
