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How many hours teaching could one take on who was doing a PhD?

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  • 09-02-2009 11:55pm
    #1
    shmux
    Closed Accounts Posts: 71 ✭✭


    These questions usually invite a lot of bleeding heart/martyr/hero types. Please refrain from boasting/complaining about how diligent you were and the 100+ hours you clocked up a week. I teach in 3 hour classes. Would one manage teaching two of these classes a week ALONG with the phd studies
    Thanks


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    #2
    Warmaster
    Registered Users Posts: 134 ✭✭Warmaster


    Are these three hour classes lectures or tutorials? The reason I ask is because of preparation time, a lecture would take a lot more preparation than a tutorial. I would say be safe and stick with the 3 hour classes but that's because I'm very wary of the workload you may have and wouldn't want too much extra strain.

    What's the PhD in?


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    #3
    petethebrick
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,031 ✭✭✭petethebrick


    I think you could easily manage with two three hour classes or even more. You can make your PhD study fit in with it. Depends on the person though I suppose - do what you think you'll be able to manage yourself


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    #4
    Warmaster
    Registered Users Posts: 134 ✭✭Warmaster


    petethebrick wrote: »
    do what you think you'll be able to manage yourself


    That's probably the best advice


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    #5
    Ostrom
    Registered Users Posts: 3,483 ✭✭✭Ostrom


    shmux wrote: »
    These questions usually invite a lot of bleeding heart/martyr/hero types. Please refrain from boasting/complaining about how diligent you were and the 100+ hours you clocked up a week. I teach in 3 hour classes. Would one manage teaching two of these classes a week ALONG with the phd studies
    Thanks

    I do around that and it suits me fine. I have some control over the content, so the material I use helps my own work also, going over old ground.

    It depends on your level of knowledge, some classes need much more preparation than others. If its an introductory course, three hours is do-able (including admin). Are they tutorials or lectures? The former are much less labour intensive.


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    #6
    dK1NG
    Closed Accounts Posts: 661 ✭✭✭dK1NG


    Warmaster wrote: »
    That's probably the best advice

    +1



    I'm almost at the end of my phd, and have cut out teaching for this semester tbh. I found it took up too much time.


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    #7
    dml
    Closed Accounts Posts: 21 ✭dml


    It would really depend on: (a) the distribution of those hours....3 hours teaching in one morning is much easier and less disruptive to your overall PhD workflow than 1 hour/morning three mornings in a row and (b) the 'peripheral' tasks...e.g. would it involve just the contact hour, or is there preparation, correcting of assignments/lab books/assessments/exams, admin (are you expected to be involved in the updating of that module - writing of the syllabus when the course comes up for review), liasion with other staff teaching the same course, attendance at exam boards involved? If so, then you could quite easily find that - on average - 1 hour becomes 4-5 hours, if not more (it can take me up to 15 hours to prepare a 1 hour lecture on a new subject area that I might be familiar with, but have not yet taught - and that is with 13 years tertiary teaching experience behind me). So, it is not as simple as the number of hours on paper. If you can at all manage it, try to get your teaching hours concentrated into one morning/afternoon, so that you can devote the rest of the week to your studies, and evenings to preparation. My situation is possibly quite different in that I did a PhD part-time while working full-time as a lecturer. I am delighted to have it behind me, as the juggling act between teaching and research/writing up is not an easy one - you get days when you just think your brain can't think anymore - particularly during writing up. I also know that - although on paper you may x number of contact hours - in reality once the other related aspects of the job are factored in, that the hours that you spend in front of a class/in a lab only constitute about 15-20% of the job overall - the 'peripheral' issues need to be taken into account too when looking at time committments for teaching, as these make up the rest of the teaching responsibility in relation to those hours.


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