FAQ
Coaching is a relatively new field. For some time, executives have had coaches to help them optimize their performance in the workplace. Academics, on the other hand, have had to rely on themselves, mentors, or peers. Unfortunately, though, academia can be a lonely place. It is sometimes difficult to find someone who is available, knowledgeable, unbiased, experienced and even intelligent enough to help the academic with current ventures and future goals. This is where coaching comes in. Coaches work over the phone, allowing maximum flexibility for scheduling, and access to coaching from anywhere in the world. Here are some of the benefits of working with a coach. There are many other benefits of working with a coach. Many “All But Dissertation” graduate students have benefited from coaching by finishing their theses sooner than they thought they could. Recently, even graduate students earlier in their career have sought coaching so that they could be better prepared for comprehensive exams and writing their dissertation. Tenure coaching is an even newer concept, although it is a sorely needed service. Most new professors are isolated and overwhelmed, having barely recovered from the grueling process of finiahing and defending their dissertation and job hunting. Coaching can help them get off to a good start in their quest for tenure. Unless you have some open and trusting colleagues, you may not be aware of how hard it is for other new faculty. It’s important that you know how difficult the first few years are, so you don’t wonder what’s wrong with you (that’s all you need — more reasons to beat yourself up!) Here are some reasons that it is so hard to be a junior professor. I’m sure you know them, but if might feel good to have them spelled out for you! Of course, there is much more, and individual situations vary enormously. Be sure to read my newsletters and articles on this subject. As always, I am open to any suggestions, so email me at Gina@AcademicLadder.com if you have any comments or additions to my list. And congratulations on your job! This is an important topic, and one that I have addressed in many of my newsletter articles. Many new professors spend too much time in preparation, and don’t necessarily produce the best lessons. Here are some very quick pointers to make things easier on yourself. This is just a starter, since volumes have been written on this topic. I see my role as being aware of the literature and giving you tips in a palatable, manageable format that can lead to action steps. • Allow more time in your classes, even your lectures, for interactions with the students. Get them to answer questions, role play, debate, etc. This bunch of tips just scratches the surface of changes you can make in your teaching techniques. Read my newsletter and get hints that you can use to help you do a better job with more ease. Academic Ladder is for graduate students, professors, and post docs. This includes ABD graduate students, as well as new graduate students wishing to avoid the many pitfalls that grad school can provide. It includes professors who would like tenure and those considering retirement. It includes those struggling with their career or those who are looking for a fresh outlook to keep up their productive, creative abilities. Anyone studying or working in a non-staff academic setting in higher education will benefit from visiting this site and signing up for my newsletter. Here’s a quick overview of the highlights of this website… Academia can be a cold and lonely place. Or to be less dramatic, it can be difficult at times. This site provides access to information, reminders, discussions, assessments, forums and other forms of entertainment/education. In order for this site to work best for you, I suggest that you sign up for my newsletter, in the upper left hand box on each of the web pages. Check out my blog, and please write in your comments. I believe that interacting with others is the number one way to increase your productivity. Isolation can be a creativity killer. Take the self assessments. Many people take them periodically to monitor their progress. Write me directly at Gina@AcademicLadder.com to let me know what you would like to see on this site, or to offer congratulations or criticism (gentle preferred.) Probably every ABD grad student asks him or herself this question… The answer to this question can be found throughout this website, and is frequently addressed in my newsletter (signup in upper left corner of this page.) I get many letters telling me how helpful the newsletter can be. ABD’s in the humanities seem to suffer the most. They don’t have a lab to go to on a daily basis, and usually don’t see their dissertation advisor as often as do those in the sciences. Lack of structure is a huge part of the difficulty of being ABD. Your success up to this point came from responding to specific requests (e.g. “Write a 20 page paper on…”) These requests always had deadlines, and the price that you would pay for not getting that paper in was clear. You could pull an all nighter if needed to get it done. What worked before doesn’t work anymore. You can’t pull all nighters over and over. The deadlines are rarely firm and are often self imposed. There seems to be no limit to the amount of literature review. You need to make an original contribution yet just recently you were a humble student. The rules aren’t clear, and your advisor doesn’t want to see your chapter until it’s almost done. Your initial excitement, if you had it, has worn off. Things can seem lonely and dismal. ABD’s who are no longer on campus suffer the most. Without the contact with peers and advisor, it’s easy to let the dissertation slide, to feel dispirited, and to imagine that everyone is doing better than you. Add a difficult advisor to the mix and you have a recipe for disaster. When you are feeling that tentative, harsh criticism, lack of assistance, or being ignored can really hurt. This stifles creativity and productivity, and self esteem plummets. Elsewhere on thie site, I have written extensively on the experience of being ABD, and I ALWAYS offer concrete solutions that you can use to help youself if any of these negative situations apply to you So, welcome to this site! Take advantage of all it has to offer, and stay tuned for constant updates. This question addresses the kind of dissertation groups that are held in one’s department, and not the dissertation coaching groups that I run as a dissertation coach. Here are some of the reasons that a dissertation group helps. So go out there and join a group. If there isn’t already a group in your department, see my FAQ “How Do I Start My Own Dissertation Group?” Coaching is a relatively new field. For some time, executives have had coaches to help them optimize their performance in the workplace. Academics, on the other hand, have had to rely on themselves, mentors, or peers. Unfortunately, though, academia can be a lonely place. It is sometimes difficult to find someone who is available, knowledgeable, unbiased, experienced and even intelligent enough to help the academic with current ventures and future goals. This is where coaching comes in. Coaches work over the phone, allowing maximum flexibility for scheduling, and access to coaching from anywhere in the world. Here are some of the benefits of working with a coach. There are many other benefits of working with a coach. Many “All But Dissertation” graduate students have benefited from coaching by finishing their theses sooner than they thought they could. Recently, even graduate students earlier in their career have sought coaching so that they could be better prepared for comprehensive exams and writing their dissertation. Tenure coaching is an even newer concept, although it is a sorely needed service. Most new professors are isolated and overwhelmed, having barely recovered from the grueling process of finiahing and defending their dissertation and job hunting. Coaching can help them get off to a good start in their quest for tenure. People are sometimes confused about the role of the coach. Unlike some of the services easily found on the Internet, which offer the services of writers and researchers who perform the actual work for you, coaching is completely ethical. It is not necessary for the coach to even know about your field of study. Coaches DO perform the following services: Coaches DON’T perform the following services: You may be wondering how you can get help in writing your dissertation,publishing, or finding career help. I hope that this summary will help you make a decision as to what kind of professional is right for you. If there isn’t already a dissertation group running in your department, or for some reason you can’t join one in existence, here are some ideas for starting a dissertation group of your own. If you continue to have difficulty getting a dissertation group off the ground, post to this forum. I don’t know of anyone who has done this, but it should be possible to have a “virtual group.” All of my coaching groups are done over the phone with a free “bridge line.” A phone dissertation group may help people who with to get feedback from widely dispersed peers. If you do that, please let me know how that goes! Many graduate students complain of loneliness, particularly once they have finished their classes and are officially All But Dissertation. There are many reasons for this: How do you deal with loneliness in graduate school? Here are some first ideas. This site is packed with other ideas on this subject, so make sure you look around. The answer to this question will depend on the nature of your difficulty. Here are some quick ideas. You will find many more answers in the articles and archived newsletters on this site. Consider opening up a discussion on the forum about this issue (see “Forums: Discuss it” in the left hand column of this page.) If anyone reading this thinks of more tips that I can add here, please let me know at Gina@AcademicLadder.com.
Faculty
• Allow pauses in your lecturing. Give your students a chance to catch up in their notes, to take in what you’re saying. When you ask if there are any questions, allow a longer pause than you are comfortable.
• Don’t overprepare for your classes. It’s ok for your students to know that you don’t know everything. They will actually respect you more for being real.
• Don’t read your notes. That is so boring. Remember hating that when you were an undergrad?
• Don’t try to cram every scrap of information into each class, going faster and fast as you see you’re running out of time. This just annoys students and makes it unlikely that they will take the information in.
• Don’t squeeze all the information you didn’t give them into the last few classes of the semester. Plan ahead and use the last few classes for clarifying and review, if possible. After all, your goal is for your students to learn and retain the information.
General
Grad School