My Professor Is Better Than Yours

[Archaeology cat]

i thought professors were only qualified if they had doctoral degrees, and people with only masters degrees were called teaching assistants.
Maybe Canada does it different

in England they're lecturers. "Professor" is a more honourary position - quite prestigious.

[ToJesusMyHeart]

England is so cool.

[Catherine Therese]

Similarly in Australia, Professor is a title for someone quite senior.

Lecturers are not all professors… even I could already be a lecturer now, strictly speaking, if I restricted myself to undergraduate theology*. Then we've got what we call 'tutors' who run smaller classes that provide more personalised assistance on the material covered in the lecture for that week. This is actually the more challenging form of teaching, really, but ironically I would be qualified to tutor up to masters level coursework even though that is the highest level I have thus far attained.

When I was in the States I went to a very small college where the idea of a lecture and the idea of a tutorial seemed to be fused together into a hybrid classroom model known generically as a class.

Is this how all colleges in the US do things, or is it just the smaller ones?

In Australia we generally have a model that most of the time looks like this:

2 or 3 lectures per week plus one tutorial or workshop per week. A lecturer (who may or may not be a professor) does the lectures and a tutor runs tutorials/workshops (or if you do a science, the lab classes).

*Although above I have noted that I am strictly speaking qualified enough to lecture in undergraduate theology, the reality is that in most cases there would be a MORE qualified candidate for such a role. Someone with a PhD would be given preference over my mere Masters, given that my PhD is only in its embryonic stages. So its still fair to say that most lecturers have PhDs, but its not a hard requirement for undergraduate classes.

[ToJesusMyHeart]

Similarly in Australia, Professor is a title for someone quite senior.

Lecturers are not all professors… even I could already be a lecturer now, strictly speaking, if I restricted myself to undergraduate theology*. Then we've got what we call 'tutors' who run smaller classes that provide more personalised assistance on the material covered in the lecture for that week. This is actually the more challenging form of teaching, really, but ironically I would be qualified to tutor up to masters level coursework even though that is the highest level I have thus far attained.

When I was in the States I went to a very small college where the idea of a lecture and the idea of a tutorial seemed to be fused together into a hybrid classroom model known generically as a class.

Is this how all colleges in the US do things, or is it just the smaller ones?

In Australia we generally have a model that most of the time looks like this:

2 or 3 lectures per week plus one tutorial or workshop per week. A lecturer (who may or may not be a professor) does the lectures and a tutor runs tutorials/workshops (or if you do a science, the lab classes).

*Although above I have noted that I am strictly speaking qualified enough to lecture in undergraduate theology, the reality is that in most cases there would be a MORE qualified candidate for such a role. Someone with a PhD would be given preference over my mere Masters, given that my PhD is only in its embryonic stages. So its still fair to say that most lecturers have PhDs, but its not a hard requirement for undergraduate classes.

 

At my school (TAMU), even undergraduates can be "tutors" (to use your terminology) or "teaching assistants," and "supplemental instructors," as we call them, as long as you got an A in the course you want to teach. For the past 5 semesters I've been a "supplemental instructor" for earth sciences and geology; I have my own classroom and I create my own lesson plans, and I hold class three times per week for an hour each. Professors are those with at least Masters, but generally most have doctorates. My Latin prof only has her Masters, but she is a far, far better teacher than some who had PhDs. I have fellow undergrad friends who are teaching assistants for language classes, even though they've only taken grammar classes themselves. They, however, don't create their own lesson plans. They teach pre-made lessons. 

[Anastasia13]

I had a professor Snape. Well, he was a lecturer, but he was named Snape and even gave a lecture entitled "Defense against the dark arts"

 

Statistics instructor?