Mummy, are you a teacher?

My 4 year old daughter asked me this recently.

Me: No darling, I'm not.
Aida: Tapi mummy kan ada students. Ye, Betul! Mummy memang teacher!
Me: Mmmm...I'm a lecturer. Students mummy semua dah besar2. Students teacher semua kecik2.

Mungkin agak bengap la jugak jawapan tersebut. Of course, there is nothing wrong with being a teacher, but I honestly feel that being a lecturer is totally different. Even though both have four legs and a tail, cats and dogs are just not the same.

Job scope of a lecturer:
1. Lecturing (on average 1.5 courses in a 14-weeks semester. This translates to roughly 4.5 hours of contact with students a week.)
2. Research (Apply for grants, conduct research, supervise postgraduate students, publish papers in journals)
3. Consultancy (Providing expert advice to industry for example)

So agak la berbeza di situ kan?

Tu belum lagi masuk bab Outcome-Based Education, what with all the Program Outcomes, Course Outcomes, Learning Outcomes, Bloom taxonomy, Cognitive/Affective/Psychomotor domains...

Tapi ada tak pensyarah yang tak buat research, yang mengajar je? Ada kot, especially pensyarah yang bukan berada di university penyelidikan ataupun Research University(RU). Di Malaysia ini, hanya 4 universiti sahaja bertaraf RU iaitu Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) terchenta where yours truly works, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) dan Universiti Malaya (UM).

But to be totally honest, even though teaching is the core business in universities, for the past few years most universities are really beginning to emphasize on research. Career advancements are most definitely based on research performance. Publications in impact factor journals tak cukup, jangan mimpi la nak naik pangkat!

I personally like to think of myself as a researcher. That is my passion. I love research and I love the field that I am specializing in ~ Nanotechnology. Mensyarah itu sampingan aja. Bukan bermakna tak meletak sepenuh jiwa dan raga untuk mengajar (kalau tak, tak dapat la anugerah Pengajar Cemerlang 2008 *wink*) Tak pe la, apa apa pun, asalkan buat kerja dengan betul dan ikhlas. Tapi yang pasti, even though I love research, I always come back from class with a smile on my face...