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Career profile Education Professor

Also known as Adjunct Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Education Instructor, Education Professor, Faculty Member, Instructor, Lecturer, Professor, Special Education Professor

Education Professor

Also known as Adjunct Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor

Interests Profile
  • Social
  • Artistic
  • Investigative
Pay Range
$30,380 - $130,110 (annual)
Required Skills
  • Speaking
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Active Listening
Knowledge Areas
  • Education and Training
  • Psychology
  • Sociology and Anthropology
Core tasks
  • Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, or handouts.
  • Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in scholarly journals, books, or electronic media.
  • Compile, administer, and grade examinations or assign this work to others.
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What does an Education Professor do?

Education Professors teach courses pertaining to education, such as counseling, curriculum, guidance, instruction, teacher education, and teaching English as a second language.

In addition, Education Professors includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.

What kind of tasks does an Education Professor perform regularly?

Education Professors are often responsible for overseeing or executing some or all of the following tasks:

  • Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, or handouts.
  • Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in scholarly journals, books, or electronic media.
  • Compile, administer, and grade examinations or assign this work to others.
  • Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, giving presentations at conferences, and serving on committees in professional associations.
  • Supervise students' fieldwork, internship, and research work.
  • Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, papers, and oral presentations.
  • Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as anatomy, therapeutic recreation, and conditioning theory.
  • Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
  • Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues.
  • Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
  • Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students.
  • Advise students on academic and vocational curricula, and on career issues.
  • Participate in student recruitment, registration, and placement activities.
  • Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
  • Perform administrative duties, such as serving as department heads.
  • Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks and performance pieces.
  • Serve on academic or administrative committees that deal with institutional policies, departmental matters, and academic issues.
  • Write grant proposals to procure external research funding and review others' grant proposals.

The above responsibilities are specific to Education Professors. More generally, Education Professors are involved in several broader types of activities:

Training and Teaching Others
Identifying the educational needs of others, developing formal educational or training programs or classes, and teaching or instructing others.
Getting Information
Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work
Developing specific goals and plans to prioritize, organize, and accomplish your work.
Judging the Qualities of Objects, Services, or People
Assessing the value, importance, or quality of things or people.
Making Decisions and Solving Problems
Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.

What is an Education Professor salary?

The median salary for an Education Professor is $65,440, and the average salary is $75,010. Both the median and average roughly describe the middle of the Education Professor salary range, but the average is more easily affected by extremely high or low salaries.

Many Education Professors earn significantly more or less than the average, due to several factors. About 10% of Education Professors earn less than $30,380 per year, 25% earn less than $47,080, 75% earn less than $92,010, and 90% earn less than $130,110.

Between the years of 2020 and 2030, the number of Education Professors is expected to change by 8.3%, and there should be roughly 7,200 open positions for Education Professors every year.

Median annual salary
$65,440
Typical salary range
$30,380 - $130,110
Projected growth (2020 - 2030)
8.3%

What personality traits are common among Education Professors?

Interests

Career interests describe a person's preferences for different types of working environments and activities. When a person's interest match the demands of an occupation, people are usually more engaged and satisfied in that role.

Compared to most occupations, those who work as an Education Professor are usually higher in their Social, Artistic, and Investigative interests.

Education Professors typically have very strong Social interests. Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Also, Education Professors typically have moderate Artistic interests. Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.

Lastly, Education Professors typically have moderate Investigative interests. Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

Values

People differ in their values, or what is most important to them for building job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Compared to most people, those working as an Education Professor tend to value Relationships, Independence, and Achievement.

Most importantly, Education Professors very strongly value Relationships. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment.

Second, Education Professors very strongly value Independence. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to work on their own and make decisions.

Lastly, Education Professors strongly value Achievement. Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment.

Psychological Demands

Each occupation brings its own set of psychological demands, which describe the characteristics necessary to perform the job well.

In order to perform their job successfully, people who work as Education Professors must consistently demonstrate qualities such as analytical thinking, achievement/effort, and initiative.

Below, you'll find a list of qualities typically required of Education Professors, ranked by importance:

Analytical Thinking
Job requires analyzing information and using logic to address work-related issues and problems.
Achievement/Effort
Job requires establishing and maintaining personally challenging achievement goals and exerting effort toward mastering tasks.
Initiative
Job requires a willingness to take on responsibilities and challenges.
Integrity
Job requires being honest and ethical.
Dependability
Job requires being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations.

What education and training do Education Professors need?

Many Education Professors have earned a graduate degree. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a doctoral degree, such as a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D..

Education Professors may need some on-the-job training, but most candidates will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Educational degrees among Education Professors

  • 0.6% did not complete high school or secondary school
  • 1.4% completed high school or secondary school
  • 2.0% completed some college coursework
  • 1.8% earned a Associate's degree
  • 14.6% earned a Bachelor's degree
  • 32.1% earned a Master's degree
  • 47.4% earned a doctorate or professional degree

Knowledge and expertise required by Education Professors

Education Professors may benefit from understanding of specialized subject areas, such as education and training, psychology, or sociology and anthropology knowledge.

The list below shows several areas in which most Education Professors might want to build proficiency, ranked by importance.

Education and Training
Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
Psychology
Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Sociology and Anthropology
Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
Administration and Management
Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Communications and Media
Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.

Important Abilities needed by Education Professors

Education Professors must develop a particular set of abilities to perform their job well. Abilities are individual capacities that influence a person's information processing, sensory perception, motor coordination, and physical strength or endurance. Individuals may naturally have certain abilities without explicit training, but most abilities can be sharpened somewhat through practice.

For example, Education Professors need abilities such as oral expression, speech clarity, and oral comprehension in order to perform their job at a high level. The list below shows several important abilities for Education Professors, ranked by their relative importance.

Oral Expression
The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Speech Clarity
The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
Oral Comprehension
The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Written Comprehension
The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
Written Expression
The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.

Critical Skills needed by Education Professors

Skills are developed capacities that enable people to function effectively in real-world settings. Unlike abilities, skills are typically easier to build through practice and experience. Skills influence effectiveness in areas such as learning, working with others, design, troubleshooting, and more.

Education Professors frequently use skills like speaking, reading comprehension, and active listening to perform their job effectively. The list below shows several critical skills for Education Professors, ranked by their relative importance.

Speaking
Talking to others to convey information effectively.
Reading Comprehension
Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
Active Listening
Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
Learning Strategies
Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
Instructing
Teaching others how to do something.

What is the source of this information?

The information provided on this page is adapted from data and descriptions published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration under the CC BY 4.0 license. TraitLab has modified some information for ease of use and reading, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment, and Training Administration has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

If you have any questions or suggestions about this information, please send a message.