Career profile Geography Professor

Table of Contents

• What does a Geography Professor do?
• What is a typical salary for a Geography Professor?
• What personality traits are common among Geography Professors?
  • Career Interests
  • Values
  • Psychological Demands
• What education and training do Geography Professors need?
  • Typical educational degrees
  • Required knowledge and expertise
  • Important abilities
  • Critical skills

What does a Geography Professor do?

Geography Professors teach courses in geography.

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

What kind of tasks does a Geography Professor perform regularly?

Geography 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.
• Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as anatomy, therapeutic recreation, and conditioning theory.
• Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in scholarly journals, books, or electronic media.
• Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, papers, and oral presentations.
• 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.
• Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
• Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
• Supervise undergraduate or graduate teaching, internship, and research work.
• Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
• Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students.
• Supervise students' laboratory and field work.
• Serve on academic or administrative committees that deal with institutional policies, departmental matters, and academic issues.
• Advise students on academic and vocational curricula, and on career issues.
• Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues.
• Perform spatial analysis and modeling using geographic information system techniques.
• Write grant proposals to procure external research funding and review others' grant proposals.
• Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks and performance pieces.
• Participate in student recruitment, registration, and placement activities.

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

What is a Geography Professor salary?

What personality traits are common among Geography 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 a Geography Professor are usually higher in their Social, Investigative, and Artistic interests.

Geography 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, Geography Professors typically have very strong 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.

Lastly, Geography 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.

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 a Geography Professor tend to value Independence, Achievement, and Recognition.

Most importantly, Geography Professors strongly value Independence. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to work on their own and make decisions.

Second, Geography 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.

Lastly, Geography Professors strongly value Recognition. Occupations that satisfy this work value offer advancement, potential for leadership, and are often considered prestigious.

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 Geography Professors must consistently demonstrate qualities such as integrity, independence, and dependability.

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

What education and training do Geography Professors need?

Many Geography 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..

Geography 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 Geography 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 Geography Professors

Important Abilities needed by Geography Professors

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

Critical Skills needed by Geography 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.

Geography Professors frequently use skills like writing, speaking, and instructing to perform their job effectively. The list below shows several critical skills for Geography Professors, ranked by their relative importance.

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.

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