Professor, Teacher, Instructor… Do You Know the Difference?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Teacher, professor, instructor, chair professor… we use these terms as if they were synonymous, but are they?

Professor, Teacher, Instructor… Do You Know the Difference?
Photograph: Istock/Jovanmandic.
Reading time 3 minutes
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Education is not a static and uniform discipline. It responds to specific needs; therefore, those who provide education do not always have the same work.

We usually treat words like “teacher,” “chair professor,” or “professor” as interchangeable terms. While it is true that their meanings are similar, not knowing how to differentiate them can hinder our understanding of the work of a provider of education and how we relate to the learning he or she provides us.

There are particularities of each leadership role in education that would be useful to understand to ensure that the learning experience will meet the specific needs of whoever is learning. For example, a professor would not be trained to maintain control in a classroom of children in primary education, just as a teacher would not have the necessary training in a particular discipline to teach a preparatory or professional school student. Below, we provide a brief glossary that will help you differentiate between the various profiles of people who transmit knowledge and those who receive it.

1. Teacher: the leader of primary education

A teacher is an instructor who is the first exposure to students in academic education, such as in preschool and elementary school. A teacher’s job is to introduce children (or adults) to primary tasks such as reading, writing, math, history, and others.

Part of the teacher’s work involves the accompaniment and training of very young students in their formative years. So, it is relevant that the education degree earned by these teachers has included courses in child psychology and child pedagogy.

2. Professor: training and follow-up

When primary education ends, the professor becomes responsible for the continuation of training at higher levels of education. A professor must have a professional career of study in the subject matter he or she teaches and preferably has had experience teaching. To be a professor, one can prepare by studying subsequently for a career in teaching and obtaining a master’s degree in education. In the bouquet of skills typical of a professor are found controlling the class, mastering pedagogy, dialogue, and in some cases, vocational guidance.

3. Chair professor or lecturer: specialist in their field

A Chair professor or lecturer is a professor in the university system who has researched a subject in the discipline that he or she dominates, and they are undoubtedly experts. Their knowledge serves to complement the learning of students at advanced levels, usually university and postgraduate.

The work of a lecturer is not only to teach a class but to disseminate knowledge. Their preparation is more related to the topic taught by them than to its discipline within education. However, it is necessary that their training has included techniques in education and communication to transmit their knowledge effectively.

4. Instructor: a practical provider

An instructor is not necessarily an education specialist but does dominate the execution of a specific methodology or function. They are trained not only with the knowledge related to the technique they teach but also in the skills necessary to convey it and attend their practice.

If we are talking about a discipline like Yoga, for example, an instructor should not only be able to show the right positions of an exercise but also distinguish whether students are doing it correctly and how to correct their postures if not.

5. Mentor: the flexible guide

A mentor is not necessarily a person who teaches subjects in a school. His work is not only to convey knowledge but to work with the full periphery of activities that strengthen learning. In addition to sharing technical knowledge, the mentor listens, advises, inspires, challenges, and supports the apprentice throughout his or her educational journey. Because of this flexibility in the concept, mentors can be found at various academic levels, from primary to university.

Did you know that all these differences among providers of education existed? Have you been referred to by the wrong term, or have you incorrectly referred to other teachers? Tell us in the comments.

Translation by Daniel Wetta.

Sofía García-Bullé

This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0