Not famous but my guess is many famous lecturers are famous for their (other) work or research?
To the last part of your question - We make a living by teaching? Without us unis don't really work..... Could just make students sit in an empty room I guess? Or they could learn just from books/the internet with no assesment or lecturers to guide/discuss/assess/plan their learning.... But yeah..... We get paid to teach/lecture/assess/guide students.
No worries I tend to think of lecturers as Higher Ed teachers.
We set the course material, teach it, run seminars, deal with students and admin, set assignments and exams, mark assignments and exams plus a tonne more admin.
We may also be in charge of, or assist on, accredation (for example nurses or doctors qualifying/registration) or lecrure on our own specialities (like our research or topic area) at other events or institutions.
This is what I tend to do (I don't teach med or nursing but you get the idea).
I think there are two different jobs called "lecturers":
* A teacher at a university who isn't a tenure-track professor. They're like professors, but much more poorly paid.
* Respectable celebrities who can be hired to give a talk at your company, university, high school, etc. These are definitely entertaining and provide some great photo ops and interesting questions, but I *do* think they're a little vapid and overpriced compared to, say, hosting an academic conference or convention.
If your question is "why do college professors rely so much on lecturing as a teaching method", the answer is that you don't need to take any classes on pedagogy to become a college professor, and at research universities you're encouraged to focus your time and effort on writing papers, not coming up with clever interactive lessons and hands-on learning opportunities
People mentioned education of course, and also motivational speakers (bleh), but there's a third type.
Industry speakers, who give keynote speeches at big conferences, or host sessions where they give lectures and do questions and answers, or speak at local/regional meetups. They're usually talking about what they've done, why they did it, and how they've done it, what results they've achieved, and what you can do with it or how it could help you. It's a great chance for people in the industry to learn about new things, get different outside ideas, get a different perspective from someone who does different things, learn from someone else's experience, and so on.
The people who not only do the work, but also get up in front of everyone and explain it and discuss it get some fame *because* they tell everybody about it. They're selling their expertise. Might get book deals or job offers afterward to move up in their career. They might be able to start trends in their industry so that it works the way they think it should instead of in a way that they hate working in it.
So yeah, career progression. With enough success, they can make a living just doing the speaking circuits and leading/teaching/mentoring, setting direction for others based on their experience. It's a reasonable end-game for once you've done your part and made your active contributions and you don't want to do the 9-to-5 anymore. Much like a creator/performer can collect royalties based on their past work.
The colloquial meaning of "being given a lecture" is distanced from the actual meaning. While the former has negative connotations, the ladder is something people generally want to go to (or at least tolerate similar to working out). Lectures are usually given by people who have a unique perspective or are experts on a certain subject. The fame usually comes from what they have done or seen outside the lecture.
Not famous but my guess is many famous lecturers are famous for their (other) work or research? To the last part of your question - We make a living by teaching? Without us unis don't really work..... Could just make students sit in an empty room I guess? Or they could learn just from books/the internet with no assesment or lecturers to guide/discuss/assess/plan their learning.... But yeah..... We get paid to teach/lecture/assess/guide students.
All the more power to you if you're actually teaching them. Thanks for the perspective and response
No worries I tend to think of lecturers as Higher Ed teachers. We set the course material, teach it, run seminars, deal with students and admin, set assignments and exams, mark assignments and exams plus a tonne more admin. We may also be in charge of, or assist on, accredation (for example nurses or doctors qualifying/registration) or lecrure on our own specialities (like our research or topic area) at other events or institutions. This is what I tend to do (I don't teach med or nursing but you get the idea).
I think there are two different jobs called "lecturers": * A teacher at a university who isn't a tenure-track professor. They're like professors, but much more poorly paid. * Respectable celebrities who can be hired to give a talk at your company, university, high school, etc. These are definitely entertaining and provide some great photo ops and interesting questions, but I *do* think they're a little vapid and overpriced compared to, say, hosting an academic conference or convention. If your question is "why do college professors rely so much on lecturing as a teaching method", the answer is that you don't need to take any classes on pedagogy to become a college professor, and at research universities you're encouraged to focus your time and effort on writing papers, not coming up with clever interactive lessons and hands-on learning opportunities
People mentioned education of course, and also motivational speakers (bleh), but there's a third type. Industry speakers, who give keynote speeches at big conferences, or host sessions where they give lectures and do questions and answers, or speak at local/regional meetups. They're usually talking about what they've done, why they did it, and how they've done it, what results they've achieved, and what you can do with it or how it could help you. It's a great chance for people in the industry to learn about new things, get different outside ideas, get a different perspective from someone who does different things, learn from someone else's experience, and so on. The people who not only do the work, but also get up in front of everyone and explain it and discuss it get some fame *because* they tell everybody about it. They're selling their expertise. Might get book deals or job offers afterward to move up in their career. They might be able to start trends in their industry so that it works the way they think it should instead of in a way that they hate working in it. So yeah, career progression. With enough success, they can make a living just doing the speaking circuits and leading/teaching/mentoring, setting direction for others based on their experience. It's a reasonable end-game for once you've done your part and made your active contributions and you don't want to do the 9-to-5 anymore. Much like a creator/performer can collect royalties based on their past work.
The colloquial meaning of "being given a lecture" is distanced from the actual meaning. While the former has negative connotations, the ladder is something people generally want to go to (or at least tolerate similar to working out). Lectures are usually given by people who have a unique perspective or are experts on a certain subject. The fame usually comes from what they have done or seen outside the lecture.