Help me choose my career! Optometry or Teaching?

[hodang]

Hey guys! I'm having a huge dilemma here about my future career. I really have a passion for optometry as well as teaching. I have pros and cons for both. Like for optometry I have a passion dealing with eyes and helping people out but there's many complications with the duration and having a life outside of university, whereas for teaching I love socialising with children and young adults and love the whole school environment. I think it would be funner then being in an office you know each day. So I'm really confused. Is there any such thing as a bachelor of education aswell as a bachelor in vision science? I want to do both but I'm not sure if it's possible? I would actually love and don't really mind studying both- but not sure if u can? Really need some opinions and help, if Only there was a double degree in both any help? I don't know what I should do!


Ps- if I choose teaching, I want my course to teach both secondary or primary or both (would be great). any one can help me find a course with least duration? Same for optometry guys, shortest duration aswell As the ATAR required and any pre-requisite. For optometry I'm also worried- like I only do further bio chem hhd and English for vce , I haven't even done physics or methids, and I'm not sure if they're required or studied throughout the course.. Lol someone help please I need all the help I can get


Thanks heaps guys!! 

[Aaron]

Hey there,

I'm currently in my final sem of the Master of Teaching so I can provide some info re: this

Is there any such thing as a bachelor of education aswell as a bachelor in vision science?

Not that i'm aware of. There are postgraduate options for teaching so if you want to do a bachelor in something else first, you can.

I think it would be funner then being in an office you know each day.

You need to understand that teaching is not all glamour and fun. It has long hours, you often spend most weekends marking or planning for future lessons. It isn't "rock up to work, do your 9-3 or whatever and go home". I would strongly recommend thinking long and hard about this - because I have a feeling that you're worried about optometry and you see teaching as the '2nd option'. From the student perspective, teaching is seen as a very 'easy' profession. What students do not see is the countless hours that go into the preparation, assessment and self-development (PD) that often goes beyond the regular school day.

Optometry and teaching are two completely different fields - their similarities are minimal. I feel like you really need to set your mind to one of these and stick to it. Teaching in itself is a career where you have to be passionate in what you do - because the money definitely doesn't compensate the amount of work that goes into it. Most teachers work because they genuinely (pardon the french) give a shit. I have no idea about optometry.

Ps- if I choose teaching, I want my course to teach both secondary or primary or both (would be great). any one can help me find a course with least duration?

Most Bachelor of Education/Teaching degrees are specialised, meaning that they offer a specific stream, such as secondary education or primary education. I know that Victoria Uni and Monash both offer P-12 education streams. As far as i'm aware, Bachelor of Education courses are 4 years in duration (or you can do the bachelor + master of teaching which is the equiv. of 5 years.. Grad Dip is being phased out and masters is the new DipEd).

Happy to answer any more questions about teaching (either in this thread or by PM). Optometry, sadly I cannot assist. Cheers

[Coffee]

I think it would be funner then being in an office you know each day

This is good. When considering what to study, you should think about what career you want afterwards- and if you're not sure what career you want, at least what your ideal career might look like. Some other things you might want to consider are:

Do I want to work in a team or independently?
Do I want to be a leader or would I rather follow?
Am I comfortable speaking to large groups or am I more comfortable in one-on-one situations?

It's good to have an interest in studying optometry but if you don't like what the career actually entails then you need to reassess whether it's something you want to pursue and whether teaching might be a better fit.

Is there any such thing as a bachelor of education aswell as a bachelor in vision science?

I want my course to teach both secondary or primary or both (would be great)

There isn't, at least not in Victoria. I would recommend taking a look at what the prerequisite subjects are for someone with an undergraduate science degree wanting to pursue post-graduate optometry. In this case, you could pursue an undergraduate science degree and at the end of the three years decide which path to follow. This would at least give you a little bit more time to decide too.

There are also double degrees in Science/Education, however, you won't be able to specialise in both primary and secondary education. If you want to specialise in both there are some universities which offer single undergraduate degrees in primary and secondary education, or most universities offer both specialisations at a post-graduate level.

For optometry I'm also worried- like I only do further bio chem hhd and English for vce , I haven't even done physics or methids, and I'm not sure if they're required or studied throughout the course

Have you looked at the prerequisites for vision science? I'm not 100% sure but I do think you need Methods. Out of curiosity, what subjects would you be interested in teaching? If you're wanting to teach maths or science I really would recommend taking Methods and even Specialist.

[Aaron]

Am I comfortable speaking to large groups or am I more comfortable in one-on-one situations?

So important. Teaching is essentially a vocation. The main skill or craft of teaching is communication (with students, teachers, parents and community). You can be the best student academically, but if you can't communicate your knowledge in a way which others understand, you won't be effective.

Keep in mind as well that depending on your specialisation (primary, primary/secondary or secondary), you need to satisfy certain requirements. AFAIK:
- Secondary (2 method areas of 1 double-method, at least a minor in both)
- Primary/Secondary (1 method area, the other is primary)

Click here for more info on what I mean about this. As a secondary teacher, you are qualified in one or two method areas (e.g. you can be a Math/Sci teacher or Math/IT teacher or a Geography/History teacher or a Health/PE teacher etc etc).

There are also double degrees in Science/Education, however, you won't be able to specialise in both primary and secondary education.

Not necessarily true. As I stated in my previous post, some undergraduate programs offer the P-12 stream such as the Monash Bachelor of Education (Honours) and Victoria Uni Bachelor of Education (P-12). Additionally the MTeach at several institutions offers prim/sec as a specialisation. I know for a fact Monash does this.

Out of curiosity, what subjects would you be interested in teaching? If you're wanting to teach maths or science I really would recommend taking Methods and even Specialist.

Whilst it would be a benefit to do specialist/methods to be a qualified maths or science teacher, I feel that it isn't compulsory to do methods or specialist. You can be an effective teacher without doing these subjects. Ideally one would be doing some sort of double degree paired with Education and therefore would be doing the math component to meet the VIT requirements anyway. Obviously if it is a pre-requisite to any courses you are interested in, then clearly you need to.

For example, my undergrad was in IT and I did 4 statistics units from 1st-3rd year level and discrete mathematics in 1st year which enabled me to be qualified to teach mathematics. For me personally I wish I did at least methods because now i'm going to have to learn the entire course from scratch due to the fact that I may be called upon to teach it when I start. But the key takehome message is that you don't need it to be a good math teacher.

Thanks

[Coffee]

Not necessarily true. As I stated in my previous post, some undergraduate programs offer the P-12 stream such as the Monash Bachelor of Education (Honours) and Victoria Uni Bachelor of Education (P-12). Additionally the MTeach at several institutions offers prim/sec as a specialisation. I know for a fact Monash does this.

Sorry for the confusion. I meant that you can't specialise in both at an undergraduate level in a double degree. It is available as a single degree though.

[hodang]

Hey!! Thanks guys so much! You all have helped me tremendously! Is it okay to ask you guys on this thread any questions I may need help in? So there's no doubles in science/education? Ps- if I do become a teacher, I'm interested in teaching HHD for VCE, Further Maths too possibly and Biology too. 7-10 I can do sose or science or maths for lower high school. I was wondering as a teacher, what's the max number of subjects you can teach per class?

[hodang]

Not per class sorry but I mean like in general.

[hodang]

Like what's the max number of classes I can have?

[Coffee]

So there's no doubles in science/education?

You can do a double degree in Science/Ed but you can't specialise in both primary and secondary education. If you want to do that you will need to complete a single education degree or complete a post-graduate qualification.

I was wondering as a teacher, what's the max number of subjects you can teach per class?

I'm not 100% sure about this and I'm sure someone who knows a bit more about this will come along and help you out but I imagine it would depend on the school and where you're teaching.