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Things I learned from teaching

claytonwramsey.github.io

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Re: Things I learned from teaching

#61

Post by OmarShehata »

> Somehow I need to make assignments which thread the needle between being too hard to solve and too easy

The author is describing precisely what ever video game designer learns to do: build the right scaffolding at every step so people can be in Flow [1]

I've always enjoyed this symmetry between teaching & video game making. They both try to do the same thing in that way. (after all, video games are really just "voluntary work" when you think about it)

[1] See figure 1 https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/cognitive-flow-the-psyc...

Re: Things I learned from teaching

#62

Post by sage76 »

z3dd wrote: post #7
shae wrote: post #2

I went back to uni after a 15 year career writing software. I attended the all the office hours for all my classes. Instructors went from shocked to excited, and I learned so much!

I think 18-24 is just way too young for most people to study at a university (at least math/physics-based ones). I don't have a better solution, but only about 6-7 years after graduating I realized I would then have enjoyed these classes and learned from them much much more.

Same here, I feel like I could have done a lot more at college, knowing what I know now. I couldn't see the big picture, and I felt uninspired most of the time.

Re: Things I learned from teaching

#63

Post by Levitz »

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #44
sethammons wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

fwiw I've never heard of forced attendance post secondary; attendance is a legal requirement in k-12.

In Spain it became common after the last university reform, about 15 years ago. IMO it's counterproductive. If a student doesn't want to go to class and you force them, they probably won't be paying attention but just wasting time with social networks or whatever other distraction, and they can even distract those that want to attend. And I don't even feel morally justified to tell them to stop wasting time (as long…

You can force a student to be in class, you can't force them to care about class.

Forced attendance would work if students cared for their education but their parents didn't. That's just not the case, even if students don't care because their parents don't, it just doesn't fix the problem.

Re: Things I learned from teaching

#64

Post by passion__desire »

I am not sure why people are not adopting Khan Academy's reasonings and methods for teaching at almost all levels where the study material doesn't change and has been static for years.

Why are professors made to teach the same subject each year? Why not create a set of lectures by the best in the field or even setup a committee of professors on how best to craft a particular lecture and create a video, freeze it and distribute it. So many professors spend time in writing an equation on the board, hey why not latex it? I believe each university should hire a powerpoint / slideshow person who can translate professors material into modern format to avoid repeating of work.

Once the foundational material is out in the open, the real fun can begin with discussions and other storytelling activities which incorporates philosophy, history and how the topic came about to be and future open-ended problems.

Re: Things I learned from teaching

#65

Post by placebo »

justinclift wrote: post #42
placebo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although there is no way around the struggle, there is a way around how the struggle is perceived and experienced. A good teacher shows the struggle is worth it, but I believe a great teacher makes the struggle something you enjoy doing, and not something you have to put up with so you can enjoy the compensation at some point in the future.

> I believe a great teacher makes the struggle something you enjoy doing What's a good example of this? :)

I think there are two main factors in doing this: The first is creating the passion for the subject matter by making it both fascinating and accessible and by that generating even more curiosity and motivation that I believe are innate in everyone. The second is never letting anyone feel that they are treading water (although this can be seen as a by-product of making things accessible).

Even when babies learn how to walk (assuming a healthy and secure environment) they do not need (or would understand) any assurance that the struggle will be worth it. They go for the struggle because the instinct/motivation to explore is already there - it gives a sense of autonomy, of being in control, of making progress, of being involved, of being alive.

But no need to make assumptions about what motivates babies - you can look at how people feel when playing games, solving puzzles etc. They don't see it as a struggle, it is something that is a joy to participate in, even though it might be very challenging. A great teacher is someone that makes learning a by-product of having fun. I believe this is possible for any subject, no matter how "difficult" or "boring".

Re: Things I learned from teaching

#66

Post by bigallen »

jalapenos wrote: post #43
sethammons wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Forced attendance is imo the worst symptom of this I taught in an inner city title one school. While it would have made teaching those who showed up easier, I'd bet that over half the students would not show up without forced attendance. We had under 2% of students who would go on to graduate a four year college and something like an 80% transitory rate (meaning 20% would complete all four years at the school - thi…

Get them into trades that can make them money right now rather than calling textbooks & college the OnlyWay™?

Trades still include hard work and rule following for a long time. And many trades have a culture of crusty old assholes being in charge and then turning the young entrants into the crusty old assholes. I think there will still be a large segment of the population that will see gang and criminal activities (fraternity, high-reward, party lifestyle) as a more compelling career choice

Re: Things I learned from teaching

#67

Post by tipsydoo »

sethammons wrote: post #28
lysecret wrote: post #22

I used to work as a teacher in a kind of bootcamp. Over the years my my view on teaching has changed massively. I think there are only two generic things and the rest is situation dependent. - There is just no way around the struggle. The students have to struggle. Your job is not to take the struggle away but to show them why it is worth struggling and instil the belief that they can do it. - The most important teac…

> Forced attendance is imo the worst symptom of this I taught in an inner city title one school. While it would have made teaching those who showed up easier, I'd bet that over half the students would not show up without forced attendance. We had under 2% of students who would go on to graduate a four year college and something like an 80% transitory rate (meaning 20% would complete all four years at the school - thi…

It sounds like a problem that punishing students for not showing up doesn't solve. Incentives (like pay for attendance) that help to alleviate some of the issues causing attendance problems (by your own words, poverty among them) seem like a good start. At the bottom of it is a very rough and ill-enforced social contract, though. People in these positions don't believe that society cares much to reward their positive qualities (and it often doesn't).

Re: Things I learned from teaching

#68

Post by eddd-ddde »

passion__desire wrote: post #64

I am not sure why people are not adopting Khan Academy's reasonings and methods for teaching at almost all levels where the study material doesn't change and has been static for years. Why are professors made to teach the same subject each year? Why not create a set of lectures by the best in the field or even setup a committee of professors on how best to craft a particular lecture and create a video, freeze it and…

I hate being forced to attend college classes in person, where I sit for 4 hours, hearing a person talk about something that I don't care about, and even if I cared, I could learn it myself in half the time by myself at home.

I'm a firm believer that lectures should never be necessary, give me the recorded lecture which I'll watch if I want to, I'll read the content myself, and I'll ask the teacher questions over the time where lectures would usually be given, and it will be easier since not everyone has to be there at once.

Re: Things I learned from teaching

#69

Post by tsumnia »

adverbly wrote: post #53

> In my experience, I learn the most when I struggle; if a student can shortcut through all the hard parts on, for example, and assignment, they're not going to learn very much. On the flip side, when most students struggle, they just give up. This. 100% this. How do you make someone understand that struggling is good? That - more than anything else - is what I want to be able to teach. Any tips?

Building perseverance, and more broadly motivation, is still only partially understood in cognitive science. However, Carol Dweck's 'growth mindset' can help bridge the gap by shifting students' opinions away from "some people just get this" to "I don't understand this yet". Other motivation elements outside the scope of the material include intrinsic/extrinsic motivations, role models in the field, self-regulated learning, mindfulness, Baker et. al.'s affect model [1], etc.

It's something I usually mention to my students during the later part of the semester - humans are one of the hardest problems out there! We're irrational, something that works for one person won't for the other, even if we know something's bad we'll keep doing it.

[1] https://busynessgirl.com/better-to-be-frustrated-than-bored/

Re: Things I learned from teaching

#70

Post by LouisSayers »

lysecret wrote: post #22

I used to work as a teacher in a kind of bootcamp. Over the years my my view on teaching has changed massively. I think there are only two generic things and the rest is situation dependent. - There is just no way around the struggle. The students have to struggle. Your job is not to take the struggle away but to show them why it is worth struggling and instil the belief that they can do it. - The most important teac…

> The students have to struggle

Perhaps it's just the wording, but I really disagree here.

Yes, there's a natural stress process we go through while learning where our boundaries are expanded, but to struggle... it's often a sign of bad teaching.

I say this as a best selling Udemy instructor and having been a university CS tutor. Your job IS to take away the struggle. You do this by being the student, leading them to confusing situations and then overcoming that situation with them in a series of steps that are built up over time, and then having them apply that knowledge to build skill.

The thing is, that teaching a subject well takes a lot of time and effort. There are very few really great teachers out there.

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