Things I learned from teaching • Hacker News Board

Re: Things I learned from teaching

#101

Post by uolmir » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 6:55 PM UTC

tsumnia wrote: post #74

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…

> 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... A few things: - Professors, even best in the field, may disagree. In the first lecture for my AI course I talk about how cognitive scientists still can't agree on a definition for what intelligence IS. Extend that to other domains and I'm willing to bet th…

Low content reply I know but it's great to see ICAP having the mindshare to appear in this discussion on HN. It's such a great paper and concept. I also think it has a lot to offer practitioners by making "active learning" a defined and delineated idea.

Re: Things I learned from teaching

#102

Post by claytonwramsey » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 6:59 PM UTC

NotOscarWilde wrote: post #23

The author writes about himself: > Hi! I'm a PhD student studying computer science at Rice University. This means that we are on the same career path (I am currently an assistant professor in theoretical CS in Europe). I wish you of course best of luck! Here is the harshest truth about teaching I learned during my PhD: If you are focusing on teaching too much, you are setting yourself up for failure. This sounds crue…

Thanks for the kind words!

Yes, I'm fully aware of the fact that teaching isn't really a priority in academia - for that reason, I probably won't be reviving my class in the near future. I really do like teaching, but it doesn't get me much closer to any of my current goals.

Re: Things I learned from teaching

#103

Post by claytonwramsey » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 7:06 PM UTC

groby_b wrote: post #18

The thing that breaks my heart is that we have a much better understanding of adult learning. It didn't need to be that painful. That's not the lecturers fault. It takes a while to learn how to teach. It is the fault of our education system which thinks "let's throw seniors into a teaching situation without any grounding or support". We can also, simultaneously, fault the education system for a high school system tha…

In my case, at the very least, I had a fair amount of support.

First of all, I explicitly signed up to teach. At my university, fewer than ten undergraduates per semester teach a class, and typically it's for students who want to hang out and teach something they like. In order to teach, they have to take an introductory class on pedagogy first, which mostly covers assignment and syllabus design.

The student-taught-course program at my university exists far more for the (undergraduate) instructors' benefit than to teach students; its job is to give students a chance to experiment with teaching early on.

Re: Things I learned from teaching

#104

Post by d-lisp » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 7:17 PM UTC

bluenose69 wrote: post #29

Here are some things I tell young professors: 1. The students are not like you. For you, the topic is fascinating, and something you've pondered for much of your adult life. For the average student, the topic is moderately interesting, and likely quite confusing, in the first exposure that is this class. 2. Teach to the middle of the class. Be aware that the weakest students will be perplexed much of the time, and th…

My student life has been an awful boring existence because of number 2. There was nothing more frustrating than going to school. A few sentences were enough for me to understand concepts that were explained during several weeks.

Re: Things I learned from teaching

#105

Post by dkqmduems » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 7:21 PM UTC

d-lisp wrote: post #104

bluenose69 wrote: post #29

Here are some things I tell young professors: 1. The students are not like you. For you, the topic is fascinating, and something you've pondered for much of your adult life. For the average student, the topic is moderately interesting, and likely quite confusing, in the first exposure that is this class. 2. Teach to the middle of the class. Be aware that the weakest students will be perplexed much of the time, and th…

My student life has been an awful boring existence because of number 2. There was nothing more frustrating than going to school. A few sentences were enough for me to understand concepts that were explained during several weeks.

Are these technical university level courses you are talking about? If so, you should just be taking higher level courses.

Re: Things I learned from teaching

#106

Post by dkqmduems » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 7:23 PM UTC

LouisSayers wrote: post #70

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…

Few good teachers...few good engineers? 10x cough cough...

Re: Things I learned from teaching

#107

Post by matheusmoreira » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 7:30 PM UTC

bluenose69 wrote: post #29

Here are some things I tell young professors: 1. The students are not like you. For you, the topic is fascinating, and something you've pondered for much of your adult life. For the average student, the topic is moderately interesting, and likely quite confusing, in the first exposure that is this class. 2. Teach to the middle of the class. Be aware that the weakest students will be perplexed much of the time, and th…

> Expose the students to your enthusiasm for the material.

This makes a huge difference to me. There were subjects that were exceedingly boring and difficult to me at first but I managed to find joy in them because teachers were so enthusiastic about them it was like they were filled with childlike wonder and it inspired me to give it a chance instead of just going through the motions.

I've had teachers who seemed to be there just for the paycheck and it made me be there just for the grades too, thoroughly depressing.

Re: Things I learned from teaching

#108

Post by shortrounddev2 » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 8:00 PM UTC

kmoser wrote: post #99

shortrounddev2 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The most important thing a teacher should do is help the students internalize why they’re learning the material. What they can do with it. Depending on the topic there is often no "why". Most classes a student takes are required and they have absolutely zero interest in them and they will willfully forget them as soon as the semester is over

There is always a "why", else what would be the use of teaching the subject in the first place, even to enthusiastic students? OP's point is that helping the students understand the "why" might spark interest in them. Even if you reach one kid, you will have achieved your intended result.

> what would be the use of teaching the subject in the first place, even to enthusiastic students?

This is something which you should always ask yourself in a class. What use is this class?

Usually the "why" is: "nobody would take this class unless we forced them to, and the English department would starve to death without forced pre-requisites"

> Even if you reach one kid, you will have achieved your intended result

If you reach 1 kid in a class of 30 you have objectively failed

Re: Things I learned from teaching

#109

Post by d-lisp » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 8:02 PM UTC

dkqmduems wrote: post #105

d-lisp wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My student life has been an awful boring existence because of number 2. There was nothing more frustrating than going to school. A few sentences were enough for me to understand concepts that were explained during several weeks.

Are these technical university level courses you are talking about? If so, you should just be taking higher level courses.

That's a long time I'm out of school. The truth is you should read books about subjects you're interested in to solve a lack of understanding on one subject, and from there teach yourself anything you want, if you were in my situation. What I did is taking the highest level course I could find on X subject, and trying to understand from other lower level sources the high level concepts I couldn't understand from intuition by the sole reading of the high level syllabus.

Re: Things I learned from teaching

#110

Post by groby_b » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 8:03 PM UTC

claytonwramsey wrote: post #103

groby_b wrote: post #18

The thing that breaks my heart is that we have a much better understanding of adult learning. It didn't need to be that painful. That's not the lecturers fault. It takes a while to learn how to teach. It is the fault of our education system which thinks "let's throw seniors into a teaching situation without any grounding or support". We can also, simultaneously, fault the education system for a high school system tha…

In my case, at the very least, I had a fair amount of support. First of all, I explicitly signed up to teach. At my university, fewer than ten undergraduates per semester teach a class, and typically it's for students who want to hang out and teach something they like. In order to teach, they have to take an introductory class on pedagogy first, which mostly covers assignment and syllabus design. The student-taught-c…

No offense, but "assignment and syllabus design" scratches the surface at best. And while I understand the desire to let students experiment with teaching, it's worth keeping in mind it's an experiment on other human beings. (So, technically, subject to IRB review.)

Again, this isn't your fault. This is a massive failure of the education system in general. We pretend that as long as somebody knows the subject, they're decent teachers. (We pretend that because it's cheaper, and we pretend it because otherwise established faculty would have to admit that a large number of their members are extremely bad teachers)