121–130 of 132 posts
"all physical theories, their mathematical expressions apart ought to lend themselves to so simple a description 'that even a child could understand them.'" - Einstein, to deBroglie [in Clark, 1972, p.418]
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…
> 2. Teach to the middle of the class. Be aware that the weakest students will be perplexed much of the time, and the strongest will be bored. True for the weakest students, but it's always possible to give harder material/exercises to the strongest students. And it doesn't even take much time for the teacher because these students are more autonomous. I only taught CS and maths, but it's very easy to keep the good s…
I sneak in advanced things into lectures and preface it with "for students that are more advanced or have more prior knowledge in the subject..." I usually see the more advanced students perk up and the other students exhale and zone out a bit to rest their brain. Seems to work fairly well.
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’s always a reason. “I want to learn something just to learn something” isn’t the best reason, but it is A reason. I mention in another post that even if the reason doesn’t interest you personally, the teacher still should make a strong case and you should walk away knowing why someone (even if not you) could do, if only they had the knowledge.
Why?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 2. Teach to the middle of the class. Be aware that the weakest students will be perplexed much of the time, and the strongest will be bored. True for the weakest students, but it's always possible to give harder material/exercises to the strongest students. And it doesn't even take much time for the teacher because these students are more autonomous. I only taught CS and maths, but it's very easy to keep the good s…
I've been quite curious how to "divide and conquer" the problem by weaponizing the bored genius into teaching the perplexed and lagging. It may save teacher time for teaching the middle group while also teaching the genius what it is to explain something so intuitive to someone who doesn't. But it may backfire ..
So, really no benefit for the genius and all the benefit for the weaker ones and the teacher who does not have to run their patience thin.
No, I think giving the genius a challenge that they came for is the best way to go about it. If you have none, that's fine, let the genius discover things on their own, they were almost certainly doing so anyways and its best to not get in their way.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There’s always a reason. “I want to learn something just to learn something” isn’t the best reason, but it is A reason. I mention in another post that even if the reason doesn’t interest you personally, the teacher still should make a strong case and you should walk away knowing why someone (even if not you) could do, if only they had the knowledge.
> “I want to learn something just to learn something” isn’t the best reason, Why?
For the rest of us, we need to want a hole before we learn how to use a drill. And that’s okay too.
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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most people go to college for training; they could not care less about receptivity to ideas. There is this myth that college is about expanding one's mind and worldview. It is not. It is about improving and ensuring one's economic class. Only professors forsake a job in the real world for these ideals. Everybody else is there to secure their spot in the middle class, and they don't care about superfluous information
> Most people go to college for training; they could not care less about receptivity to ideas And they come out of it disappointed that they don't actually know how to do anything. > There is this myth that college is about expanding one's mind and worldview. I used to think that was a myth too. So much so I did it twice. College is wasted on the young. It took decades of experience for me to recognize how much of my…
Mostly because, as the OP post points out, the lecturing model is very bad at teaching most things. College's never innovate
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…
> Now we ready for the exciting part" or "This next bit is what I like best about this topic", etc. Personal excitement for the material is one piece, but it’s not enough. 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. Baking shows don’t start off telling the history of the maillard reaction, they show you the delicious cake…
If the honest answer is that of the few students that every do anything with the material, those will be academics who go on to just study the material more, that should be articulated too.
"In this course we will be descending into a branch of mathematics that hitherto has found no practical application. Perhaps some of you will go on to find some."
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Flipped classroom style maybe. Lectures are prerecorded then you as a group struggle with the problem sets in class. A few schools have entire courses for learning the struggle like MITs freshman problem solving course for figuring out Puerto Rico's power grid problems you are given some small area to research yourself and bring that to your student meetings and struggle to a solution. https://terrascope.mit.edu/next…
Thanks, that looks like a good approach. :)