Teaching is a slow process of becoming everything you hate

Post by bee_rider » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 7:28 PM UTC

legobmw99 wrote: post #26

gonehome wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really liked homework suggestions that (critically) included the answer key and walkthrough of solution! Doing problem sets in university without this made it way less valuable because you need the immediate feedback loop to learn and waiting until office hours or recitation takes too long and you forget. Good classes (from grade clarity perspective) were ones where it was clear what would be tested and how to prep…

In CS courses, I always appreciated when we were given access to the grading scripts/unit tests used by course staff. It made that feedback loop immediate, and unless you were intentionally doing something weird you usually knew exactly what grade you were getting for your submission. As a TA, it was funny to see the ways a few students would overfit those tests. In one extreme case I literally saw a student replace…

Post by mattwilsonn888 » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 7:31 PM UTC

smogcutter wrote: post #246

mattwilsonn888 wrote: post #193

Any visionary attempting to restructure traditional learning should read this, and I say that with no ounce of malice or sarcasm - its a nice hazard map, and it at least one constructive change that should be enacted: 1. Grades should be a continuum (percentage), not bins (A, B, C,..). "When you are forced to discretize into a small number of bins, injustice is inevitable." Report cards have no rational reason for no…

> Any visionary attempting to restructure traditional learning should read this, and I say that with no ounce of malice or sarcasm... On the contrary. Part of TFA’s point is that, like many other fields, outsiders usually have a much poorer idea than they think of the hows and whys of teaching. Until you’re actually in front of a classroom it’s not obvious why seemingly sensible ideas are often ineffective or unworka…

Post by Hendrikto » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 7:35 PM UTC

punnerud wrote: post #239

I feel the same with Wikipedia, the Norwegian articles are often better than the English ones because they often are shorter and to the point. I don’t want to read 2000 words for something that could be explained in under 100. Have been thinking of a 200word limit per article version of Wikipedia.

Post by vishnugupta » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 7:39 PM UTC

finexplained wrote: post #6

This perfectly describes my experience as a TA in graduate school. At first I didn't understand why my advisor insisted on being so precise in assignment instructions. Then when TAing with him I saw how students could creatively misinterpret instructions, even when I could not imagine how to make them more precise. An exception for the new case would be added to the next iteration of the assignments. I only understoo…

Post by raverbashing » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 7:43 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #220

raverbashing wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, I don't know where I read this (might have been here on HN) something like: If you create the rules for the pathological cases, then you're "optimizing" for those. Not for the majority. Whereas the pathological cases should be dealt exactly like those. Though sure, sometimes explanations can be better, but you can only play the game up to a point

On the other hand, if you don't address the pathological cases in writing, 90% of your time will be taken up by the 10% of people who rules-lawyer their way through life: Pointing out the lack of written clarity, complaining about 'hidden rules', writing a letter to object, appealing to your boss, appealing to boss's boss, lodging a formal complaint with leadership implying discrimination, getting actual lawyers invo…