4 ms·
Well education is a performance art, as I'm sure you know. Reading the crowd, encouraging discussion, providing motivation -- these are more about the student a
by shard 6y ago
Well education is a performance art, as I'm sure you know. Reading the crowd, encouraging discussion, providing motivation -- these are more about the student and their frames of mind / moods / personalities than about the material itself. It's analogous to the difference between a professionally cooked meal versus a glass of Soylent: both provide nutrients, but the professionally cooked meal is more enjoyable to consume.
- mjburgess 6y agoI agree that this is essential. But the issue here is more about what you're not doing. ie., yes, every lesson must be a performance. but it must also be a challenging one. learning is no a michael-bay movie, it is a stanely-kubric: a wonderful light show, yes -- but challenging, stressful, opaque -- and requiring your active participation. What happens when you use student evals as guides to effectiveness is that learning becomes less challenging. (as evidenced here: http://faculty.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/scarrell/profqual2.pdf http://faculty.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/scarrell/profqual2.p...) I work in high-end commercial education, where this effect -- to me -- is quite clear. But its less obvious how to deal with it. Customer satisfaction is more important than education, to selling education.
- im3w1l 6y agoI recall reading from research on video games that people get an intrinsic joy from being challenged. Too hard and too easy challenges were both boring. The sweet spot was around 80% success rate. But alas I cannot find it now.