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"Do the best universities have best teaching technique, or are they best because they pick brightest students and they contribute nothing special?" They tend t
by mcguire 6y ago
"Do the best universities have best teaching technique, or are they best because they pick brightest students and they contribute nothing special?"
They tend to attract the best teachers. And by "teachers" I do mean the best researchers in the given field. Which in turn attracts the brightest students.
- aarongray 6y agoThe best researchers are rarely the best teachers
- selimthegrim 6y agoThey won’t be stumped by a question from a smart undergrad. The best teachers might fail to make it a teachable moment.
- imtringued 6y agoWhy would I need a world class researcher for e.g. linear algebra? Lots of students struggle with it because of bad teaching, not because it's difficult to understand.
- mcguire 6y agoWho would you rather be taught by, someone who spends the rest of the week using what you are being taught, or someone interested in something else (at best, teaching itself, at worst, doing anything else)? I might suspect bad linear algebra teaching is caused by a lack of interest in linear algebra by the teacher.
- disqard 6y agoHaving seen world-class researchers up close, and having experienced their teaching first-hand over many years, I don't believe that being one is any guarantee of also being the other.
- selimthegrim 6y agoOh I didn't say they'd be good at the board.
- phabora 6y agoYou can’t use teacher as a synonym for researcher, they’re two completely different things.
- mcguire 6y agoNot in my experience. Good researchers are not necessarily good teachers. Good teachers are not necessarily good researchers. But the best teachers in my experience are fiercely interested in their subjects, which they share with the best teachers. Everybody likes sharing their interests, right?