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Sure, but that doesn't mean that everyone switching out of STEM courses "failed to measure up" or was "afraid of facts". If I attempted to teach Computing Scie

Sure, but that doesn't mean that everyone switching out of STEM courses "failed to measure up" or was "afraid of facts". If I attempted to teach Computing Science to people by having them sit in 400 person lecture halls while I read K&R and CLRS at them for 4 years, any number of bright people who could succeed in comp sci would rightly get fed up with the uselessness of my shitty curriculum and drop out or switch majors. And yet a surprising number of Engineering curriculums are structured this way, because it's cheap and easy for the professors.

silverlake 15y ago
So are econ courses at big universities, yet it's become a very popular major.
dman 15y ago
I recently started teaching technical subjects and here are some points from the other side of the classroom a) Every class has outliers on either side of the performance spectrum and teaching is a resource allocation problem on part of the teachers time on how to deliver maximal benefit to the students at large. b) The number of people who are simultaneously entertaining, inspiring and educational is very few. Look around you and shortlist the number of people whom you consider extremely knowledgeable about some subject, now remove from that list the number of people who have great people skills. Of course people skills can be improved over time but it takes real effort and time. c) As a teacher the best one can do while teaching challenging material is spend time in the first part of a lecture developing the motivation for getting students interested. Usually that leaves little time for interactivity in the latter part of the lesson. d) Classes where students ask no questions are very hard to make interesting. When this is happening your teacher is probably feeling like a comic doing an act where no one is laughing. Next time youre stuck in a class which seems overly dull try to help out your teacher by asking intelligent questions. e) In some challenging material there is simply not enough time to do it justice. In those cases the best a teacher can do is do a non interactive session where they do a brain dump hoping that students will be motivated enough to follow up with the material in their own time. f) There is also the philosophical question about who gets to teach - 1) someone who is at the pinnacle of their field and hence can earn a livelihood by teaching people so that they can contribute with original research. 2) someone who is a great educator. g) I think truly great teachers occur with the same frequency as truly great comics because both fields have something in common.

silverlake 15y ago

So are econ courses at big universities, yet it's become a very popular major.

dman 15y ago

I recently started teaching technical subjects and here are some points from the other side of the classroom a) Every class has outliers on either side of the performance spectrum and teaching is a resource allocation problem on part of the teachers time on how to deliver maximal benefit to the students at large. b) The number of people who are simultaneously entertaining, inspiring and educational is very few. Look around you and shortlist the number of people whom you consider extremely knowledgeable about some subject, now remove from that list the number of people who have great people skills. Of course people skills can be improved over time but it takes real effort and time. c) As a teacher the best one can do while teaching challenging material is spend time in the first part of a lecture developing the motivation for getting students interested. Usually that leaves little time for interactivity in the latter part of the lesson. d) Classes where students ask no questions are very hard to make interesting. When this is happening your teacher is probably feeling like a comic doing an act where no one is laughing. Next time youre stuck in a class which seems overly dull try to help out your teacher by asking intelligent questions. e) In some challenging material there is simply not enough time to do it justice. In those cases the best a teacher can do is do a non interactive session where they do a brain dump hoping that students will be motivated enough to follow up with the material in their own time. f) There is also the philosophical question about who gets to teach - 1) someone who is at the pinnacle of their field and hence can earn a livelihood by teaching people so that they can contribute with original research. 2) someone who is a great educator. g) I think truly great teachers occur with the same frequency as truly great comics because both fields have something in common.