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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 y

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 the strongest will be bored. This range is hard for you to comprehend, given your path. Note that the range is not something you can alter. It is established by the university Registrar, not by you and also not by the students. 3. Expose the students to your enthusiasm for the material. Be direct, and be personal. "The next topic is" will not motivate students as much as "Now we ready for the exciting part" or "This next bit is what I like best about this topic", etc. 4. Make the decision to enjoy your time with the students.

yodsanklai 3y ago
> 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 students busy. I personally like teaching CS lab classes. The key is to design projects with gradual difficulty. Even the weakest students should manage to complete a few tasks. But overall, I think that heterogeneity makes teaching much more complicated that what it could be, especially when basic pre-requisites aren't met. It's a bit heartbreaking when you get students which are obviously losing their time and money.
- agumonkey 3y ago
  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 ..
  - nequo 3y ago
    Upper-year students often work as teaching assistants which is something to this effect. That is, if they hold tutoring sessions or office hours and not just do grading.
  - skeeter2020 3y ago
    >> by weaponizing the bored genius into teaching the perplexed and lagging. This seems like a great idea but should be used very sparingly. Your "bored genius" isn't necessarily a great teacher, and that's not their job anyway. I've found you're better to give them more challenging options. If they want to be bored that's on them; if they pursue it they'll likely do it independently.
    - agumonkey 3y ago
      I agree but there's a huge value in showing them how diverse can brains be. As a smart person, it's very important that they tame their own needs and open their mind a bit too. That said, making them chasing challenges is also a great thing.
  - latency-guy2 3y ago
    > 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. 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.
- Atrine 3y ago
  Great ideas. 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.
schneems 3y ago
> 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 you’re going to make. Then you make the cake. Then (if it’s a class and not the food network) you learn the important details. Teaching is storytelling. The main character is the student. What challenge will they overcome? How will they grow as a result? If the teacher makes them hungry to know the answer, then students will not just tolerate the information, they’ll seek it out, challenge it, and ask for more.
- pmichaud 3y ago
  Love this. My version is wanting to know what problem I would face on my own that would lead me to independently generate the solution I'm about to learn. That gives me motivation and context for the information so I can form a complete orientation in the problem space.
  - schneems 3y ago
    I completely agree. A problem is probably the most classic storytelling device. “A heroes journey” gives the hero a problem to solve and then the climax is when they solve it.
- shortrounddev2 3y ago
  > 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
  - kmoser 3y ago
    There is always a "why", else what would be the use of teaching the subject in the first place, even to enthusiastic students? OP's point is that helping the students understand the "why" might spark interest in them. Even if you reach one kid, you will have achieved your intended result.
Upvoter33 3y ago
This is good advice - it is good to keep all of these things in mind. I would add: Let them see you sweat a bit. When they see you are working hard to make a great class for them, they too put in more work.
d-lisp 3y ago
My student life has been an awful boring existence because of number 2. There was nothing more frustrating than going to school. A few sentences were enough for me to understand concepts that were explained during several weeks.
- dkqmduems 3y ago
  Are these technical university level courses you are talking about? If so, you should just be taking higher level courses.
  - d-lisp 3y ago
    That's a long time I'm out of school. The truth is you should read books about subjects you're interested in to solve a lack of understanding on one subject, and from there teach yourself anything you want, if you were in my situation. What I did is taking the highest level course I could find on X subject, and trying to understand from other lower level sources the high level concepts I couldn't understand from intuition by the sole reading of the high level syllabus.
matheusmoreira 3y ago
> Expose the students to your enthusiasm for the material. This makes a huge difference to me. There were subjects that were exceedingly boring and difficult to me at first but I managed to find joy in them because teachers were so enthusiastic about them it was like they were filled with childlike wonder and it inspired me to give it a chance instead of just going through the motions. I've had teachers who seemed to be there just for the paycheck and it made me be there just for the grades too, thoroughly depressing.

yodsanklai 3y ago

> 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 students busy. I personally like teaching CS lab classes. The key is to design projects with gradual difficulty. Even the weakest students should manage to complete a few tasks. But overall, I think that heterogeneity makes teaching much more complicated that what it could be, especially when basic pre-requisites aren't met. It's a bit heartbreaking when you get students which are obviously losing their time and money.

agumonkey 3y ago
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 ..
- nequo 3y ago
  Upper-year students often work as teaching assistants which is something to this effect. That is, if they hold tutoring sessions or office hours and not just do grading.
- skeeter2020 3y ago
  >> by weaponizing the bored genius into teaching the perplexed and lagging. This seems like a great idea but should be used very sparingly. Your "bored genius" isn't necessarily a great teacher, and that's not their job anyway. I've found you're better to give them more challenging options. If they want to be bored that's on them; if they pursue it they'll likely do it independently.
  - agumonkey 3y ago
    I agree but there's a huge value in showing them how diverse can brains be. As a smart person, it's very important that they tame their own needs and open their mind a bit too. That said, making them chasing challenges is also a great thing.
- latency-guy2 3y ago
  > 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. 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.
Atrine 3y ago
Great ideas. 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.

schneems 3y ago

> 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 you’re going to make. Then you make the cake. Then (if it’s a class and not the food network) you learn the important details. Teaching is storytelling. The main character is the student. What challenge will they overcome? How will they grow as a result? If the teacher makes them hungry to know the answer, then students will not just tolerate the information, they’ll seek it out, challenge it, and ask for more.

pmichaud 3y ago
Love this. My version is wanting to know what problem I would face on my own that would lead me to independently generate the solution I'm about to learn. That gives me motivation and context for the information so I can form a complete orientation in the problem space.
- schneems 3y ago
  I completely agree. A problem is probably the most classic storytelling device. “A heroes journey” gives the hero a problem to solve and then the climax is when they solve it.
shortrounddev2 3y ago
> 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
- kmoser 3y ago
  There is always a "why", else what would be the use of teaching the subject in the first place, even to enthusiastic students? OP's point is that helping the students understand the "why" might spark interest in them. Even if you reach one kid, you will have achieved your intended result.

Upvoter33 3y ago

This is good advice - it is good to keep all of these things in mind. I would add: Let them see you sweat a bit. When they see you are working hard to make a great class for them, they too put in more work.

d-lisp 3y ago

My student life has been an awful boring existence because of number 2. There was nothing more frustrating than going to school. A few sentences were enough for me to understand concepts that were explained during several weeks.

dkqmduems 3y ago
Are these technical university level courses you are talking about? If so, you should just be taking higher level courses.
- d-lisp 3y ago
  That's a long time I'm out of school. The truth is you should read books about subjects you're interested in to solve a lack of understanding on one subject, and from there teach yourself anything you want, if you were in my situation. What I did is taking the highest level course I could find on X subject, and trying to understand from other lower level sources the high level concepts I couldn't understand from intuition by the sole reading of the high level syllabus.

matheusmoreira 3y ago

> Expose the students to your enthusiasm for the material. This makes a huge difference to me. There were subjects that were exceedingly boring and difficult to me at first but I managed to find joy in them because teachers were so enthusiastic about them it was like they were filled with childlike wonder and it inspired me to give it a chance instead of just going through the motions. I've had teachers who seemed to be there just for the paycheck and it made me be there just for the grades too, thoroughly depressing.