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> 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

> 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.
  - SamoyedFurFluff 3y ago
    The why the course is useful to know may not actually ever be relevant to the students why they’re taking the class, and no amount of informing the student how it’s useful will assist them. Knowing firsthand the value of tax knowledge doesn’t mean I have any level of enthusiasm about my taxes… Btw, for your baking example: the great British bake off is a wildly popular show and yet almost none of the people I know who are fans care to even try to learn baking themselves. I just don’t think it’s a think that happens to any degree you think it does.
    - jstarfish 3y ago
      > the great British bake off is a wildly popular show and yet almost none of the people I know who are fans care to even try to learn baking themselves. You're missing the point of teaching anything. Teaching is (literally) the act of grooming someone to be receptive to an idea. It's different from training, which is the act of coaching someone into doing something. When the day comes where one of those fans does try to bake something, everything they saw on the show is going to resonate in a way it wouldn't for someone without the exposure. I don't bake, but I now know two ways in which greasy meat leads to a soggy bottom.
      - shortrounddev2 3y ago
        Most people go to college for training; they could not care less about receptivity to ideas. There is this myth that college is about expanding one's mind and worldview. It is not. It is about improving and ensuring one's economic class. Only professors forsake a job in the real world for these ideals. Everybody else is there to secure their spot in the middle class, and they don't care about superfluous information
nonameiguess 3y ago
At least some of the time the reason is the canon of that subject requires it and you either care about that subject or you don't. If it's a distribution requirement the school imposes or the student simply doesn't know yet what they enjoy studying and are still major-shopping, there isn't necessarily much a professor can do about that. It's not like cooking. Everyone has to eat. Not everyone needs to become a chemist, but if at some point you think you might want to become one, you're going to have to learn common foundational material that all chemists must know to succeed as chemists. If you end up not actually becoming a chemist, it will never be useful to you. Or if you're pre-med, it still may never be useful to you to learn all the different ways atoms can arrange themselves into molecules unless you're going to someday do novel drug research, but medical school admissions and clinical licensing boards have not yet figured out a way to craft pre-requisites based on the specific unknowable future paths of individual applicants and they have to require everything that might be needed by any kind of doctor.
- schneems 3y ago
  > It's not like cooking. Everyone has to eat. Not everyone likes cake (believe it or not). But everyone understands why someone else might want a cake. It’s a storytellers job to make the connection or to provide a surrogate. Most people have never been orphans, but Little orphan Annie’s character acts as surrogate through which the viewer can understand the orphan world. You’re right that having more context of your audience and having shared interests help, but you can still tell a story to someone you’ve never met.
kazinator 3y ago
> *why* they’re learning the material. What they can do with it.* If the honest answer is that of the few students that every do anything with the material, those will be academics who go on to just study the material more, that should be articulated too. "In this course we will be descending into a branch of mathematics that hitherto has found no practical application. Perhaps some of you will go on to find some."

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.
- SamoyedFurFluff 3y ago
  The why the course is useful to know may not actually ever be relevant to the students why they’re taking the class, and no amount of informing the student how it’s useful will assist them. Knowing firsthand the value of tax knowledge doesn’t mean I have any level of enthusiasm about my taxes… Btw, for your baking example: the great British bake off is a wildly popular show and yet almost none of the people I know who are fans care to even try to learn baking themselves. I just don’t think it’s a think that happens to any degree you think it does.
  - jstarfish 3y ago
    > the great British bake off is a wildly popular show and yet almost none of the people I know who are fans care to even try to learn baking themselves. You're missing the point of teaching anything. Teaching is (literally) the act of grooming someone to be receptive to an idea. It's different from training, which is the act of coaching someone into doing something. When the day comes where one of those fans does try to bake something, everything they saw on the show is going to resonate in a way it wouldn't for someone without the exposure. I don't bake, but I now know two ways in which greasy meat leads to a soggy bottom.
    - shortrounddev2 3y ago
      Most people go to college for training; they could not care less about receptivity to ideas. There is this myth that college is about expanding one's mind and worldview. It is not. It is about improving and ensuring one's economic class. Only professors forsake a job in the real world for these ideals. Everybody else is there to secure their spot in the middle class, and they don't care about superfluous information

nonameiguess 3y ago

At least some of the time the reason is the canon of that subject requires it and you either care about that subject or you don't. If it's a distribution requirement the school imposes or the student simply doesn't know yet what they enjoy studying and are still major-shopping, there isn't necessarily much a professor can do about that. It's not like cooking. Everyone has to eat. Not everyone needs to become a chemist, but if at some point you think you might want to become one, you're going to have to learn common foundational material that all chemists must know to succeed as chemists. If you end up not actually becoming a chemist, it will never be useful to you. Or if you're pre-med, it still may never be useful to you to learn all the different ways atoms can arrange themselves into molecules unless you're going to someday do novel drug research, but medical school admissions and clinical licensing boards have not yet figured out a way to craft pre-requisites based on the specific unknowable future paths of individual applicants and they have to require everything that might be needed by any kind of doctor.

schneems 3y ago
> It's not like cooking. Everyone has to eat. Not everyone likes cake (believe it or not). But everyone understands why someone else might want a cake. It’s a storytellers job to make the connection or to provide a surrogate. Most people have never been orphans, but Little orphan Annie’s character acts as surrogate through which the viewer can understand the orphan world. You’re right that having more context of your audience and having shared interests help, but you can still tell a story to someone you’ve never met.

kazinator 3y ago

> *why* they’re learning the material. What they can do with it.* If the honest answer is that of the few students that every do anything with the material, those will be academics who go on to just study the material more, that should be articulated too. "In this course we will be descending into a branch of mathematics that hitherto has found no practical application. Perhaps some of you will go on to find some."