5 ms·

I'm a student, and most of the teachers I deal with at college are horrible. I won't go into things like passion and knowledge, just plain hard facts about what

I'm a student, and most of the teachers I deal with at college are horrible. I won't go into things like passion and knowledge, just plain hard facts about what I want in most teachers. 1. Don't tell. Anyone can stand in front of a class and tell students stuff they don't know. A good teacher will always start with a problem, encourage students to suggest their own solutions and then proceed to tell the class the actual solution. Most good teachers I have encountered use a variation of this method to teach. It not only works well, it gives students a sense of accomplishment. 2. Let students come to their own conclusions about the subject material before you correct them. College students are not stupid. I've seen that the worst teacher will always tell students to "slow down for a moment" just so he can meticulously read through his shrink-wrapped bullet points. Boredom ensues. 3. Ask. Ask many questions. Heck, teach entire chapters as a series of questions. EDIT: spelling, grammar, lameness.

sethg 17y ago
Judah Schwartz, my physics professor at MIT, used to end each lecture by saying "Comments? Questions? Puzzles?" Usually there would be dead silence from the class. And then he would say "I don't believe you." And he waited for someone to ask a question.
dmhouse 17y ago
It depends entirely on how many people you're teaching. If you're sitting in a lecture hall full of 250 students, asking continual questions is just not going to get any response. No-one wants to embarass themselves in front of an audience that large. You'll just slow down the lecture while you pause and listen to a stony 10 second silence every couple of minutes. I've had lecturers do this, and it's extremely frustrating. Personally, I don't mind lecturers "telling" the answers straight away. Obviously give motivation and lead into it rather than just delivering it with no introduction, but I've found a lot of problems are simply too large or too non-obvious to take a straw poll from the class. The best teachers I've had have been: (i) Really bloody good at their subject. My probability lecturer (the Field's medallist Tim Gowers), when presenting the proof of Stirling's approximation, said something along the lines of "now, the normal method for proving this bit is a bit complicated, and on my cycle in this morning I thought 'There must be an easier way', when the following struck me. Now, I've never written this down before, so hopefully it works...", and of course laid out a simplification of a famous proof that worked perfectly. Inspirational. (See http://gowers.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/removing-the-magic-from-stirlings-formula/ http://gowers.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/removing-the-magic-fr...) (ii) Incredible elucidators. The ability to take a complex concept and pick exactly the right words or metaphors to explain it is a powerful ability. I feel these criteria are far more important than asking the audience questions. You need both -- I've been taught by plenty of talented mathematicians who had no idea how to teach, and certainly a handful of great teachers who simply didn't have the aptitude to really grasp the more complex topics.
- GeneralMaximus 17y ago
  Agree. Asking questions in a class of 250 students is counter productive. But, here in India, it's against regulations in many colleges to have classes larger than 60 students. So, perspective :)
  - pageman 17y ago
    taught 300 students in Kabul, Afghanistan at one go (English Class) - what we did was we had PowerPoint, we had a microphone (connected to a mixer and JBL speakers) - and everyone had a sheet so they can follow the lessons, even had think-pair-share (using the PowerPoint as prompts) - had 5 of these classes going at the same time in Kabul University and 1 at the Kabul Polytechnic simultaneously. So you could ask 300 students all at the same time if you set it up properly :)

sethg 17y ago

Judah Schwartz, my physics professor at MIT, used to end each lecture by saying "Comments? Questions? Puzzles?" Usually there would be dead silence from the class. And then he would say "I don't believe you." And he waited for someone to ask a question.

dmhouse 17y ago

It depends entirely on how many people you're teaching. If you're sitting in a lecture hall full of 250 students, asking continual questions is just not going to get any response. No-one wants to embarass themselves in front of an audience that large. You'll just slow down the lecture while you pause and listen to a stony 10 second silence every couple of minutes. I've had lecturers do this, and it's extremely frustrating. Personally, I don't mind lecturers "telling" the answers straight away. Obviously give motivation and lead into it rather than just delivering it with no introduction, but I've found a lot of problems are simply too large or too non-obvious to take a straw poll from the class. The best teachers I've had have been: (i) Really bloody good at their subject. My probability lecturer (the Field's medallist Tim Gowers), when presenting the proof of Stirling's approximation, said something along the lines of "now, the normal method for proving this bit is a bit complicated, and on my cycle in this morning I thought 'There must be an easier way', when the following struck me. Now, I've never written this down before, so hopefully it works...", and of course laid out a simplification of a famous proof that worked perfectly. Inspirational. (See http://gowers.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/removing-the-magic-from-stirlings-formula/ http://gowers.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/removing-the-magic-fr...) (ii) Incredible elucidators. The ability to take a complex concept and pick exactly the right words or metaphors to explain it is a powerful ability. I feel these criteria are far more important than asking the audience questions. You need both -- I've been taught by plenty of talented mathematicians who had no idea how to teach, and certainly a handful of great teachers who simply didn't have the aptitude to really grasp the more complex topics.

GeneralMaximus 17y ago
Agree. Asking questions in a class of 250 students is counter productive. But, here in India, it's against regulations in many colleges to have classes larger than 60 students. So, perspective :)
- pageman 17y ago
  taught 300 students in Kabul, Afghanistan at one go (English Class) - what we did was we had PowerPoint, we had a microphone (connected to a mixer and JBL speakers) - and everyone had a sheet so they can follow the lessons, even had think-pair-share (using the PowerPoint as prompts) - had 5 of these classes going at the same time in Kabul University and 1 at the Kabul Polytechnic simultaneously. So you could ask 300 students all at the same time if you set it up properly :)