Even in the context of "helping", some people have to show they could teach the class. They do this by asking leading questions, pointing out any mistake, no matter how pedantic, and other obnoxious, interruptive actions.
Students quickly recognize the adversarial relationship and, depending on how the teacher responds, either lose confidence in the teacher or tube out the cock fight.
As the teacher, in a short-term environment (like a substitute or a half-day seminar), you have to shut that person down unequivocally. In a longer lasting environment, give that person a chance to teach.
I like to just go along with it, and get them to teach me. Accept the idea that they are the expert, and place them into a teacher position. If you disagree with a statement being made, don't be adversarial, steelman their arguments and try get them to explain to you why they are making the statement they are making. Either you ignite their passion, or they avoid you because you are weirdly too enthusiastic about a mechanism they may have been using to overpower you.
I had an math professor (NOT the one I am referencing in another comment) that was ego-centric and would often respond to my incessant questioning with demoralizing (and sometimes flat out rude) responses. I just acted completely oblivious to the social faux pas and his avoidance/adversarial tendencies eventually turned into a much more productive relationship. I received the only A in the class (he publicly posted everyone's grades).
IMO, when you are in a situation where you have to teach, ultimately you realize that you both know your subject material well enough to help out people who are new to the material even if you might get minor details wrong.
And in the event that you get something important wrong (it's happened to me, FWIW), people know that you are human-- as long as you're willing to own up and figure out where you are wrong (and actually do have a bit of mastery over the larger material) most students are happy to be learning along with you.
The only way to overcome is to actually make mistakes and practice dealing with them.
Fortunately, the more you teach, the more you will find opportunities to deal with your misunderstandings of the world.
It's embarrassing at first, but it can be turned into a learning experience for everyone. It can foster a more engaged, collaborative classroom when an instructor admits when he's wrong and graciously thanks students for improving their own knowledge. That said, the instructor should have the strongest grasp of the material.
To counter the positive feedback about this technique, I'd like to point that when the person on the learning side (answering the questions) has not asked to be taught anything, the teacher (asking questions) can come across as a condescending prick. This is especially true if the content is a matter of opinion, not statements of fact. I have become sensitized to this and it makes my blood boil when I notice it happen.
>Everyone who's tried to teach has noticed that some people pick things up better than others.
Obviously. Is this a problem with the students themselves, the teachers, the teaching strategy/material or some combination of those things? I think it's rather short sighted (not to mention far too convenient) to just assume it's the student and move on.
So much truth here. Especially the fact that you cared.
As someone who had his share of poor TAs and was a TA, caring is what sets apart the good teachers from the poor ones. Taking the time to sit and figure out the fundamental misunderstanding and then a good way around it is essential. It may look obvious to you, but the other person is obviously lost. The only way to solve that isn't by special power or teaching acumen, but taking time to figure out the core problem.
Aptly, it often involves debugging the person! Figure out where the chain of thought broke down!
No, that's the inherent job of an educator, to assess the student's situation which includes physical, mental, and emotional support.
If you want to teach someone anything while yelling at them, or making them uncomfortable because the room is too hot, or by making them do meaningless puzzles that don't relate to the material it deeply compromises your goal of teaching them.
One thing that would help is if people like the author in this article looked at this a chance to mentor or tutor students who weren't getting it rather than perpetuating the problem by doing their work for them.
If you're not willing to take the initiative on your own to do what you need to do to learn the material for a class you're taking, then you shouldn't be complaining if you haven't learned the material when the course is over.
When you're taking a course, it is literally someone's job to answer your questions.
When you're teaching a class of 50+ students, your primary job is to lecture them. Two-way interaction is usually reserved for office hours.
If you're not enrolled in a course, you would need a patient friend who is an expert in the subject, an extremely patient acquaintance who is an expert, or an expert tutor. All of those are hard to come by.
Only because learning by watching online lectures currently is not a common method of learning (because the technology necessary for it to be possible has only recently become available). If it were to become more common, these resources would certainly be more readily available. The tutors would also be held to more exacting standards, since there would be competition. At a traditional university, for a given semester for a given course, you're usually forced to select from 1 or 2 professors, whom you can only indirectly evaluate for their performance after the course has ended. But with tutors, you would be free to pick whoever you wanted.
Also, most of these professors' primary job is their research, not teaching. The tutors would be focused on teaching, and would thus do a better job of it. Being a good researcher in a field means almost nothing when it comes to teaching undergraduate level material. Some of the professors I've had have been some of the smartest people I've ever met, but their communication & teaching skills have been nothing short of appalling.
Further, I rarely give straight answers to my student's questions. Their question is usually a symptom of a deeper misunderstanding, and figuring out what that is, and leading them to understand that, is my real job. Someone who just says "The answer is X" does not serve the same role as a teacher.
Competition that would result from the ability to cherry-pick personal tutors for each course would naturally eliminate those who did a poor job of teaching their students, so that wouldn't be an issue either.
In my experience, most people who ask you to teach them don't want to learn as much as move on from this. It is frustrating, I no longer teach people. I take it seriously and it takes a lot of effort for me to teach well.
In my experience as a TA, the worst obstacle in teaching someone something is when they think they already know it. There's nothing that can replace a bad grade and the consequent soul searching in these situations. A disagreeable experience for the moment can sometimes benefit you much more in the long run.
Any teaching that assumes that the student is a biggot that needs to be corrected, and that the student should just accept his truth on the basis of his/her authority as a teacher, is obviously a fairly bad way of teaching.
The teacher should make the knowledge he wants to impart approachable and use an angle that the student can accept so as to convince him/her.
A good tutor needs to be able to meet the student at their level, and be patient and encouraging with confusion and lack of understanding and bigger motivational problems.
Instead, this person seems disrespectful and judgmental of his student. Perhaps she is on another forum, writing, "My sibling badgers me for hours and acts like I'm stupid."
Good one on one discussions done with an open heart really moves mountains.
I often notice people getting offended if you try to teach them anything directly though, in a social environment (even if you're known to be one to be open to being taught)
But who will? When you're taking a course, it is literally someone's job to answer your questions. If you're not enrolled in a course, you would need a patient friend who is an expert in the subject, an extremely patient acquaintance who is an expert, or an expert tutor. All of those are hard to come by.
Further, I rarely give straight answers to my student's questions. Their question is usually a symptom of a deeper misunderstanding, and figuring out what that is, and leading them to understand that, is my real job. Someone who just says "The answer is X" does not serve the same role as a teacher.
Students quickly recognize the adversarial relationship and, depending on how the teacher responds, either lose confidence in the teacher or tube out the cock fight.
As the teacher, in a short-term environment (like a substitute or a half-day seminar), you have to shut that person down unequivocally. In a longer lasting environment, give that person a chance to teach.
reply