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From: cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.math,sci.physics
Subject: Re: Student preparedness
Summary: Shall the ignorant teach?
Message-ID: <1077@l.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 23 Dec 88 13:40:39 GMT
References: <4893@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <6435@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> <9238@ihlpb.ATT.COM>
Organization: Purdue University Statistics Department
Lines: 46

In article <9238@ihlpb.ATT.COM>, nevin1@ihlpb.ATT.COM (Liber) writes:

> In article <502@mccc.UUCP> pjh@mccc.UUCP (Pete Holsberg) writes:
> 
> >However, most people find that their time is
> >spent more effectively in the company of a person who understands how to
> >teach them what they are to learn.
> 
> Yes, but the intersection of those people and my college professors
> yields a very small set indeed!  Professors are not usually hired based
> on their teaching ability; they are hired on their research ability.

Teaching should be done by those who UNDERSTAND the subject.  Generally
researchers have such understanding, else they would not be able to do
research.  It is possible to have scholars who are not very good at research
who have such understanding.  Unfortunately, it is rare.

Teaching means presenting the WHY, not the HOW.  It is very difficult to teach
the why to students who are not research caliber who already know the how.
It is harder than if they had not been taught the mechanics.  At least this
is the situation in mathematics and statistics, and from my student days, in
other fields as well.

			......................

> It is not even a necessary condition, let alone a sufficient condition,
> to know the material in order to teach it.  If you look at professional
> videotapes made for teaching, you will notice that most of the good
> ones have actors, not professors, doing the teaching (you can usually
> tell the difference on technical terms).

Baloney.  It is not sufficient, agreed.  But an actor can only present
what the professor explicitly includes.  A lecture is one of the worst
ways of teaching; many give the same lectures time after time.  If that
is what they do, videotape it the first time and replay it; and an actor
can do it better.

A lecture has been defined as material going from the lecturer's notes to
the auditors' notes, without passing through the minds of either.  I once
made the mistake of asking a question with such a lecturer.  He could not
teach, he could only present.  Too many students want such garbage.  We
should not oblige them.
-- 
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907
Phone: (317)494-6054
hrubin@l.cc.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet, UUCP)