Originally posted by J. Arthur God:
Originally posted by Count Iblis II:
I studied mostly by myself. I.m.o., the teacher should just tell stories, show videos etc. about the subject he/she is teaching. Then he should give the student assignments that require the student to study for him/herself. In case of dificulties the student should contact the teacher.
Students want to see that the teacher is interested in the subject and interested in them learning. Students will look for reasons to believe the opposite--even if it isn't true.
A good teacher should care about the subject and project this. He/She should be extremely well prepared for every class.
I had one Prof. who would take one day a week and send the students to the blackboards to solve problems. Students worked in teams of 2 each. The Prof would wander around and nudge students when they needed it, or provide new problems as they finished.
(of course, the teacher had to divide the class into 3 sessions on that day to have time and blackboard space for everyone) The Prof. obviously cared, and it showed. Students still remember those sessions (even some of the problems).
I had another Prof. who gave essentially the same lecture 3 times in a row. I stopped going to class. Unfortunately, the Prof. figured out that he was way behind and went into overdrive to cover all the subject (required for the qualifying exams) in time. Point is, students lost confidence in the Prof. because he obviously didn't care. The Prof. should certainly be interested in what he is teaching. But I think that the lectures should not be too much focused about the technical details the students have to master. At university you are educating students to become researchers. So, not only do the students have to master the subjects they are taught, they also have to learn how to master new topics without help from others.
If they don't learn to learn by themselves, they will not learn to do research a few years later when they start to do their Ph.D. and later when they do Post Doc research.
Students don't learn much during the lectures anyway. What happens is that the lecturer breaks down the ''big book'' the student have to go through in steps so that it looks more managable. Students have to sit down and learn the subject by themselves anyway.
