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Raw_Power comments on Discussion: Socially Awkward Penguin as a tool for unraveling social enigmas - Less Wrong Discussion

23 Post author: Raw_Power 17 June 2011 12:52AM

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Comment author: Raw_Power 17 June 2011 02:26:31PM 2 points [-]

Naturally skilled people mostly suck at teaching because they stubbornly believe that the student can "just do" something non-trivial.

And this is why I think researchers shouldn't be teachers and vice-versa: the skillset is completely different

Comment author: Manfred 17 June 2011 03:54:25PM *  1 point [-]

They do share intelligence and knowledge of the subject, and being able to break down your knowledge into parts is useful for a researcher too. I think requiring researchers to teach at least some undergraduate classes is a good idea, because it serves as a form of professional development, keeping them in touch with the basics and keeps them integrated in university life. Although there should be recourse if a researcher is a particularly bad teacher, normally they do quite well.

Comment author: Raw_Power 17 June 2011 04:31:06PM *  0 points [-]

In my experience university teachers really don't give a crap about the students understanding anything and think all the technical low-level calculaton grunt work is so beneath them it doesn't deserve any attention. Ask any of them to derivate a freaking tangent and watch them sweat.

Comment author: Manfred 17 June 2011 05:45:58PM 0 points [-]

What subject was taught by this professor who had trouble taking the derivative of a tangent?

Comment author: Raw_Power 17 June 2011 08:50:15PM 0 points [-]

Here is his page Guy is apparently a highlevel mather, but completely out of touch with peasant-level calculations, apparently.

Comment author: Manfred 17 June 2011 10:20:36PM 0 points [-]

Huh, I have never run into such a person, though I've run into a few professors who were bad teachers. But in your experience it's common: you say "In my experience university teachers really don't give a crap about the students understanding anything".

Is it really that common? Are you generalizing too much?

Maybe it's a difference between different countries. Have you read Richard Feynman's account of teaching in Brazil?

Comment author: Raw_Power 18 June 2011 02:07:13AM 0 points [-]

Nope. Do tell.

Comment author: Manfred 18 June 2011 02:34:18AM 1 point [-]

Well, in short, science education in Brazil was consistently terrible because it taught students to value memorization but not understanding. In long, you can read his account here.

Comment author: Raw_Power 18 June 2011 07:06:29AM 0 points [-]

So... like Japan?