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NPR is starting off a series titled "50 Great Teachers" and is starting with Socrates:
We're starting this celebration of teaching with Socrates, the superstar teacher of the ancient world. He was sentenced to death more than 2,400 years ago for "impiety" and "corrupting" the minds of the youth of Athens.
But Socrates' ideas helped form the foundation of Western philosophy and the scientific method of inquiry. And his question-and-dialogue-based teaching style lives on in many classrooms as the Socratic method.
Most of us have been influenced by our teachers, and some of them may have even been great ones even if, unlike Socrates, they toiled in anonymity. So, I ask this question: Who were (or are) your greatest teachers, why, and what did you learn from them that made them so great?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 30 2014, @06:01AM
I cannot put enough emphasis on this: love what you're teaching.
Don't be dry and dull, don't recite. Numbers and calculations are for books and tutorials. You're there to generate a level of understanding in the students.
Throw in silly little jokes, if they help keep attention. ("So if you produce sufficient numbers of these bats, the number of Wom players who buy them ... geddit? Wom bats? Anyway, the number...")
Keep looking at your audience. If they seem bored, you're probably doing something really wrong. Don't use a monotone, but you don't need to be that nerdy kid from the Simpsons. Don't talk at a regular pace, either - break it up, ask questions. Sometimes, give chocolate marshmallow fish out as a reward for questions.
Something else I wish I had, while studying maths (my learning disability makes things a bit difficult at times):
if you're teaching, say, derivatives and integration, don't just teach the method. Explain what you might use the area under a curve for, but don't just stop there. I really can't remember the uses for it but explain why it gives you what you need.
In my Computer Science classes, I'd have all sorts of crap thrown at me, then in the labs I wouldn't get how the specifics of it related to the lectures. (Again, my learning disability.) Try and give examples. Be somewhat interactive, and try to work out what you're actually being asked.
I had a Computer Graphics lecturer once explain to a class that if you could create a battery that would never lose its recharge capacity, you'd sell an unlimited number of them. One of my classmates pointed out that you wouldn't sell an unlimited number, because once everyone had what they needed they'd almost never replace them. The lecturer couldn't grasp what point was being made, and kept saying that you'd sell a limitless number. Don't make that mistake - it may not seem like much, but it demonstrates how much attention is being paid by the lecturer. He also disputed the Guiness record for the highest fall without a parachute.
I can't say this enough: love what you're teaching. Want to teach it to a class of people. They'll feel your passion. I've been inspired by a number of lecturers, including a Greek Mythology lecturer who was just a pleasure to turn up and listen to. The semester ended with him three weeks behind, my biggest disappointment being that class was over.
If you love what you do, your students will enjoy your lectures.