Re: A conversation w/ daryn re: being a teacher
 

I see the light

Re: A conversation w/ daryn re: being a teacher
 

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ok, let's spell it out. He is not arguing that the person with more education is inherently better at teaching than those who have less education. He is arguing that increasing the level of anyone's education will also increase their level of teaching ability.

basically, you have said you have good teaching abilities, if you had more education, you'd have even better teaching abilities.

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This only goes up to a certain point, I think. If I had a PhD, it would make me no more better to teach basic algebra than if I only had a BA.

And since I'm in the majority that is not teaching past the high school level (Calc 1 at most), a math PhD doesn't seem to help make me any more qualified to teach or a better teacher than if I only had a math BA (BA requires calc 1-3 and advanced calc).

Re: A conversation w/ daryn re: being a teacher
 

I think people are being a little more theoretical than they need to be. Your basic premise that teaching ability is by and large not directly related to how deep your knowledge of the subject is, past a certain point, is a good one. Of course, if you are teaching people stuff you don't understand yourself, you're obviously in trouble. But if you're teaching algebra, you don't need to be Einstein. And being Einstein almost certainly wouldn't even be helpful.

Having a really thorough grasp of your field would help a whole lot more if one were teaching college kids, of whom the brighter ones are very competent indeed, and need a high top end limit on where you can take them as a teacher. In high school algebra, there's only so far above the subject you're likely to need to go, and the majority of the quality of your teaching will have to do with being able to communicate what you know about things right at the class level.

Re: A conversation w/ daryn re: being a teacher
 

indeed, especially in math, some of the worst teachers are the truely brilliant - they never really had to learn, they just "got it" immediately, and are so much smarter than everyone else that they just can't grasp why we don't understand.

Re: A conversation w/ daryn re: being a teacher
 

i am now thinking of persuing some graduate math degree, thoughts? jason t?

how much work is it? i hate work.

Re: A conversation w/ daryn re: being a teacher
 

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thoughts? jason t?

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you have to put up the jason_t signal


http://img485.imageshack.us/img485/1518/jasontea4sq.jpg

Re: A conversation w/ daryn re: being a teacher
 

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i am now thinking of persuing some graduate math degree, thoughts? jason t?

how much work is it? i hate work.

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this is highly dependent upon the school you school to pursue your degree at.

Re: A conversation w/ daryn re: being a teacher
 

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indeed, especially in math, some of the worst teachers are the truely brilliant - they never really had to learn, they just "got it" immediately, and are so much smarter than everyone else that they just can't grasp why we don't understand.

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Absolutely. As someone who has taught many people software programs, I've seen that most people have a sticking point or two -- or 50. It seems almost random where that sticking point might be, and it's not necessarily at the hard stuff either. Trying to communicate well so you can help people past the stuff that's unnecessarily slowing them down is a gigantic part of teaching well, and that depends to a great deal on your ability to listen very very well, to speak well, to understand people, to think of alternative ways to approach the same subject, and even time the learning of tricky concepts to when a person is not as flustered or overwhelmed. None of those have a thing to do with how well you know your subject. And they're vital and come up again and again. They absolutely come up with the brightest students as well as the slowest, too.

And there definitely are people to whom a subject comes so easily that they're completely at a loss as to how to explain it well. Math savants definitely fall into that category a lot.

Re: A conversation w/ daryn re: being a teacher
 

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i am now thinking of persuing some graduate math degree, thoughts? jason t?

how much work is it? i hate work.

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I'm sorry to break the news that it is an insane amount of work. But, it's extremely rewarding.

Re: A conversation w/ daryn re: being a teacher
 

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i am now thinking of persuing some graduate math degree, thoughts? jason t?

how much work is it? i hate work.

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this is highly dependent upon the school you school to pursue your degree at.

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No, it's not.