Hi all! A year ago I wrote . Judging by the reviews, the article has a lot of interesting ideas, but it is long and hard to read. And I have long wanted to break it down into smaller ones and write them more clearly.
But writing the same thing twice somehow does not work. In addition, this year there were significant problems with the similar organization of the course. Therefore, I decided to write several articles about each of the ideas separately. Discuss the pros and cons.
This zero article is an exception. It is about teacher motivation. About why teaching well is useful and pleasant both for oneself and for the world.
I'll start with what motivates me
First of all, it is interesting and pleasant for me! I'll try to formulate exactly what.
I like to come up with some kind of rules by which others will have to live for at least a semester. I like to improve the ready-made rules, already existing or built by me. So that they become better, solve some problems that I or students have.
For a good course, you need a lot: pick up material, reasonably arrange it by semester, learn how to explain clearly and interestingly, think over an adequate and stimulating reporting system for students. Designing such a course is not only a very interesting, but also a practically useful task. It can be solved endlessly. You can personally observe intermediate improvements in practice. In research problems with such improvements observed in practice, it is usually bad, teaching can compensate for this.
Of course, I also like to share my knowledge - it seems that this makes me look smarter and more attractive. I'm kind of at the head of the audience. I like that at least someone listens to me, and attentively. Does what I think is right. Plus, the status of a teacher creates in itself creates a pleasant halo.
But interesting and pleasant - that's not all. Teaching makes me a better person: more knowledgeable, more capable.
I have to delve deeper into the material. I donβt want students to look at me accusingly and think: βHereβs another one with nothing to do but read us some nonsense that he himself doesnβt consider it necessary to understand.β
When students roughly understand the material, they begin to ask questions. Sometimes questions turn out to be smart and bring you closer to the unknown. It happens that already in the question itself there is an idea that had not occurred to me before. Or somehow miscalculated.
It happens that new knowledge appears from the results of student work. For example, when doing practical tasks or improving course materials, students offer new algorithms for me, quality assessment formulas. Maybe I've even heard about these ideas before, but I still couldn't bring myself to figure it out. And then they come and say: βwhy not add this to the course? It's better than what it is, that's why ... "- you have to figure it out, you can't run away.
In addition, teaching is an active practice of communicating with students. I answer their questions, trying to be clear and not go into the jungle.
Spoiler:This is bad for me =(
In the course of communication, I involuntarily evaluate the abilities and diligence of students. Then these grades are automatically compared with what the student actually did. In itself, it turns out that I am learning to evaluate the abilities of other people.
It happens to learn interesting facts about the structure of the world. For example, this year I had a chance to get a feel for how different student flows can be with a difference of only one year.
How else can teaching help the one who teaches?
There are several ideas. Can:
- Use students to test research hypotheses. Yes, I do not think that using the work of students on the topic of the subject for their own purposes is unethical and bad. On the contrary: students feel that what they are doing is really necessary. This is a pleasant feeling, it stimulates to better performance of tasks.
- Understand how different people will react to your words. Learn to communicate more effectively
- Experiment with teamwork
- Meet future experts in your field. You may have to work with some of them later. Or perhaps one of the students will like it and then you will invite him to work with you. You can get to know a person much better by observing a person for a semester than by several interviews.
Well, in sad moments, you can remember that you passed on a piece of your knowledge and experience to many people. They didn't get lost. =)
Source: habr.com