Pedagogy

[stoutfellow]

I maintain, and will maintain until the day I retire if not longer, that an experience like the following is good for students.

A mathematics instructor, carrying out a lengthy computation on the board, makes a small error, which propagates through the calculation to produce an obviously incorrect result.

He (I use that pronoun for good and sufficient reason) points out and explains the incorrectness to the students. He then gazes at the board for a minute or two, muttering and rubbing his chin, until finally he cries "AHA! IDIOT! IDIOT!" After briefly pummeling himself about the head, he points out the step at which things went awry, and corrects the computation.

I have more than one reason for believing this to be a good experience.

Twice in one lecture, however, may be deemed a bit excessive, even if the instructor is rather less demonstrative the second time.

Comments

[kattsune.livejournal.com]

Gah. As a student, during the first teaching of the lesson, I hated that. Maybe the next day when we're going over the homework it would be okay, but for me it was always like "Okay, now follow this forty-step process VERY CAREFULLY because you will be tested on it... Follow it, internalize it, for it is TRUE. Oh... all except for step three. Yeah, that was my Ooops, no hard feelings, eh?"

I tended to be a more visual learner, so things like geometry, trig, etc came easily... when I got into Calc I, my brain was working hard to make the adjustments... in Calc II, there were times when I wanted to leap to the front of the class and strangle the man... or maybe go home and cry into my Dr. Pepper.