Timeline for Should teachers be entertainers?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
28 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 1, 2014 at 3:49 | comment | added | keshlam | Note that the need to present the information in an engaging manner applies to ALL kinds of presentations, not just teaching. Presenting is a skill; it can be learned, it can be improved... and if you don't make the effort to learn it, odds are greater than 50% that you're going to do it badly. | |
| May 7, 2014 at 12:27 | review | Close votes | |||
| May 7, 2014 at 14:33 | |||||
| Apr 29, 2014 at 23:22 | comment | added | AmadeusDrZaius | I just watched the video and I see nothing about humor in his TED talk. It's all about how teachers aren't being taught how to engage students. And I agree with him 100%. | |
| Apr 29, 2014 at 23:15 | comment | added | AmadeusDrZaius | The best teachers I had were funny, but they knew so much about their subject that they were able to make it humorous without losing the concepts. | |
| Apr 29, 2014 at 12:52 | comment | added | non-numeric_argument | It seems that most people here disagree profoundly with the op, but there is actually evidence that students falsely perceive learning as more successful when professors are more fluent. Thus, there is reason to be sceptical about the current teaching style which lays so much emphasis on entertainment. | |
| Apr 28, 2014 at 23:03 | comment | added | nuoritoveri | Entertainment can mean different things for different people. Listening to interesting things is entertaining for me. Referencing soccer championships and banging on my desk to make me engaged is not entertaining for me (I changed the voluntary lecture after that). | |
| Apr 28, 2014 at 20:57 | history | protected | eykanal | ||
| Apr 28, 2014 at 18:07 | comment | added | Brian S | @Moriarty, that said, humor can teach, sometimes. Tom Lehrer is a good example. :) | |
| Apr 28, 2014 at 15:30 | comment | added | Ven | That reminds me of Tech Conferences now -- Should speakers be entertainers :) ? | |
| Apr 28, 2014 at 13:13 | answer | added | Roman | timeline score: 3 | |
| Apr 28, 2014 at 13:04 | comment | added | posdef | I really like this question, the discussion it sparks, and the answers it has/will generate, however it is VERY subjective as it stands (e.g. "I am just wondering what others feel about this") and thus not a very good fit for a StackExchange site, according to the general guidelines. Do mods have any opinion on this either way? | |
| Apr 28, 2014 at 12:55 | comment | added | Nanne | Where does this "clown" thing come from? You can entertain without being a clown. That ted talk mentions "enthrall", a thing that Feynman certainly does. We are 'fighting' a strawman here: suddenly we are looking at a statement about being a clown that come from nowhere. You need to entertain is / can be something else then being a clown, and therefore arguing the latter is incorrect doesn't really impact the thing that is getting 'traction' | |
| Apr 28, 2014 at 12:52 | comment | added | Koldito | @kojiro It is true that Feynman tended to behave weirdly in his non-academic life (it is a different question whether you want to call him a clown because of that). On the other hand, his lectures (and there are many of them on youtube for you to watch) are anything but clownish. | |
| Apr 28, 2014 at 12:32 | comment | added | user10636 | @JeffE, I wonder if you know of any literature on this topic. I know of a Pew Study that says many teachers think their students are more distractable because of technology, but I don't know any psychological research that settles the point either way. | |
| Apr 28, 2014 at 12:09 | answer | added | Di Ana | timeline score: 1 | |
| Apr 28, 2014 at 6:33 | comment | added | Moriarty | @kojiro In the context of this question, I would call a "clown" someone who was (or tried to be) funny but whose teaching was ineffectual. Feynman was entertaining, but I wouldn't call him a clown. Taking your teaching seriously doesn't mean you always have to be serious. | |
| Apr 28, 2014 at 4:03 | answer | added | Ivan Igniter | timeline score: 3 | |
| Apr 28, 2014 at 0:26 | answer | added | paul garrett | timeline score: 8 | |
| Apr 28, 2014 at 0:08 | comment | added | kojiro | @Moriarty I don't want to drive this offtrack, but there's literature to suggest that Feynman was quite a clown. Did he take a very serious approach to teaching, but clown around in other areas? | |
| Apr 27, 2014 at 19:35 | answer | added | Nick Stauner | timeline score: 6 | |
| Apr 27, 2014 at 18:28 | comment | added | JeffE | the current iPhone generation — "Kids these days just can't concentrate" arguments are just as stupid now as they were in ancient Greece. People who use this argument assume that their own behavior as students was typical, and then blame some exogenous distracting factor (iPads, video games, television, popular music, radio, newspapers, books, writing, fire, etc.) when reality doesn't match their assumptions. | |
| Apr 27, 2014 at 18:07 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackAcademia/status/460480332404625408 | ||
| Apr 27, 2014 at 18:00 | answer | added | Suresh | timeline score: 24 | |
| Apr 27, 2014 at 17:06 | comment | added | user4511 | I would say that the teaching should not be boring. The teacher can be serious and acts strictly professional, but he/she should finds a way, for example by challenging students, to make them interested in the course. | |
| Apr 27, 2014 at 16:55 | answer | added | Davidmh | timeline score: 12 | |
| Apr 27, 2014 at 15:13 | comment | added | Moriarty | Richard Feynman, David Attenborough, and Carl Sagan were not clowns. The best teachers I have ever listened to were passionate. Humour might jolt an audience awake and make them like the speaker as a person, but it will rarely teach anything or incite passion for a subject. Appropriate humour in the classroom can provide a welcome reprieve, but it is no substitute for enthusiasm and good teaching skills. | |
| Apr 27, 2014 at 15:10 | answer | added | aeismail | timeline score: 56 | |
| Apr 27, 2014 at 14:58 | history | asked | wsaleem | CC BY-SA 3.0 |