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PROFESSOR: What I want to do now
is basically summarize the

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theme of each of the sessions
that we've had, partly as a

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way of reminding you of all
the things we did and also

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jogging your memory or any
question that you might have

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about that.

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00:00:40,500 --> 00:00:43,520
And then it'll be your chance
to ask questions.

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So I'm going to do it, so
I'll think aloud here.

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I'll do it in a way that I can
leave them up the whole time.

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00:00:51,730 --> 00:00:54,140
So let me do it here.

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00:00:54,140 --> 00:00:55,390
I'll do it on these two guys.

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00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:02,700
Yeah, I'll do it here.

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So our sessions and the
summaries of them--

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so session number one was
the introduction.

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But I'll start with session two,
was teaching equations.

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Now the fundamental idea I
wanted people to learn in this

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00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:39,050
one is to help students learn
equations in big chunks.

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So doing derivations
is generally

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antithetical to that.

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Because students will just see
the little symbols, and

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they'll see a ton and ton and
ton and ton of symbols.

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And they're chunk size is much
smaller than you, so you will

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overload their short
term memory.

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00:01:55,420 --> 00:01:57,870
And they won't really be
understanding, they'll be just

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trying to remember and write
as fast as they can.

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00:02:05,660 --> 00:02:09,570
So is that visible,
the orange?

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00:02:09,570 --> 00:02:09,810
Yeah?

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Great.

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Oh yeah, you're a good test.

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00:02:14,180 --> 00:02:17,090
So teaching equations, you
want to try and chunk the

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00:02:17,090 --> 00:02:20,490
equations, because that gives
meaning for the students.

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00:02:20,490 --> 00:02:23,760
So, for example, what
does each term mean?

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00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:27,330
Why would you expect that term
to show up in the equation?

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00:02:27,330 --> 00:02:30,770
Those are the kinds of things
that a book generally does not

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do very well.

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00:02:31,910 --> 00:02:35,560
And that's something that you,
as a teacher, actually have a

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lot of value to add.

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00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:43,600
Now I just learned about a book
that does try to do this,

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which is called A Student's
Guide to Maxwell's Equations.

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Does anybody know that book?

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00:02:52,270 --> 00:02:53,390
Yeah, you know it?

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So, it looks fantastic.

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00:02:56,200 --> 00:03:00,220
I'm number seven or something
in the queue to get a copy

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from the MIT library, which
shows how popular it is.

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But the way it's organized--

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00:03:04,610 --> 00:03:07,130
well, first of all, it's sold
an immense number of copies

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for a technical textbook,
something like 7,000 or

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something like that.

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So it's a physics best seller.

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It's not an Agatha Christie
novel, but

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it's really well done.

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And each chapter talks about
one of the equations.

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So there's four, roughly,
Maxwell's equations.

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And there's four chapters,
one per equation.

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So it's helping the students
chunk just by the very

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structure of the books.

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But most books don't do that,
aren't that well or that

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interestingly constructed, and
that thoughtfully constructed,

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so it's something that you, as
a teacher, really should do.

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The next one--

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misconceptions.

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So why did we spend a whole
session on misconceptions?

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Well, it's fundamentally
important, misconceptions,

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because if you don't know where
your students are, you

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have no chance of bringing
them to where you

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want them to go.

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The example that's classic,
that's [? probably ?]

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started this whole line of
research about misconceptions,

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was students' understanding
of force and motion.

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And basically, what you find
is that most peoples'

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intuitive understanding
of force and

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motion is f equals mv.

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If you have an object,
you stop pushing

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it, it stops moving.

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Force and velocity
are connected.

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If you have a heavier object,
you have to push it harder.

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If you have a lighter object,
you push it less.

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So force and mass are connected,
so it looks

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like f equals mv.

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Whereas, we would like to
teach them f equals ma,

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Newton's Second Law, force
equals mass times

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acceleration.

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So there's a fundamental
difference there, and if you

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don't take account of that,
you'll end up producing just

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rote knowledge.

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They'll say OK, well whenever
I happen to be in physics

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class, I'll use f equals ma, and
I'll just solve problems

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symbolically using that
procedure you've told me.

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But I don't really believe it,
or understand it, or use it in

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my own reasoning, so my
intuition is no longer

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available for reasoning.

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So by taking account of
students' misconceptions and

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helping them come to an
intuitive understanding of how

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things really work,
you're actually

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making them much smarter.

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So this is knowing--

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so that's knowing how
students think.

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So this is pretty much opposite
to behaviorism.

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Because you're saying, well, I
really want to peer into how

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people are reflecting, and how
their cognition works, what's

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going on under the hood.

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And behaviorism says, well, no,
all you need to do is look

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at the behavior.

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If they're solving problems
correctly, that's fine.

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Whereas actually you want to
know, well, why did they solve

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it that way?

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Is it because they really
understood it or not?

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Did they just say 6 times 3 is
18, because they were told, or

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they memorized it?

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Or was it because they really
understood it, in which case

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they could make a word problem
related to it?

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So knowing how students think,
you're actually part of the

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cognitive revolution.

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And you're actually connecting
to students, directly and

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making them much smarter.

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Homework and exam questions--

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so constructing homework and
exam questions, the main theme

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of that was Bloom's Taxonomy.

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So this was a hierarchy of goals
that you could have.

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So the full name is A Taxonomy
of Educational Objectives.

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And the ones we're talking
about, if you look at the full

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title, it's the cognitive
domain.

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There's the cognitive
and affective.

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Affective means related to
feelings and emotions.

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This is the cognitive domain
ones I'm talking about here.

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So are you asking for
just comprehension?

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Are you asking for students
to analyze?

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Are you asking them to
synthesize knowledge?

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What is the level of cognitive
activity that

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you're asking for?

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00:07:43,990 --> 00:07:47,780
And generally, you want
to mix levels.

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So you don't want to just
push the students

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off a cliff and say--

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00:07:56,870 --> 00:07:58,960
the first day in thermodynamics
class, discuss

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00:07:58,960 --> 00:08:01,010
how the Second Law of
Thermodynamics applies to the

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00:08:01,010 --> 00:08:03,370
entropy of the universe?

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00:08:03,370 --> 00:08:05,532
That's just too hard.

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00:08:05,532 --> 00:08:08,485
You've pushed them way off the
cliff, and you jumped way too

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00:08:08,485 --> 00:08:09,520
high in Bloom's Taxonomy.

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00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:12,210
You also don't want to just give
them pure comprehension

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00:08:12,210 --> 00:08:15,480
problems, because they remember
the rule that you're

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trying to teach.

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00:08:17,080 --> 00:08:19,520
Rather, you want to mix them,
and Bloom's Taxonomy gives you

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a structured way of seeing what
level your questions are

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at and making sure you mix
them, so that you prepare

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students comprehension
questions, so that they can

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later do evaluation questions.

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Course design--

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so for course design, the
big idea is big ideas.

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So you want to organize your
course around some kind of

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00:09:01,590 --> 00:09:03,260
large ideas.

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00:09:03,260 --> 00:09:08,500
And ideally, those large ideas
will transfer outside of the

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course too.

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00:09:09,790 --> 00:09:12,300
And if a whole curriculum is
organized around a few large

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ideas, for example, waves and
oscillatory motion, you could

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00:09:16,580 --> 00:09:20,670
also organize a whole bunch of
a physics major around ideas

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like that, or conservation.

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By giving structure to the
curriculum, you turn it away

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from just a series of
unconnected facts, like we did

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00:09:32,010 --> 00:09:34,900
this topic, that topic, that
topic, that topic, actually

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00:09:34,900 --> 00:09:37,190
you give it form and
organization.

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00:09:37,190 --> 00:09:40,740
And then it's much more likely
to be built into long lasting

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00:09:40,740 --> 00:09:42,590
chunks in the students' minds.

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So the next one was interactive
teaching.

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00:09:57,750 --> 00:10:01,120
The sixth session was
interactive teaching.

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00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:06,280
And the main theme is that
questioning and reflecting

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00:10:06,280 --> 00:10:07,740
lead to long lasting learning.

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00:10:22,770 --> 00:10:28,230
So I showed you three or four
different time scales on which

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00:10:28,230 --> 00:10:30,890
you could be interactive.

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00:10:30,890 --> 00:10:34,040
A short one is when you ask a
question, you wait 5 seconds.

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00:10:34,040 --> 00:10:36,830
Or actually some of you
suggested seven, which is

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00:10:36,830 --> 00:10:37,650
probably better.

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00:10:37,650 --> 00:10:39,910
It's just harder to do, but
it's probably better.

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00:10:39,910 --> 00:10:42,780
So you wait a certain amount
of time to allow people to

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actually formulate questions.

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00:10:44,610 --> 00:10:48,290
So that promotes interaction
on a short scale.

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00:10:48,290 --> 00:10:51,350
You can ask short questions,
one or two minutes, two or

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00:10:51,350 --> 00:10:53,940
three minutes, with a multiple
choice right in

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the middle of lecture.

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It gives you feedback.

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So it's related to the
misconceptions one.

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You're learning how students
think, just as

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00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:03,010
they answer the questions.

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00:11:08,740 --> 00:11:14,670
Or on the same time scale, you
can ask the feedback questions

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00:11:14,670 --> 00:11:16,970
from this sheet at the
end of the lecture.

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00:11:16,970 --> 00:11:19,310
So that's also promoting
a space for questions.

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00:11:19,310 --> 00:11:22,600
And you can actually see
how successful that is.

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00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:25,100
There's so many questions,
actually, we could spend two

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00:11:25,100 --> 00:11:26,760
more sessions answered
all the questions,

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00:11:26,760 --> 00:11:29,770
which I'm glad about.

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00:11:29,770 --> 00:11:32,400
Because questioning
and reflecting--

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00:11:32,400 --> 00:11:35,430
that's how people make
knowledge their own.

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00:11:35,430 --> 00:11:37,320
So the formal name for that
is constructivism.

200
00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:40,260
But what you're doing is
you're helping people

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00:11:40,260 --> 00:11:41,210
construct knowledge.

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00:11:41,210 --> 00:11:42,940
And you can do this
on a long scale.

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00:11:42,940 --> 00:11:45,120
Like for example, for the whole
lecture, you can use a

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00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:48,410
question like the word blocks,
which I showed you earlier.

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00:11:48,410 --> 00:11:51,050
You can actually do that
for an entire lecture.

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00:11:51,050 --> 00:11:54,645
And actually, we just did that
for entire lecture in my Art

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00:11:54,645 --> 00:11:56,050
of Approximation class.

208
00:11:56,050 --> 00:11:58,600
Because the word blocks leads
to xylophones, and I brought

209
00:11:58,600 --> 00:11:59,380
in a xylophone.

210
00:11:59,380 --> 00:12:02,940
And we can talk about how the
pitches of the thick and thin

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00:12:02,940 --> 00:12:06,200
wood blocks relate to the
pitches of shorter and longer

212
00:12:06,200 --> 00:12:08,850
xylophone slats.

213
00:12:08,850 --> 00:12:11,420
So rich examples like that--

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00:12:11,420 --> 00:12:12,790
one doesn't have that
many of them.

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00:12:12,790 --> 00:12:15,380
But when you do have them, you
can actually build an entire

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00:12:15,380 --> 00:12:16,620
session around them.

217
00:12:16,620 --> 00:12:19,490
And it produces all of
these good things.

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00:12:22,590 --> 00:12:23,840
Seven--

219
00:12:35,930 --> 00:12:39,830
lecture planning
and performing.

220
00:12:39,830 --> 00:12:42,260
So for the planning of the
lecture, just like for the

221
00:12:42,260 --> 00:12:45,160
course, the planning of a
course, you want to organize

222
00:12:45,160 --> 00:12:47,670
it around some kind of big idea,
some kind of thing that

223
00:12:47,670 --> 00:12:49,000
gives it structure.

224
00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:51,870
The whole lecture, you
want an objective.

225
00:13:05,660 --> 00:13:10,200
For example, by the end of the
lecture, I want students to be

226
00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:13,660
able to explain the origin
of the terms in the

227
00:13:13,660 --> 00:13:14,910
Navier-Stokes equation.

228
00:13:17,680 --> 00:13:20,040
So then you would choose
your activities in

229
00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:21,830
lecture around this goal.

230
00:13:21,830 --> 00:13:25,620
But that goal, actually just
like the longer scale one for

231
00:13:25,620 --> 00:13:27,680
the whole course, gives
structure to the lecture.

232
00:13:27,680 --> 00:13:29,940
And you know what to put in
and what not to put it.

233
00:13:29,940 --> 00:13:34,000
And the lecture planning blank
sheets, or the templates I

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00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:38,960
gave you, I posted, you can
use those to that end.

235
00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:41,920
And that's for the
planning part.

236
00:13:41,920 --> 00:13:48,630
And for the performing, I would
say the main thing in

237
00:13:48,630 --> 00:13:52,840
performing that people don't
normally think about when they

238
00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:54,160
think about teaching
is timing.

239
00:13:59,860 --> 00:14:03,560
So if you want to create little
bits of suspense and

240
00:14:03,560 --> 00:14:06,450
interest, little bits
of tension,

241
00:14:06,450 --> 00:14:07,780
that are then released.

242
00:14:07,780 --> 00:14:09,960
And you want to do that
on multiple scales--

243
00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:12,630
short and long.

244
00:14:12,630 --> 00:14:16,240
The interactive teaching
questions from here help do

245
00:14:16,240 --> 00:14:18,400
that, especially if you
have a demonstration.

246
00:14:18,400 --> 00:14:21,640
Because people want to know, is
the thick wood block going

247
00:14:21,640 --> 00:14:25,250
to be higher pitch or is it
going to be a lower pitch?

248
00:14:25,250 --> 00:14:26,930
And you'll find that when you
do things like that, the

249
00:14:26,930 --> 00:14:28,850
entire room is dead silent,
because people

250
00:14:28,850 --> 00:14:29,960
really want to know.

251
00:14:29,960 --> 00:14:34,200
And the way you structure the
questions can promote that.

252
00:14:34,200 --> 00:14:37,630
By having people vote, they've
now made a public commitment,

253
00:14:37,630 --> 00:14:42,330
which then activates the
cognitive dissonance part of

254
00:14:42,330 --> 00:14:43,580
people's mind.

255
00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:50,580
By making a public commitment,
they've now made their

256
00:14:50,580 --> 00:14:53,880
internal state more towards the
public state, which is oh,

257
00:14:53,880 --> 00:14:55,290
I want to know what's
going on.

258
00:14:55,290 --> 00:14:57,170
And they really do want to
know what's going on.

259
00:14:57,170 --> 00:15:01,310
So timing-- you can get a lot
of timing ideas from the

260
00:15:01,310 --> 00:15:03,370
interactive teaching methods.

261
00:15:03,370 --> 00:15:06,310
But timing is really important
for performing.

262
00:15:06,310 --> 00:15:10,520
Imagine jokes where people tell
you the punchline first,

263
00:15:10,520 --> 00:15:12,740
and then they tell you
the rest of the joke.

264
00:15:12,740 --> 00:15:15,480
They don't go over too well, and
most comics, at least most

265
00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:18,080
successful comics,
don't do that.

266
00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:19,690
But we usually do that
with our teaching.

267
00:15:31,520 --> 00:15:35,680
Blackboards and slides
for teaching--

268
00:15:35,680 --> 00:15:45,110
so the main concepts to think
about there are the chunk size

269
00:15:45,110 --> 00:15:50,540
that students have and how many
spots they have in short

270
00:15:50,540 --> 00:15:51,790
term memory.

271
00:15:54,560 --> 00:15:57,420
So with the blackboard, you have
many advantages for free,

272
00:15:57,420 --> 00:16:01,430
which is that on the blackboard,
you don't have to

273
00:16:01,430 --> 00:16:04,950
use too many short term
memory slots.

274
00:16:04,950 --> 00:16:11,650
You can put the entire session
all on one giant set of

275
00:16:11,650 --> 00:16:12,930
blackboards in the front.

276
00:16:12,930 --> 00:16:15,610
And you can offload a lot of the
work onto something that's

277
00:16:15,610 --> 00:16:17,070
in the visual field
and present for

278
00:16:17,070 --> 00:16:18,580
everyone, all the time.

279
00:16:18,580 --> 00:16:20,280
Because remember, their
chunk size is much

280
00:16:20,280 --> 00:16:21,790
smaller than yours.

281
00:16:21,790 --> 00:16:24,460
So you might see the entire
lecture as one chunk.

282
00:16:24,460 --> 00:16:26,940
But obviously, they don't see it
that way, or they wouldn't

283
00:16:26,940 --> 00:16:27,940
be in the lecture.

284
00:16:27,940 --> 00:16:30,530
They're the learners.

285
00:16:30,530 --> 00:16:33,720
And then when you're doing the
slides, if you're going to use

286
00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:36,370
slides for teaching, to mitigate
some of this problem

287
00:16:36,370 --> 00:16:39,740
of not having enough short term
memory slots, generally

288
00:16:39,740 --> 00:16:43,300
not enough space, well, you
could try to get four slide

289
00:16:43,300 --> 00:16:45,140
projectors or three
slide projectors.

290
00:16:45,140 --> 00:16:46,790
But it's pretty hard to do.

291
00:16:46,790 --> 00:16:50,470
And it triples or quintuple
or [? nontuples ?]

292
00:16:50,470 --> 00:16:52,140
the time to prepare the slides,
because you have to

293
00:16:52,140 --> 00:16:54,850
synchronize three different
slide presentations.

294
00:16:54,850 --> 00:17:01,570
So at least use assertions
at the title

295
00:17:01,570 --> 00:17:02,820
and then visual evidence.

296
00:17:11,670 --> 00:17:14,010
Visual evidence is much
easier to remember.

297
00:17:14,010 --> 00:17:16,910
And the assertions help people
know what to look for.

298
00:17:16,910 --> 00:17:20,380
So they're not spending all
their cycles, which they don't

299
00:17:20,380 --> 00:17:21,710
have that many of, because
their short term

300
00:17:21,710 --> 00:17:23,990
memory's been filled up.

301
00:17:23,990 --> 00:17:25,990
They're spending their cycles
trying to understand the

302
00:17:25,990 --> 00:17:27,630
visual evidence.

303
00:17:27,630 --> 00:17:32,140
And I posted a set of example
slides with the [? text ?]

304
00:17:32,140 --> 00:17:32,530
source.

305
00:17:32,530 --> 00:17:34,140
There was a request
for the [? text ?]

306
00:17:34,140 --> 00:17:38,000
source, so I posted that, as
well, showing this method of

307
00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:40,680
presentation for the factorial,
the logarithm of

308
00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:41,930
the factorial.

309
00:17:43,580 --> 00:17:47,810
And then the last one
was [INAUDIBLE].

310
00:17:56,290 --> 00:18:00,160
So maybe the summary
could be--

311
00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:02,240
the comment that was on
one of the sheets was

312
00:18:02,240 --> 00:18:03,860
is there any hope?

313
00:18:03,860 --> 00:18:06,010
[LAUGHTER]

314
00:18:06,010 --> 00:18:10,680
PROFESSOR: And I think,
well, that question--

315
00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:13,140
it's coupled to another
question.

316
00:18:13,140 --> 00:18:24,950
So the main theme from that is
that social and educational

317
00:18:24,950 --> 00:18:26,200
change are coupled.

318
00:18:30,500 --> 00:18:32,940
So if there's no hope
for education,

319
00:18:32,940 --> 00:18:34,910
there's no hope for society.

320
00:18:34,910 --> 00:18:38,910
Or alternatively, if there's
hope for society, there's hope

321
00:18:38,910 --> 00:18:41,065
for education, and vice versa.

322
00:18:41,065 --> 00:18:44,750
So the main positive lesson from
this is that by improving

323
00:18:44,750 --> 00:18:47,030
society, you improve education,
and also, by

324
00:18:47,030 --> 00:18:49,470
improving education, you
improve society.

325
00:18:49,470 --> 00:18:52,880
So that's one really good reason
to want to be a teacher

326
00:18:52,880 --> 00:18:55,810
and to make teaching a part of
your career, as I'm sure many

327
00:18:55,810 --> 00:18:58,690
of you are thinking
about doing.

328
00:18:58,690 --> 00:19:01,310
So those are the short

329
00:19:01,310 --> 00:19:04,180
summaries of the nine sessions.

330
00:19:04,180 --> 00:19:07,580
And what I'd like to do now is
give you a chance to ask any

331
00:19:07,580 --> 00:19:08,350
questions you have.

332
00:19:08,350 --> 00:19:10,620
We'll, of course, have our--

333
00:19:10,620 --> 00:19:16,590
let's see, in 10 minutes, at
10 o'clock, we'll take a 10

334
00:19:16,590 --> 00:19:17,830
minute break.

335
00:19:17,830 --> 00:19:20,550
But before that, I want to start
the question session.

336
00:19:20,550 --> 00:19:24,900
So the way we'll do that is if
everyone could just look at

337
00:19:24,900 --> 00:19:27,840
your index card that you brought
with a question, or it

338
00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:29,330
doesn't have to be an index
card, it could be a sheet of

339
00:19:29,330 --> 00:19:34,080
paper, and spend one minute
thinking about something that

340
00:19:34,080 --> 00:19:36,260
puzzles you, you wonder about,
you're interested in, you'd

341
00:19:36,260 --> 00:19:40,870
like to know more about, about
anything related to teaching,

342
00:19:40,870 --> 00:19:43,040
and check in with a
neighbor or two.

343
00:19:43,040 --> 00:19:46,410
And then we'll just start
doing questions.

344
00:19:46,410 --> 00:19:49,850
And then we'll have our
break at 10:00.

345
00:19:49,850 --> 00:19:52,560
I'll leave all these
guys up here, and

346
00:19:52,560 --> 00:19:55,852
I'll mark your questions.

347
00:19:55,852 --> 00:19:57,102
[INTERPOSING VOICES]

348
00:20:06,970 --> 00:20:10,820
PROFESSOR: Take another 10 or
20 seconds to formulate a

349
00:20:10,820 --> 00:20:16,620
question or formulate your
thoughts, and we'll start.

350
00:20:19,550 --> 00:20:20,670
AUDIENCE: So--

351
00:20:20,670 --> 00:20:21,390
PROFESSOR: [INAUDIBLE]

352
00:20:21,390 --> 00:20:21,830
yeah?

353
00:20:21,830 --> 00:20:23,370
AUDIENCE: Implicitly throughout
this semester,

354
00:20:23,370 --> 00:20:28,740
we've been thinking that our
audiences, like the college

355
00:20:28,740 --> 00:20:30,390
age audience--

356
00:20:30,390 --> 00:20:34,602
so if you're teaching older
people, [INAUDIBLE]

357
00:20:34,602 --> 00:20:38,460
things that you have
to do differently?

358
00:20:38,460 --> 00:20:39,350
PROFESSOR: Good question.

359
00:20:39,350 --> 00:20:41,790
So let me repeat the question,
and then also, that will give

360
00:20:41,790 --> 00:20:44,580
me a chance to bring in one of
the other comments from the

361
00:20:44,580 --> 00:20:46,160
question sheets.

362
00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:51,710
So the question was what about
teaching older learners, so

363
00:20:51,710 --> 00:20:56,680
people who aren't college age,
so middle aged people?

364
00:20:56,680 --> 00:20:58,800
Do you have to do things
differently?

365
00:20:58,800 --> 00:21:01,190
And now, before I answer
that, let me say why

366
00:21:01,190 --> 00:21:02,210
I repeat the question.

367
00:21:02,210 --> 00:21:05,410
So their comment was that it's
a good idea to repeat the

368
00:21:05,410 --> 00:21:09,770
question, because OCW asks that
I repeat the question.

369
00:21:09,770 --> 00:21:12,180
Because the pick up, the
microphone pick up, I guess,

370
00:21:12,180 --> 00:21:16,650
is here, and it picks up me much
better than the audience.

371
00:21:16,650 --> 00:21:18,960
So it's good for that, but
it's also good, as the

372
00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:20,150
commenter pointed out.

373
00:21:20,150 --> 00:21:24,270
It's good, because it shows the
students who are asking

374
00:21:24,270 --> 00:21:25,970
the question that I actually
value their questions.

375
00:21:25,970 --> 00:21:28,680
Because I'm actually telling
everybody, look, this is

376
00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:30,730
something we should all
be thinking about.

377
00:21:30,730 --> 00:21:32,870
So it brings the whole class
together around it, and it

378
00:21:32,870 --> 00:21:34,860
also gives me time to think
about the question.

379
00:21:34,860 --> 00:21:36,790
Although, in this case, I didn't
actually use any of

380
00:21:36,790 --> 00:21:38,460
that time to think about the
question, so let me think

381
00:21:38,460 --> 00:21:40,820
about the question now.

382
00:21:40,820 --> 00:21:42,810
So I'm not sure it actually
gives you that much time.

383
00:21:42,810 --> 00:21:45,000
It gives you one
or two seconds.

384
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:48,400
But actually, if you want one
or two seconds, it's best to

385
00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:51,480
just sit there still and think
for one or two seconds.

386
00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:52,580
So that's what I'm
going to do now.

387
00:21:52,580 --> 00:21:58,544
[LAUGHTER]

388
00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:04,420
PROFESSOR: So now I waited
actually four seconds just to

389
00:22:04,420 --> 00:22:06,860
show that it's possible to do
that, though difficult.

390
00:22:06,860 --> 00:22:09,120
[LAUGHTER]

391
00:22:09,120 --> 00:22:12,270
PROFESSOR: So there are some
things that are different.

392
00:22:12,270 --> 00:22:16,370
And I would say one of the main
differences is not just

393
00:22:16,370 --> 00:22:18,800
the misconceptions, but the
conceptions of learning that

394
00:22:18,800 --> 00:22:20,170
people have.

395
00:22:20,170 --> 00:22:26,340
So for example, you might be
teaching people who just

396
00:22:26,340 --> 00:22:29,310
failed out of math in school and
never did math again, and

397
00:22:29,310 --> 00:22:31,690
now you want to help
them learn math.

398
00:22:31,690 --> 00:22:33,570
Or you want to help them learn
reading, and they always

399
00:22:33,570 --> 00:22:35,230
thought of themselves
as terrible readers.

400
00:22:35,230 --> 00:22:41,705
So now they've imbibed the
lesson of the blue eyes brown

401
00:22:41,705 --> 00:22:44,610
eyes experiment, which is that
they're bad at this-- for

402
00:22:44,610 --> 00:22:46,290
whatever reason, it's
their fault.

403
00:22:46,290 --> 00:22:48,370
And we're very good at that.

404
00:22:48,370 --> 00:22:50,180
We're very good at
passing blame.

405
00:22:50,180 --> 00:22:52,000
So why didn't people
learn physics?

406
00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:53,950
Well, physics is a very
hard subject.

407
00:22:53,950 --> 00:22:54,870
It's not that we teach
it terribly,

408
00:22:54,870 --> 00:22:56,290
it's a very hard subject.

409
00:22:56,290 --> 00:22:58,300
So basically, we're saying,
blame the victim.

410
00:22:58,300 --> 00:22:59,490
I know that's very convenient.

411
00:22:59,490 --> 00:23:03,320
But after a while of that, the
victim actually starts to get

412
00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:05,010
Stockholm Syndrome.

413
00:23:05,010 --> 00:23:08,610
So they start to identify
with their captors.

414
00:23:08,610 --> 00:23:10,960
And they agree, yes, physics
is a really hard subject.

415
00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:13,380
I never had a head
for physics.

416
00:23:13,380 --> 00:23:17,900
So as an experiment for that,
next time you go to a party,

417
00:23:17,900 --> 00:23:19,320
ask people what you do--

418
00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:22,400
I mean, obviously not a party of
other graduate students in

419
00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:25,560
science and engineering,
because that test

420
00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:26,430
wouldn't work here.

421
00:23:26,430 --> 00:23:31,410
But just for example, my office
mate, when I was a

422
00:23:31,410 --> 00:23:33,870
graduate student, he used
to live in Hollywood, in

423
00:23:33,870 --> 00:23:34,950
Hollywood, itself.

424
00:23:34,950 --> 00:23:36,880
So he used to go to parties,
and his roommate

425
00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:39,350
was a script rewriter.

426
00:23:39,350 --> 00:23:42,820
So his roommate would
actually--

427
00:23:42,820 --> 00:23:45,850
scripts that were considered
too bad even to make movies

428
00:23:45,850 --> 00:23:48,210
out of, but they really thought
they should make a

429
00:23:48,210 --> 00:23:49,890
movie out of it, because they
thought they could make a lot

430
00:23:49,890 --> 00:23:51,960
of money if they just rewrote
the script a bit, so like

431
00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:55,220
D-grade scripts that needed to
be made C-grade, his roommate

432
00:23:55,220 --> 00:23:55,910
rewrote them.

433
00:23:55,910 --> 00:23:57,310
So he had a lot of Hollywood
connections.

434
00:23:57,310 --> 00:24:01,140
So he had a lot of parties with
people who weren't from

435
00:24:01,140 --> 00:24:02,670
Caltech, which was good.

436
00:24:02,670 --> 00:24:05,120
So go to a party like that,
and when people say,

437
00:24:05,120 --> 00:24:06,220
oh what do you do?

438
00:24:06,220 --> 00:24:09,140
Say, oh I'm a chemistry graduate
[? student, ?]

439
00:24:09,140 --> 00:24:13,870
I teach physics, or I'm a TA for
this class, or I'm working

440
00:24:13,870 --> 00:24:17,230
on a Ph.D. in mathematics.

441
00:24:17,230 --> 00:24:19,136
And just watch how
fast people run.

442
00:24:19,136 --> 00:24:20,990
[LAUGHTER]

443
00:24:20,990 --> 00:24:25,620
PROFESSOR: So if they're not
very polite, they'll say oh,

444
00:24:25,620 --> 00:24:27,050
what do you do?

445
00:24:27,050 --> 00:24:28,260
Right?

446
00:24:28,260 --> 00:24:32,760
But if they're more polite,
they'll actually say, oh,

447
00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:34,790
yeah, I always was terrible
with that.

448
00:24:34,790 --> 00:24:37,580
That was never my thing.

449
00:24:37,580 --> 00:24:40,660
And this is so prevalent.

450
00:24:40,660 --> 00:24:43,320
So now, what do you have
to do in that case?

451
00:24:43,320 --> 00:24:45,480
So that's their misconception.

452
00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:47,585
And so number three up there,
you have to really take

453
00:24:47,585 --> 00:24:49,180
account of that.

454
00:24:49,180 --> 00:24:51,575
Their way of thinking about math
and physics, the way that

455
00:24:51,575 --> 00:24:54,115
it was taught to them completely
did not work, and

456
00:24:54,115 --> 00:24:56,440
it just produced fear
and phobia.

457
00:24:56,440 --> 00:24:59,530
So now what you have to do is
you have to go around that.

458
00:24:59,530 --> 00:25:02,090
And so one of the ways actually
Brian Butterworth,

459
00:25:02,090 --> 00:25:05,130
who actually studies this--
he's a professor of

460
00:25:05,130 --> 00:25:08,110
neurophysiology, in London.

461
00:25:08,110 --> 00:25:10,680
And I mentioned his book a
couple times, I think, it's

462
00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:15,340
called The Mathematical Brain
or What Counts, depending on

463
00:25:15,340 --> 00:25:17,430
whether it's the English
or American title.

464
00:25:17,430 --> 00:25:23,020
So math phobia a lot caused by
people having a fear that

465
00:25:23,020 --> 00:25:25,530
there's only one way to
get the right answer.

466
00:25:25,530 --> 00:25:29,280
So they think they're walking
across a tight rope, and if

467
00:25:29,280 --> 00:25:33,230
you make it one misstep, then
you fall into the abyss.

468
00:25:33,230 --> 00:25:35,090
And so, of course, if you
have that conception of

469
00:25:35,090 --> 00:25:37,620
mathematical reasoning and
problem solving, you're going

470
00:25:37,620 --> 00:25:39,740
to have a lot of fear.

471
00:25:39,740 --> 00:25:40,770
So what you have to
do is you have to

472
00:25:40,770 --> 00:25:44,090
show people, no, actually--

473
00:25:44,090 --> 00:25:46,490
right over here.

474
00:25:46,490 --> 00:25:59,780
So if this was their model, that
if that's the one way to

475
00:25:59,780 --> 00:26:04,050
get to the solution, actually
you want to show them not

476
00:26:04,050 --> 00:26:18,600
that, and show them
even dead ends.

477
00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:20,560
Not every method of solution
will work out.

478
00:26:20,560 --> 00:26:23,660
Some might just end up there,
and some might end up there.

479
00:26:23,660 --> 00:26:26,490
And some connect to other
methods and get to a solution.

480
00:26:26,490 --> 00:26:29,750
And even maybe, that's
one solution, but

481
00:26:29,750 --> 00:26:31,000
maybe there's two.

482
00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:37,300
So you want to show them that
there's robust paths across

483
00:26:37,300 --> 00:26:39,420
the river, let's say.

484
00:26:39,420 --> 00:26:41,660
You're not trying to, for
example, jump Niagara Falls,

485
00:26:41,660 --> 00:26:43,980
where one misstep
and down you go.

486
00:26:43,980 --> 00:26:46,080
So that's a way of reducing
the math phobia.

487
00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:48,740
Now that's a particular example,
but that's an example

488
00:26:48,740 --> 00:26:52,800
of how you have to think
slightly differently for the

489
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:53,370
adult learner.

490
00:26:53,370 --> 00:26:55,950
The reason is that they've had
longer time to internalize the

491
00:26:55,950 --> 00:26:57,250
misconception.

492
00:26:57,250 --> 00:27:01,430
The high school student, for
example, they haven't

493
00:27:01,430 --> 00:27:03,930
necessarily formed their
own view of them self.

494
00:27:03,930 --> 00:27:06,300
And it's less true at the
college level, that people are

495
00:27:06,300 --> 00:27:08,950
starting to form their view of
self more and more, but it's

496
00:27:08,950 --> 00:27:10,510
still changeable, especially
in America.

497
00:27:10,510 --> 00:27:13,230
And that's one really excellent
part of the American

498
00:27:13,230 --> 00:27:14,360
university system.

499
00:27:14,360 --> 00:27:17,060
So you may not realize it if you
come from America, but in

500
00:27:17,060 --> 00:27:19,320
almost every other country in
the world, when you go to

501
00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:23,400
university, you pick your
subject and that's what you do

502
00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:25,660
for the rest of the
university time.

503
00:27:25,660 --> 00:27:29,200
So England, for example,
it's even before that.

504
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:31,900
If you want to do physics at
Cambridge, you have to have

505
00:27:31,900 --> 00:27:33,940
done, for the last two years
of high school--

506
00:27:33,940 --> 00:27:35,850
basically everyone who did
physics at Cambridge did

507
00:27:35,850 --> 00:27:41,120
physics, math, chemistry, and
further maths, I should say.

508
00:27:41,120 --> 00:27:42,670
So further maths are
just more maths--

509
00:27:42,670 --> 00:27:47,120
basically like DE calculus.

510
00:27:47,120 --> 00:27:51,000
so they did, for the last two
years of school, only math and

511
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:52,630
physics and chemistry courses.

512
00:27:52,630 --> 00:27:54,560
And then they go on
to university, and

513
00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:55,880
they do just physics.

514
00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:58,330
And Cambridge had a radical
innovation on that, which was

515
00:27:58,330 --> 00:28:01,060
that in the first year, you
didn't do just physics, you

516
00:28:01,060 --> 00:28:06,320
did physics, math, chemistry,
and maybe a fourth subject.

517
00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:10,390
So that was considered really
very progressive.

518
00:28:10,390 --> 00:28:11,750
And it was compared
to the rest of

519
00:28:11,750 --> 00:28:13,380
the educational system.

520
00:28:13,380 --> 00:28:16,090
So in Europe, in general, there
isn't that freedom.

521
00:28:16,090 --> 00:28:17,340
So in America, you
still have it.

522
00:28:17,340 --> 00:28:19,560
So the students in college are
still going to be quite

523
00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:21,760
different from the people who've
basically fixed their

524
00:28:21,760 --> 00:28:24,680
view of them self as bad at
math or bad at whatever.

525
00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:28,200
And that's one of the things
that you change when you're

526
00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:31,400
thinking about adult learners.

527
00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:34,740
I'll take one question
back there, and then

528
00:28:34,740 --> 00:28:36,041
we'll have our break.

529
00:28:36,041 --> 00:28:38,553
AUDIENCE: So towards the
beginning of the class, we

530
00:28:38,553 --> 00:28:41,230
talked about the experiment in
math teaching in New Hampshire

531
00:28:41,230 --> 00:28:42,610
PROFESSOR: Benezet,
the experiment?

532
00:28:42,610 --> 00:28:44,110
AUDIENCE: Yeah, the Benezet
experiment.

533
00:28:44,110 --> 00:28:46,205
I don't think we ever really
got to figuring out what

534
00:28:46,205 --> 00:28:48,103
happened to that.

535
00:28:48,103 --> 00:28:50,750
[INAUDIBLE].

536
00:28:50,750 --> 00:28:52,400
PROFESSOR: So what happened
to the Benezet

537
00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:53,790
experiment in New Hampshire?

538
00:28:53,790 --> 00:28:58,830
So Louis Benezet was
superintendent of schools in

539
00:28:58,830 --> 00:29:04,710
Manchester, New Hampshire
from 1924 to 1938.

540
00:29:04,710 --> 00:29:05,830
And so what happened?

541
00:29:05,830 --> 00:29:08,980
If it was so great,
where is it now?

542
00:29:08,980 --> 00:29:13,560
So I might have mentioned that
I actually went and did

543
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:15,350
research on what
happened to it.

544
00:29:15,350 --> 00:29:17,930
And I went to the Manchester,
New Hampshire school board and

545
00:29:17,930 --> 00:29:21,320
just spent a whole day in their
archives reading all the

546
00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:25,080
minutes of all the school board
discussions about it and

547
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:28,040
all the votes about Benezet and
whether to reappoint him

548
00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:30,780
as superintendent or what to
do about the curriculum.

549
00:29:30,780 --> 00:29:37,590
And basically, what happened
was two things.

550
00:29:37,590 --> 00:29:40,690
So first of all, there was
extensive studies done showing

551
00:29:40,690 --> 00:29:43,280
that the curriculum was
very successful.

552
00:29:43,280 --> 00:29:44,950
So one study was by--

553
00:29:50,030 --> 00:29:53,560
so Etta Berman, she
was a teacher in

554
00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:56,990
Manchester in the program.

555
00:29:56,990 --> 00:29:59,650
And then she did her master's
in education I'm pretty sure

556
00:29:59,650 --> 00:30:02,120
at Boston University.

557
00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:04,490
Yes, I'm sure it is, because you
can find her thesis in the

558
00:30:04,490 --> 00:30:05,550
Boston University library.

559
00:30:05,550 --> 00:30:12,660
So her education thesis was an
assessment of how the students

560
00:30:12,660 --> 00:30:14,330
did in that experimental
program

561
00:30:14,330 --> 00:30:16,290
versus the regular program.

562
00:30:16,290 --> 00:30:18,530
And the students in the
experimental program were just

563
00:30:18,530 --> 00:30:19,640
much better.

564
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:21,470
It was just totally clear.

565
00:30:21,470 --> 00:30:22,620
So now what happened?

566
00:30:22,620 --> 00:30:27,140
Well, what happened, partly,
I think a lot of it is what

567
00:30:27,140 --> 00:30:30,326
Alfie Kohn article about "Not
for my Kid: How Privileged

568
00:30:30,326 --> 00:30:35,290
Parents Undermine School
Reform." So there was huge

569
00:30:35,290 --> 00:30:38,910
opposition from the privileged
parents.

570
00:30:38,910 --> 00:30:41,610
And so I interviewed some of
the people who had those

571
00:30:41,610 --> 00:30:44,290
privileged parents and who
had taken that curriculum

572
00:30:44,290 --> 00:30:45,900
50 or 60 years ago.

573
00:30:45,900 --> 00:30:49,090
And one of them was later mayor
of Manchester, and he

574
00:30:49,090 --> 00:30:52,030
said his parents just hated
the curriculum.

575
00:30:52,030 --> 00:30:57,040
So generally, the people whose
parents were foreign, for

576
00:30:57,040 --> 00:31:01,530
example, French Quebecois who
had come to New Hampshire, had

577
00:31:01,530 --> 00:31:04,560
to work in the mills, the
non-English speakers, the

578
00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:07,750
lower middle class, it was
OK, and it was fine.

579
00:31:07,750 --> 00:31:10,590
And the ones I talked to from
that background loved the

580
00:31:10,590 --> 00:31:11,060
curriculum.

581
00:31:11,060 --> 00:31:12,780
And then the few who really
hated it were actually

582
00:31:12,780 --> 00:31:15,190
socially quite powerful,
and they came from the

583
00:31:15,190 --> 00:31:18,210
predominately English
speaking families.

584
00:31:18,210 --> 00:31:22,680
And they hated that he wasn't,
for example, giving homework.

585
00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:24,730
Because he said, if you have
eight hours of school, what

586
00:31:24,730 --> 00:31:26,730
more homework do you
need, which I

587
00:31:26,730 --> 00:31:28,590
think is actually true.

588
00:31:28,590 --> 00:31:31,590
If you can't teach people in
eight hours a day, that's

589
00:31:31,590 --> 00:31:32,130
ridiculous.

590
00:31:32,130 --> 00:31:34,700
That's 40 hours a week.

591
00:31:34,700 --> 00:31:37,970
So why are you giving them
still more homework?

592
00:31:37,970 --> 00:31:39,820
So he didn't have homework, he
had them actually learn in

593
00:31:39,820 --> 00:31:43,560
school, which is one
of the benefits

594
00:31:43,560 --> 00:31:44,540
of interactive teaching.

595
00:31:44,540 --> 00:31:47,320
If your lecture is no longer
dictation, you are actually

596
00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:49,670
learning, you don't have to do
a lot of stuff out of school.

597
00:31:49,670 --> 00:31:52,000
So there was opposition,
there.

598
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:55,600
And what happened was the votes
in the school board went

599
00:31:55,600 --> 00:31:56,850
something like this.

600
00:31:59,950 --> 00:32:01,640
So this is t.

601
00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:07,550
So this is 1938 and 1924.

602
00:32:07,550 --> 00:32:17,610
And this is the votes in
favor, minus against.

603
00:32:17,610 --> 00:32:19,780
They went roughly like this.

604
00:32:19,780 --> 00:32:25,100
So the school board, I think
it had 15 people

605
00:32:25,100 --> 00:32:26,310
on it, or 14 people.

606
00:32:26,310 --> 00:32:27,760
It depended, sometimes
one person wasn't

607
00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:29,160
on the school board.

608
00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:32,940
So the first votes were
something like 13 to 1, so in

609
00:32:32,940 --> 00:32:36,370
other words, plus 12.

610
00:32:36,370 --> 00:32:40,620
And then, over here, 1924, when
he was first appointed,

611
00:32:40,620 --> 00:32:44,080
and then the votes went like
this, and then it started

612
00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:45,630
going down like that.

613
00:32:45,630 --> 00:32:47,510
And by 1938--

614
00:32:47,510 --> 00:32:50,130
so there was votes taken every
three or four years, or two

615
00:32:50,130 --> 00:32:52,990
years, whether to renew the
appointment, because

616
00:32:52,990 --> 00:32:54,240
that was the term.

617
00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:59,730
And by here, the vote was
6 to 6 right here.

618
00:32:59,730 --> 00:33:01,880
Yeah, that's right-- it
was 6 to 6 in 1937.

619
00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:08,210
And then what happened in 1938
was they didn't vote to not

620
00:33:08,210 --> 00:33:12,290
take him on, but what they did
is they voted to use a

621
00:33:12,290 --> 00:33:14,320
standard textbook.

622
00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:15,950
So they voted to use a standard
textbook in the

623
00:33:15,950 --> 00:33:21,140
curriculum, and then the
curriculum was then declared

624
00:33:21,140 --> 00:33:22,960
incompatible with the
standard textbook.

625
00:33:22,960 --> 00:33:25,200
Of course, the standard textbook
was pretty terrible.

626
00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:26,490
Well, I don't know the
textbook, personally.

627
00:33:26,490 --> 00:33:28,400
But I'm sure, given the
state of standard

628
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:30,840
textbooks, then and now.

629
00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:33,380
And it certainly wasn't the
progressive, understand the

630
00:33:33,380 --> 00:33:35,620
algorithms approach
that Benezet had.

631
00:33:35,620 --> 00:33:39,080
So then the textbook was
instituted, and the curriculum

632
00:33:39,080 --> 00:33:40,640
was basically killed
off, like that.

633
00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:43,580
So then Benezet left for
a professorship of

634
00:33:43,580 --> 00:33:46,310
education at Dartmouth.

635
00:33:46,310 --> 00:33:49,930
And then, after Benezet left--
so this is Benezet--

636
00:33:54,190 --> 00:33:58,050
Benezet left, the new
superintendent put in a,

637
00:33:58,050 --> 00:34:00,510
basically, drill and kill
curriculum with lots of

638
00:34:00,510 --> 00:34:04,225
testing and the standard now.

639
00:34:04,225 --> 00:34:09,400
There was No Child Left Behind
60 years before or 70 years

640
00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:11,560
before its time.

641
00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:13,989
But the curriculum was very
successful, and it was

642
00:34:13,989 --> 00:34:18,139
basically killed off by
opposition from wealthy

643
00:34:18,139 --> 00:34:23,250
parents and, to be fair, Benezet
didn't help his case.

644
00:34:23,250 --> 00:34:26,840
So a couple of the students told
me that actually when the

645
00:34:26,840 --> 00:34:29,889
students wouldn't answer things
in class, he would

646
00:34:29,889 --> 00:34:31,139
sometimes make fun of them.

647
00:34:31,139 --> 00:34:32,250
[LAUGHTER]

648
00:34:32,250 --> 00:34:33,260
PROFESSOR: Now that's
terrible.

649
00:34:33,260 --> 00:34:35,469
I mean it's terrible just on
moral grounds, but also it's

650
00:34:35,469 --> 00:34:37,909
terrible political strategy.

651
00:34:37,909 --> 00:34:42,159
Because now, the kids will tell
their parents, and if the

652
00:34:42,159 --> 00:34:45,350
parents needed ammunition, at
all, there they have it.

653
00:34:45,350 --> 00:34:48,123
And so Benezet was just
arming the enemy too.

654
00:34:48,123 --> 00:34:49,542
Yeah?

655
00:34:49,542 --> 00:34:53,629
AUDIENCE: If, presumably, most
or all of us would be teaching

656
00:34:53,629 --> 00:34:56,247
college level courses,
we don't have

657
00:34:56,247 --> 00:34:58,340
to worry about parents.

658
00:34:58,340 --> 00:35:00,065
[LAUGHTER]

659
00:35:00,065 --> 00:35:01,540
[INTERPOSING VOICES]

660
00:35:01,540 --> 00:35:02,750
PROFESSOR: Good question.

661
00:35:02,750 --> 00:35:04,960
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].

662
00:35:04,960 --> 00:35:05,900
PROFESSOR: Hey.

663
00:35:05,900 --> 00:35:07,310
AUDIENCE: Is it a comparable
force to the parents

664
00:35:07,310 --> 00:35:09,660
[INAUDIBLE]?

665
00:35:09,660 --> 00:35:10,330
PROFESSOR: Yes, there is.

666
00:35:10,330 --> 00:35:10,880
Good question.

667
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:13,490
So is there a comparable force
in college education to

668
00:35:13,490 --> 00:35:15,870
parents with privilege?

669
00:35:15,870 --> 00:35:17,400
Yeah, and unfortunately
it's one's

670
00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:20,390
colleagues on the faculty.

671
00:35:20,390 --> 00:35:23,710
The reason is because they were
the ones who did well by

672
00:35:23,710 --> 00:35:25,690
the old system.

673
00:35:25,690 --> 00:35:32,210
And so now a change is likely to
be misinterpreted or maybe

674
00:35:32,210 --> 00:35:35,730
rightly interpreted as well,
this isn't for the benefit of

675
00:35:35,730 --> 00:35:37,560
the top 5%.

676
00:35:37,560 --> 00:35:39,390
So we can't do it.

677
00:35:39,390 --> 00:35:43,395
So for example, interactive
teaching is often criticized

678
00:35:43,395 --> 00:35:45,880
as well, that's really useful
for the people who aren't

679
00:35:45,880 --> 00:35:47,540
learning anything, but
the top 5%, it will

680
00:35:47,540 --> 00:35:49,130
just slow them down.

681
00:35:49,130 --> 00:35:50,310
So we can't possibly do it.

682
00:35:50,310 --> 00:35:52,650
So the wars about interactive
teaching turn on

683
00:35:52,650 --> 00:35:53,690
a lot of that question.

684
00:35:53,690 --> 00:35:56,010
And that is a very
similar force.

685
00:35:56,010 --> 00:35:58,365
Because people are saying well,
it's those people who

686
00:35:58,365 --> 00:36:00,060
are just like me, because
they're the ones who are going

687
00:36:00,060 --> 00:36:02,210
to become future faculty.

688
00:36:02,210 --> 00:36:04,640
And those ones aren't going to
be benefited by the system.

689
00:36:04,640 --> 00:36:06,810
Now I think, empirically,
that's not true.

690
00:36:06,810 --> 00:36:10,290
I think they are actually
benefited, as well.

691
00:36:10,290 --> 00:36:11,990
And Benezet found that too.

692
00:36:11,990 --> 00:36:13,870
It wasn't that some
people did worse.

693
00:36:13,870 --> 00:36:15,500
They were all doing better.

694
00:36:15,500 --> 00:36:19,930
But it's the intensity of the
response that you get to

695
00:36:19,930 --> 00:36:24,420
things sometimes in that vein
shows that its an underlying

696
00:36:24,420 --> 00:36:28,560
social force and not just purely
a cognitive reason.

697
00:36:28,560 --> 00:36:33,704
Is that what you were
thinking about?

698
00:36:33,704 --> 00:36:34,590
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].

699
00:36:34,590 --> 00:36:39,010
PROFESSOR: OK so 10:08, so
10:18, we'll start again with

700
00:36:39,010 --> 00:36:40,280
more questions.

701
00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:41,530
[INTERPOSING VOICES]

702
00:36:45,060 --> 00:36:48,000
PROFESSOR: So I know there are
several more questions,

703
00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:51,077
because I already have
two in the queue.

704
00:36:51,077 --> 00:36:51,534
Go ahead.

705
00:36:51,534 --> 00:36:52,450
AUDIENCE: My question is--

706
00:36:52,450 --> 00:36:53,490
PROFESSOR: And then
[? Lortis. ?]

707
00:36:53,490 --> 00:36:54,140
Yeah?

708
00:36:54,140 --> 00:36:57,990
AUDIENCE: What do you do when
you're confronted with a

709
00:36:57,990 --> 00:37:01,570
question you don't know
the answer to.

710
00:37:01,570 --> 00:37:03,020
PROFESSOR: What do you--

711
00:37:03,020 --> 00:37:03,911
I don't know?

712
00:37:03,911 --> 00:37:04,342
No, sorry.

713
00:37:04,342 --> 00:37:06,500
[LAUGHTER]

714
00:37:06,500 --> 00:37:06,630
PROFESSOR: No, no, no.

715
00:37:06,630 --> 00:37:08,770
The question was, what do you do
when you're confronted with

716
00:37:08,770 --> 00:37:11,030
a question that you don't
know the answer to?

717
00:37:11,030 --> 00:37:13,870
And my answer was
I have no idea.

718
00:37:13,870 --> 00:37:17,360
No, there's good answers to that
question, and hopefully,

719
00:37:17,360 --> 00:37:19,200
I'll give you one of them.

720
00:37:19,200 --> 00:37:26,410
So I would say the number one
thing is not to bullshit.

721
00:37:26,410 --> 00:37:28,000
That can only end--

722
00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:30,990
at best, it won't
end in disaster.

723
00:37:30,990 --> 00:37:34,430
But it can end in disaster.

724
00:37:34,430 --> 00:37:35,470
The first thing--

725
00:37:35,470 --> 00:37:38,920
so if you don't know the answer
to it, but you have to

726
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:41,590
think of what's going to
get triggered in you?

727
00:37:41,590 --> 00:37:43,620
So if it's something, for
example, really related to the

728
00:37:43,620 --> 00:37:46,755
material, you're more likely to
get triggered and think--

729
00:37:46,755 --> 00:37:47,370
[GASPS]

730
00:37:47,370 --> 00:37:47,980
Excuse me.

731
00:37:47,980 --> 00:37:50,340
Oh, I should have known the
answer that, I must be a lousy

732
00:37:50,340 --> 00:37:53,420
teacher, how will they ever
respect me again?

733
00:37:53,420 --> 00:37:56,320
So if you remember the
discussion we had last time in

734
00:37:56,320 --> 00:37:59,720
political barriers about the
three levels at which

735
00:37:59,720 --> 00:38:03,240
conversations are carried on,
so this was from difficult

736
00:38:03,240 --> 00:38:06,300
conversations, there's the
factual level, the emotional

737
00:38:06,300 --> 00:38:07,760
level, and the meaning level.

738
00:38:07,760 --> 00:38:10,980
So the fact level is that
someone just asked you a

739
00:38:10,980 --> 00:38:14,240
question, and you don't know
the answer right away.

740
00:38:14,240 --> 00:38:18,260
The emotional reaction, and the
emotional transmission, is

741
00:38:18,260 --> 00:38:21,580
oh my God, I feel worried
and nervous.

742
00:38:21,580 --> 00:38:25,460
And then the meaning level
is oh, what does

743
00:38:25,460 --> 00:38:26,250
that mean for me?

744
00:38:26,250 --> 00:38:27,720
Oh, it means that I'm
a bad teacher.

745
00:38:27,720 --> 00:38:29,070
They found me out.

746
00:38:29,070 --> 00:38:30,420
I'm really not supposed
to be here.

747
00:38:30,420 --> 00:38:32,690
[LAUGHTER]

748
00:38:32,690 --> 00:38:34,720
PROFESSOR: So that same thing
happens with students when you

749
00:38:34,720 --> 00:38:36,290
ask them a question, and
they don't know.

750
00:38:36,290 --> 00:38:39,230
So you want to create structures
where that bad

751
00:38:39,230 --> 00:38:40,870
meaning, isn't triggered.

752
00:38:40,870 --> 00:38:43,780
So you want to just pause,
first of all.

753
00:38:43,780 --> 00:38:46,680
The reason is, if you don't
pause, then you're more likely

754
00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:48,920
to act out, based
on the emotion.

755
00:38:48,920 --> 00:38:51,960
So I've seen this happen several
times when I was a

756
00:38:51,960 --> 00:38:53,210
graduate student.

757
00:38:57,040 --> 00:38:59,340
So this is sometimes when the
person didn't know, but in

758
00:38:59,340 --> 00:39:02,130
general, when they were somehow
challenged by a

759
00:39:02,130 --> 00:39:04,770
question, so either way, whether
it's because you don't

760
00:39:04,770 --> 00:39:08,310
know the answer, or because the
student's tone has some

761
00:39:08,310 --> 00:39:12,360
kind of cheekiness to it, and
you feel a bit of insolence,

762
00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:15,690
and then you think, I'm the
teacher God dammit, how dare

763
00:39:15,690 --> 00:39:17,740
you talk to me like that?

764
00:39:17,740 --> 00:39:21,940
So that emotional reaction, or
that challenge, that worry,

765
00:39:21,940 --> 00:39:25,710
that anxiety about your
authority will produce a bad

766
00:39:25,710 --> 00:39:27,850
response, in general.

767
00:39:27,850 --> 00:39:30,540
So if you just, right away,
respond, you are likely to do

768
00:39:30,540 --> 00:39:31,070
bad things.

769
00:39:31,070 --> 00:39:33,430
And this is a thing I've seen
happen a few times, is where

770
00:39:33,430 --> 00:39:36,800
you put the student down, you
compete with the student, you

771
00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:40,020
say things like, well, how
could you not know that?

772
00:39:40,020 --> 00:39:41,470
And you dismiss the question.

773
00:39:41,470 --> 00:39:46,470
So if you pause for just one
or two seconds, even an

774
00:39:46,470 --> 00:39:49,510
instant after you practice it,
just the pausing to realize

775
00:39:49,510 --> 00:39:53,820
oh, wait a minute, I just had an
emotional reaction happen,

776
00:39:53,820 --> 00:39:57,760
I felt in my body, I got a bit
sweaty, my palms sweated,

777
00:39:57,760 --> 00:40:00,530
whatever it may be that your
particular reaction is.

778
00:40:00,530 --> 00:40:03,870
I feel it often in my face--
my face gets warm.

779
00:40:03,870 --> 00:40:09,520
If you remember, way back
when we were doing--

780
00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:11,330
was it the wood blocks
or the cones?

781
00:40:11,330 --> 00:40:12,480
No, it was the cones.

782
00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:14,040
I was dropping the cones.

783
00:40:14,040 --> 00:40:17,510
And there was a question when it
was time for questions and

784
00:40:17,510 --> 00:40:17,980
discussion.

785
00:40:17,980 --> 00:40:21,975
One person said, oh, the answer
is block, and I've seen

786
00:40:21,975 --> 00:40:26,970
you do it before, and I just
remember just feeling flushed.

787
00:40:26,970 --> 00:40:30,120
I was like, this is not the time
to answer that question.

788
00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:30,950
So it's the same thing.

789
00:40:30,950 --> 00:40:33,290
So that's lesson number
one is to pause.

790
00:40:33,290 --> 00:40:35,920
And then you can think
and regroup and have

791
00:40:35,920 --> 00:40:36,950
a reflective response.

792
00:40:36,950 --> 00:40:39,680
The reflective response may
be, oh, that's a really

793
00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:42,710
interesting question, I'd never
thought about that, but

794
00:40:42,710 --> 00:40:44,450
I'm going to think about that
tonight, and I'll tell

795
00:40:44,450 --> 00:40:45,510
you the next time.

796
00:40:45,510 --> 00:40:46,940
That's perfectly fine.

797
00:40:46,940 --> 00:40:48,780
Another one is you
can try to figure

798
00:40:48,780 --> 00:40:50,460
out the answer together.

799
00:40:50,460 --> 00:40:52,250
You say, well I'm not sure, but
let's see if we can figure

800
00:40:52,250 --> 00:40:53,730
out the answer in the
next minute or two.

801
00:40:53,730 --> 00:40:57,010
If not, I'll work on it in the
evening or work on it tomorrow

802
00:40:57,010 --> 00:40:57,810
and tell you.

803
00:40:57,810 --> 00:40:59,960
And then you can try it
together, and students have

804
00:40:59,960 --> 00:41:01,230
the advantage of seeing
how you would

805
00:41:01,230 --> 00:41:02,810
reason about a question.

806
00:41:02,810 --> 00:41:07,760
And it helps if you do
that intentionally.

807
00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:11,160
Because there's a general rule
of thumb which is that one's

808
00:41:11,160 --> 00:41:16,370
facility with equations declines
with distance to the

809
00:41:16,370 --> 00:41:18,210
blackboard.

810
00:41:18,210 --> 00:41:20,850
So the closer to the blackboard,
the lower the

811
00:41:20,850 --> 00:41:21,870
facility of the equation.

812
00:41:21,870 --> 00:41:24,490
So if you just leap to the
blackboard and start writing,

813
00:41:24,490 --> 00:41:27,500
you're likely to feel too
nervous and actually just mess

814
00:41:27,500 --> 00:41:28,530
it up just because of that.

815
00:41:28,530 --> 00:41:30,980
So if you say, well, let's
actually think about doing

816
00:41:30,980 --> 00:41:33,650
this together, think about what
you might do, and think

817
00:41:33,650 --> 00:41:35,780
about some approaches, then go
to the blackboard and maybe

818
00:41:35,780 --> 00:41:36,560
start working.

819
00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:38,780
And when you have your out, it
doesn't work in two minutes,

820
00:41:38,780 --> 00:41:42,340
you say look, it's
a good question.

821
00:41:42,340 --> 00:41:43,670
I clearly need to think
about this some

822
00:41:43,670 --> 00:41:45,410
more, and I'll do that.

823
00:41:45,410 --> 00:41:47,380
And I'll come back to you.

824
00:41:47,380 --> 00:41:49,613
Does that help answer
your question?

825
00:41:49,613 --> 00:41:53,064
AUDIENCE: Yes, because we were
just talking about just having

826
00:41:53,064 --> 00:41:55,529
these discussion with
our students.

827
00:41:55,529 --> 00:41:58,980
And I feel like perhaps there
would be somebody who would

828
00:41:58,980 --> 00:42:00,952
point out a different way
of doing something.

829
00:42:00,952 --> 00:42:04,156
And then you aren't really
prepared to talk

830
00:42:04,156 --> 00:42:07,854
about that with them.

831
00:42:07,854 --> 00:42:08,850
[INAUDIBLE].

832
00:42:08,850 --> 00:42:09,100
PROFESSOR: Right.

833
00:42:09,100 --> 00:42:12,290
So if you're going to do
interactive teaching, you're

834
00:42:12,290 --> 00:42:13,370
going to have lots
of discussion.

835
00:42:13,370 --> 00:42:15,850
So people think, oh, interactive
teaching means you

836
00:42:15,850 --> 00:42:17,930
just let the students do
everything, you kick back.

837
00:42:17,930 --> 00:42:19,960
No, it's actually much harder.

838
00:42:19,960 --> 00:42:25,320
Because you've changed it back
from basically playing a

839
00:42:25,320 --> 00:42:28,570
prerecorded tape, which is what
a lot of lecturing is--

840
00:42:28,570 --> 00:42:30,440
you just get out and read the
book, that's what a lot of my

841
00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:32,380
lecturers did--

842
00:42:32,380 --> 00:42:35,690
to now it's a stage
performance--

843
00:42:35,690 --> 00:42:38,720
a stage performance in the old
days of Elizabethan theater

844
00:42:38,720 --> 00:42:41,680
where the audience interacted
with the stage.

845
00:42:41,680 --> 00:42:44,970
So that's much harder.

846
00:42:44,970 --> 00:42:47,330
You have to, quote, "Know your
lines." Not that you're going

847
00:42:47,330 --> 00:42:49,020
to say the same lines no matter
what-- you have to

848
00:42:49,020 --> 00:42:50,200
really feel the lines.

849
00:42:50,200 --> 00:42:51,300
You have to really understand
the feel.

850
00:42:51,300 --> 00:42:51,950
So it is harder.

851
00:42:51,950 --> 00:42:54,070
And you're going to be producing
lots of discussions.

852
00:42:54,070 --> 00:42:57,790
And at a place like MIT, the
students are very curious.

853
00:42:57,790 --> 00:42:59,950
And they're going to think,
oh, well, what about this?

854
00:42:59,950 --> 00:43:01,670
Well, that's fine.

855
00:43:01,670 --> 00:43:05,060
So you want to use Aikido.

856
00:43:05,060 --> 00:43:06,610
So if someone suggests something
you haven't thought

857
00:43:06,610 --> 00:43:08,660
of, don't dismiss it.

858
00:43:08,660 --> 00:43:10,900
You say, oh, I hadn't thought of
that, that's a really good

859
00:43:10,900 --> 00:43:13,350
suggestion, which then, usually,
maybe, I'll use that

860
00:43:13,350 --> 00:43:16,340
next year when I teach the
course, thank you.

861
00:43:16,340 --> 00:43:20,460
So if you just think about the
students as your allies, then

862
00:43:20,460 --> 00:43:24,010
your reaction that you'll
intrinsically produce will be

863
00:43:24,010 --> 00:43:26,377
much less confrontational
and much less worried.

864
00:43:29,890 --> 00:43:33,430
So I'll give you one example
of where I was very, very

865
00:43:33,430 --> 00:43:34,780
nervous and what I did.

866
00:43:34,780 --> 00:43:38,700
So I was lecturing
thermodynamics, and there was

867
00:43:38,700 --> 00:43:40,310
200 students.

868
00:43:40,310 --> 00:43:41,970
And I was doing the Carnot
cycle, so this

869
00:43:41,970 --> 00:43:43,010
was the last lecture.

870
00:43:43,010 --> 00:43:47,080
So we were doing the Carnot
cycle, and I drew

871
00:43:47,080 --> 00:43:48,230
it up on the board.

872
00:43:48,230 --> 00:43:50,590
And I'd encouraged questions
throughout the whole lecture,

873
00:43:50,590 --> 00:43:52,100
throughout the whole
lecture course.

874
00:43:52,100 --> 00:43:54,140
So, of course, someone raised
their hand and said, oh,

875
00:43:54,140 --> 00:43:59,220
excuse me, I think that
this box is not right.

876
00:43:59,220 --> 00:44:00,980
They didn't know what was wrong,
but they said, oh, that

877
00:44:00,980 --> 00:44:02,060
box isn't right.

878
00:44:02,060 --> 00:44:03,940
So I looked at it, and
I thought, oh my

879
00:44:03,940 --> 00:44:05,200
God, they're right.

880
00:44:05,200 --> 00:44:08,410
So I'd now just drawn rubbish
on the board for 200 people,

881
00:44:08,410 --> 00:44:10,490
and I had a bunch of my
colleagues that day who

882
00:44:10,490 --> 00:44:11,760
happened to decide that
was the day to

883
00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:13,063
come visit my lecture.

884
00:44:13,063 --> 00:44:13,770
[LAUGHTER]

885
00:44:13,770 --> 00:44:16,180
PROFESSOR: So I think that was
probably why I was a bit

886
00:44:16,180 --> 00:44:18,210
nervous to begin with.

887
00:44:18,210 --> 00:44:20,420
And that probably contributed
to me writing

888
00:44:20,420 --> 00:44:21,740
down the wrong diagram.

889
00:44:21,740 --> 00:44:26,220
So I realized I needed some time
to actually think, so I

890
00:44:26,220 --> 00:44:27,710
just said, you know,
you're right.

891
00:44:27,710 --> 00:44:28,590
Let me just think.

892
00:44:28,590 --> 00:44:31,990
And I just turned my back, for
a whole minute, and I sorted

893
00:44:31,990 --> 00:44:32,900
out what was wrong.

894
00:44:32,900 --> 00:44:34,950
And then everything was
fine after that.

895
00:44:34,950 --> 00:44:36,300
But I still remember that.

896
00:44:36,300 --> 00:44:39,950
I still remember the feeling in
my body, just that sinking

897
00:44:39,950 --> 00:44:43,440
feeling of oh my God, disaster
has happened.

898
00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:44,850
I've just been exposed.

899
00:44:44,850 --> 00:44:46,680
And really, I should've
been one of the

900
00:44:46,680 --> 00:44:48,590
students in the class.

901
00:44:48,590 --> 00:44:51,075
So pausing is immensely
valuable.

902
00:44:53,800 --> 00:44:54,780
[? Lordis? ?]

903
00:44:54,780 --> 00:44:58,210
AUDIENCE: Follow up to the
question that was said before,

904
00:44:58,210 --> 00:45:03,110
how do you effectively argue
against [INAUDIBLE]

905
00:45:03,110 --> 00:45:05,880
to the top students?

906
00:45:05,880 --> 00:45:08,170
PROFESSOR: Right, so often
when you want to do so

907
00:45:08,170 --> 00:45:10,990
something more interactive in
your teaching, the counter

908
00:45:10,990 --> 00:45:15,730
arguments are well, you're
going to harm the top 5%.

909
00:45:15,730 --> 00:45:18,230
Well, one counter argument--

910
00:45:18,230 --> 00:45:24,170
so first of all, it doesn't
often help to counter argue

911
00:45:24,170 --> 00:45:27,410
cognitive reasons if there's
an emotional underpinning.

912
00:45:27,410 --> 00:45:32,390
So generally, I try to step
aside from those arguments,

913
00:45:32,390 --> 00:45:35,090
unless the people have a
sense of humor, I find.

914
00:45:35,090 --> 00:45:39,530
If the people have a sense of
humor, then you can present

915
00:45:39,530 --> 00:45:43,620
things in a humorous way that
challenge their view, and they

916
00:45:43,620 --> 00:45:44,680
can take it on board.

917
00:45:44,680 --> 00:45:46,480
But if they don't have a sense
of humor, or you don't have a

918
00:45:46,480 --> 00:45:49,390
good way of presenting it that
way, I find it's just wiser to

919
00:45:49,390 --> 00:45:52,100
step aside and see if you can
find some way around it.

920
00:45:52,100 --> 00:45:55,500
Maybe try half of what you
wanted to do, or say, well,

921
00:45:55,500 --> 00:45:58,560
yeah, I worry about
that too, a bit.

922
00:45:58,560 --> 00:46:00,350
So let's leave the main
course alone that way.

923
00:46:00,350 --> 00:46:02,780
Let's try an experiment
and see how it goes.

924
00:46:02,780 --> 00:46:05,000
Maybe we can agree on some
questions that all the

925
00:46:05,000 --> 00:46:07,530
students should be able to do to
try to make it cooperative.

926
00:46:07,530 --> 00:46:09,610
So that's one thing.

927
00:46:09,610 --> 00:46:14,110
But if you do want to go
directly into cognitive

928
00:46:14,110 --> 00:46:17,910
discussions and reasons, one
is, and this has scope for

929
00:46:17,910 --> 00:46:19,270
making humor out of,
[? I've ?] said,

930
00:46:19,270 --> 00:46:21,520
what's a top student?

931
00:46:21,520 --> 00:46:25,170
The top students, the top,
quote, "5%" are the top 5% by

932
00:46:25,170 --> 00:46:29,040
the current system of testing
and homeworks.

933
00:46:29,040 --> 00:46:33,520
So they're are often
the top 5% in

934
00:46:33,520 --> 00:46:35,080
regurgitating canned formulas.

935
00:46:35,080 --> 00:46:38,060
Or by the time they get higher
and higher and more selections

936
00:46:38,060 --> 00:46:40,660
happened, they're good at
pattern matching and solving

937
00:46:40,660 --> 00:46:42,090
problems they don't
even understand.

938
00:46:42,090 --> 00:46:47,380
I mean certainly, the final exam
in Cambridge that people

939
00:46:47,380 --> 00:46:49,510
took in their final year-- if
I just sat down, I would not

940
00:46:49,510 --> 00:46:52,310
have passed it in the
physics department.

941
00:46:52,310 --> 00:46:54,760
And so there were students who
did really, really well on it.

942
00:46:54,760 --> 00:46:57,390
But I'm sure I understood
more physics than them.

943
00:46:57,390 --> 00:47:00,400
And it's because if you train
for those kind of questions,

944
00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:02,900
even if you don't really
understand what you're doing,

945
00:47:02,900 --> 00:47:04,730
you can actually answer them.

946
00:47:04,730 --> 00:47:07,010
So now the top 5% at
that, well is that

947
00:47:07,010 --> 00:47:08,160
so valuable to preserve?

948
00:47:08,160 --> 00:47:10,970
Maybe actually we should change
the rules of the game.

949
00:47:10,970 --> 00:47:14,850
So now, if you just say it as
directly as I've said it, then

950
00:47:14,850 --> 00:47:17,350
you'll trigger the meaning of--
well, because a lot of

951
00:47:17,350 --> 00:47:21,770
times, those 5% became the
people you're talking to.

952
00:47:21,770 --> 00:47:25,650
So you have to maybe do it
slightly differently, and say,

953
00:47:25,650 --> 00:47:30,250
look, what is the thing you're
most concerned about, about

954
00:47:30,250 --> 00:47:32,040
the students not knowing,
whether they're

955
00:47:32,040 --> 00:47:33,770
the top 5% or not?

956
00:47:33,770 --> 00:47:35,930
And a lot of times,
they'll just give

957
00:47:35,930 --> 00:47:38,970
you a big, long list.

958
00:47:38,970 --> 00:47:41,440
On their own, before you even
say it, they'll say, oh, they

959
00:47:41,440 --> 00:47:44,650
can never use anything
outside of the class.

960
00:47:44,650 --> 00:47:47,720
So people will just outright
concede that, not even concede

961
00:47:47,720 --> 00:47:48,870
it, they'll say, yeah,
it's so terrible.

962
00:47:48,870 --> 00:47:50,230
And people will talk about this
all the time, and say,

963
00:47:50,230 --> 00:47:51,610
look, we all agree that.

964
00:47:51,610 --> 00:47:54,290
Well, let's see, is there a way
that we can make people

965
00:47:54,290 --> 00:47:55,540
really good at that?

966
00:47:55,540 --> 00:47:58,240
Because even the top 5%, I
find, are not like that.

967
00:47:58,240 --> 00:47:59,290
So now you've opened a door.

968
00:47:59,290 --> 00:48:01,120
And you can have a shared
discussion based on

969
00:48:01,120 --> 00:48:03,080
something like that.

970
00:48:03,080 --> 00:48:07,430
So that's how you can reach the
80% who are not sure but

971
00:48:07,430 --> 00:48:10,650
are willing to listen.

972
00:48:10,650 --> 00:48:11,874
Yeah?

973
00:48:11,874 --> 00:48:14,530
AUDIENCE: I was wondering what
you think of the surveys that

974
00:48:14,530 --> 00:48:18,334
they have at MIT by which the
students evaluate the

975
00:48:18,334 --> 00:48:23,016
professors and teachers, and
also, how to interpret the

976
00:48:23,016 --> 00:48:23,690
results of those?

977
00:48:23,690 --> 00:48:26,810
PROFESSOR: Oh good,
I'm glad you said

978
00:48:26,810 --> 00:48:28,320
that for several reasons.

979
00:48:28,320 --> 00:48:32,070
So one of the other reasons is
that this course has one too.

980
00:48:32,070 --> 00:48:35,180
[LAUGHTER]

981
00:48:35,180 --> 00:48:36,920
PROFESSOR: So I'll put
it on the course

982
00:48:36,920 --> 00:48:39,980
website just after class.

983
00:48:39,980 --> 00:48:43,490
So 595 is one of the
course numbers.

984
00:48:43,490 --> 00:48:46,790
But it's also 6.92 or something,
so all course six

985
00:48:46,790 --> 00:48:49,270
classes have an online
evaluation system.

986
00:48:49,270 --> 00:48:52,030
So for everybody, we're
doing it that way.

987
00:48:52,030 --> 00:48:58,410
So everybody who is registered
for the class is listed as a

988
00:48:58,410 --> 00:49:01,110
possible survey filler-outer.

989
00:49:01,110 --> 00:49:02,760
So I encourage everyone--

990
00:49:02,760 --> 00:49:03,910
I'll put the link
on the website.

991
00:49:03,910 --> 00:49:06,370
Just click on the link, and if
you have your MIT certificates

992
00:49:06,370 --> 00:49:10,200
installed, it'll just take
you to the online survey.

993
00:49:10,200 --> 00:49:12,950
So I think the surveys
are very useful.

994
00:49:12,950 --> 00:49:18,760
Now the numbers are
a ballpark--

995
00:49:18,760 --> 00:49:20,550
well, were things
working or not?

996
00:49:20,550 --> 00:49:22,750
But I think the most useful
part of the surveys is the

997
00:49:22,750 --> 00:49:23,750
comments people make.

998
00:49:23,750 --> 00:49:26,470
So again, I encourage you to
make comments in the comment

999
00:49:26,470 --> 00:49:28,120
boxes, wherever they are.

1000
00:49:28,120 --> 00:49:30,520
For example, there's one that
says, what would you suggest

1001
00:49:30,520 --> 00:49:32,450
for people next year?

1002
00:49:32,450 --> 00:49:35,540
So part of that I'm going to
learn by reading these.

1003
00:49:35,540 --> 00:49:39,730
So I'll crib good ideas from how
you would do this course

1004
00:49:39,730 --> 00:49:41,230
from your homeworks.

1005
00:49:41,230 --> 00:49:43,980
But the survey will actually
help with that.

1006
00:49:43,980 --> 00:49:46,490
So I think the surveys
are really

1007
00:49:46,490 --> 00:49:48,280
useful, if used properly.

1008
00:49:48,280 --> 00:49:51,010
I don't think they're very
useful for saying, you get

1009
00:49:51,010 --> 00:49:52,890
tenure, you don't get tenure.

1010
00:49:52,890 --> 00:49:55,510
Because people just use
the numbers for that.

1011
00:49:55,510 --> 00:49:58,640
I don't think the numbers
are super reliable.

1012
00:49:58,640 --> 00:50:01,170
I mean seven is probably
significantly better than four

1013
00:50:01,170 --> 00:50:05,140
or five, but there are a lot of
ways to get six and a half,

1014
00:50:05,140 --> 00:50:07,310
and six or five.

1015
00:50:07,310 --> 00:50:08,240
How did that happen?

1016
00:50:08,240 --> 00:50:10,400
Well, you want to really look
into the course and see that.

1017
00:50:10,400 --> 00:50:12,480
And the course survey
doesn't really

1018
00:50:12,480 --> 00:50:14,400
address that super well.

1019
00:50:14,400 --> 00:50:17,230
But the comments give you space,
if you really listen

1020
00:50:17,230 --> 00:50:19,080
closely, to understand it.

1021
00:50:19,080 --> 00:50:21,400
So I think they're
quite useful.

1022
00:50:21,400 --> 00:50:23,770
But what I'd really
like to see--

1023
00:50:23,770 --> 00:50:27,060
because those are surveys right
after the class, and my

1024
00:50:27,060 --> 00:50:30,500
goal, what I've been trying to
stress this whole time, is how

1025
00:50:30,500 --> 00:50:33,170
can you construct teaching for
a long lasting learning,

1026
00:50:33,170 --> 00:50:34,810
questioning and reflecting,
ideally for a

1027
00:50:34,810 --> 00:50:35,870
long lasting learning?

1028
00:50:35,870 --> 00:50:38,390
Well, if it really lasts long,
people should remember

1029
00:50:38,390 --> 00:50:40,200
something a year later.

1030
00:50:40,200 --> 00:50:45,240
So I think actually the policy
should be changed to do

1031
00:50:45,240 --> 00:50:48,070
feedback sheets at the end of
each lecture, so you get the

1032
00:50:48,070 --> 00:50:49,940
quick feedback you need
as the lecturer.

1033
00:50:49,940 --> 00:50:51,900
And then by the end of this
course, you have a lot of

1034
00:50:51,900 --> 00:50:54,910
feedback, and you can really
improve things next time.

1035
00:50:54,910 --> 00:50:58,370
And then do the survey a year
after the course is finished.

1036
00:50:58,370 --> 00:51:00,350
And if people don't remember
anything from the course right

1037
00:51:00,350 --> 00:51:03,910
away, that's a pretty important
piece of feedback.

1038
00:51:03,910 --> 00:51:07,170
So I fear though that the
results from that kind of

1039
00:51:07,170 --> 00:51:10,430
survey would be quite
distressing.

1040
00:51:10,430 --> 00:51:13,510
Because you'd ask things like,
well, which of the ideas from

1041
00:51:13,510 --> 00:51:15,090
the course do you use?

1042
00:51:15,090 --> 00:51:19,900
And people have done surveys
like that in physics majors.

1043
00:51:19,900 --> 00:51:22,960
So they're surveys of physics
majors in the job, whether

1044
00:51:22,960 --> 00:51:26,460
their in research or in
industry or finance--

1045
00:51:26,460 --> 00:51:28,600
well, before that ended--

1046
00:51:28,600 --> 00:51:31,470
what do you use from your
physics degree?

1047
00:51:31,470 --> 00:51:34,770
And very rarely do you find
people saying, if you just

1048
00:51:34,770 --> 00:51:37,930
average across all the jobs,
Maxwell's equations.

1049
00:51:37,930 --> 00:51:40,960
It's just not on the list--
is very low on the list.

1050
00:51:40,960 --> 00:51:43,870
It's things like general problem
solving, quantitative

1051
00:51:43,870 --> 00:51:46,040
skills, working in groups.

1052
00:51:46,040 --> 00:51:48,620
Now it's not necessarily true
that therefore we should just

1053
00:51:48,620 --> 00:51:50,630
dump all our classes and teach
people how to work in groups.

1054
00:51:50,630 --> 00:51:51,980
That's not what I'm saying.

1055
00:51:51,980 --> 00:51:54,390
But it's useful to know what
people are doing with the

1056
00:51:54,390 --> 00:51:56,820
things you teach them,
so that you can

1057
00:51:56,820 --> 00:51:58,590
take that into account.

1058
00:51:58,590 --> 00:52:00,270
So that would be my ideal--

1059
00:52:00,270 --> 00:52:03,260
surveys one year, five years,
10 years, later.

1060
00:52:03,260 --> 00:52:06,680
And there are a few of those
at MIT, alumni surveys.

1061
00:52:06,680 --> 00:52:07,200
[? Meki, ?]

1062
00:52:07,200 --> 00:52:10,000
I know, has done
a few of them.

1063
00:52:10,000 --> 00:52:11,865
Other questions?

1064
00:52:11,865 --> 00:52:12,835
Yes?

1065
00:52:12,835 --> 00:52:15,582
AUDIENCE: So let's say you're
a new teacher, and you're

1066
00:52:15,582 --> 00:52:16,715
giving a course.

1067
00:52:16,715 --> 00:52:18,048
And you design it, and you
really think about how you

1068
00:52:18,048 --> 00:52:20,595
want to do it, and the labs and
the homeworks, et cetera.

1069
00:52:20,595 --> 00:52:22,800
And you refine that over
a number of years.

1070
00:52:22,800 --> 00:52:23,625
PROFESSOR: Yeah, two
or three years.

1071
00:52:23,625 --> 00:52:25,072
AUDIENCE: So five or six years,
you've got it down

1072
00:52:25,072 --> 00:52:25,910
pretty well.

1073
00:52:25,910 --> 00:52:27,950
Does it become boring?

1074
00:52:27,950 --> 00:52:30,100
PROFESSOR: Good question.

1075
00:52:30,100 --> 00:52:33,870
Yeah, so the question is you
make a new course, two or

1076
00:52:33,870 --> 00:52:37,110
three years you've refined it,
after five years, does it

1077
00:52:37,110 --> 00:52:37,870
become boring?

1078
00:52:37,870 --> 00:52:42,800
My guess is probably yeah,
unless you keep changing it.

1079
00:52:42,800 --> 00:52:47,570
So I've taught Art of
Approximation for

1080
00:52:47,570 --> 00:52:49,500
almost nine years now.

1081
00:52:49,500 --> 00:52:53,410
And every three years or four
years, I completely figure out

1082
00:52:53,410 --> 00:52:55,190
a new way of doing it.

1083
00:52:55,190 --> 00:52:57,740
And now it's finally converging,
I would say.

1084
00:52:57,740 --> 00:53:00,770
I've finally realized,
oh the main thing--

1085
00:53:00,770 --> 00:53:03,820
because I didn't know this when
I first started, because

1086
00:53:03,820 --> 00:53:05,430
I was a new teacher--

1087
00:53:05,430 --> 00:53:08,550
so to organize it around large
ideas, main themes,

1088
00:53:08,550 --> 00:53:09,450
transferable technique.

1089
00:53:09,450 --> 00:53:11,740
So I've finally converged
to that.

1090
00:53:11,740 --> 00:53:15,590
And now I'm changing
the examples.

1091
00:53:15,590 --> 00:53:18,245
And so I would say
the [INAUDIBLE]

1092
00:53:18,245 --> 00:53:19,820
is probably converging.

1093
00:53:19,820 --> 00:53:21,660
But I could probably keep doing
that for another three

1094
00:53:21,660 --> 00:53:22,180
or four years.

1095
00:53:22,180 --> 00:53:25,630
But if you just do it, refine it
for two or three years, and

1096
00:53:25,630 --> 00:53:27,310
then just keep doing it, I would
say yeah, after another

1097
00:53:27,310 --> 00:53:30,040
couple years, it's not
necessarily that it will get

1098
00:53:30,040 --> 00:53:33,920
boring, because when you teach
this way, the teaching always

1099
00:53:33,920 --> 00:53:36,710
stays interesting, but it's that
you find yourself maybe

1100
00:53:36,710 --> 00:53:39,100
just thinking about
other courses.

1101
00:53:39,100 --> 00:53:41,210
And I already have a sign that
that's happening, because I'm

1102
00:53:41,210 --> 00:53:44,640
now thinking, I'd like to make
a Physics of Music class.

1103
00:53:44,640 --> 00:53:45,970
And they may be related
to the other class.

1104
00:53:45,970 --> 00:53:48,170
Because we just did the wood
blocks and the xylophone in my

1105
00:53:48,170 --> 00:53:49,080
approximation class.

1106
00:53:49,080 --> 00:53:51,950
I'm thinking, oh, a whole class
of the physics of music

1107
00:53:51,950 --> 00:53:55,000
would be really a lot
of fun to make--

1108
00:53:55,000 --> 00:53:57,140
organize it around
demonstrations, and then you

1109
00:53:57,140 --> 00:53:58,930
could bring in the physics,
as needed, for the

1110
00:53:58,930 --> 00:54:01,750
demonstrations, and you choose
all the demonstrations so that

1111
00:54:01,750 --> 00:54:04,390
all the main physical ideas
in acoustics, and

1112
00:54:04,390 --> 00:54:06,990
electromagnetism, and
mechanics, and

1113
00:54:06,990 --> 00:54:10,500
sound are all combined.

1114
00:54:10,500 --> 00:54:13,190
Oh that'll be a really
nice design problem.

1115
00:54:13,190 --> 00:54:16,890
So maybe I'm converging with the
Art of Approximation one

1116
00:54:16,890 --> 00:54:18,520
after nine years.

1117
00:54:18,520 --> 00:54:20,780
So it depends how often you
keep changing things.

1118
00:54:20,780 --> 00:54:23,390
But yeah, and that's OK, because
you'll find that

1119
00:54:23,390 --> 00:54:24,970
that's the natural life cycle.

1120
00:54:24,970 --> 00:54:30,170
So for example, if you're a
faculty member say in almost

1121
00:54:30,170 --> 00:54:33,720
any university in the country,
after six years, you get a

1122
00:54:33,720 --> 00:54:34,700
sabbatical.

1123
00:54:34,700 --> 00:54:36,970
So in the sabbatical, you'd
be very well advised--

1124
00:54:36,970 --> 00:54:38,790
I mean, you could teach if you
wanted-- but you're very well

1125
00:54:38,790 --> 00:54:42,110
advised to not show up on any
committees, not teach, and

1126
00:54:42,110 --> 00:54:44,390
generally, you're pretty
much required not to

1127
00:54:44,390 --> 00:54:45,490
and then just leave.

1128
00:54:45,490 --> 00:54:48,060
Because otherwise, you'll be
dealing with all the normal,

1129
00:54:48,060 --> 00:54:48,770
run of the mill things.

1130
00:54:48,770 --> 00:54:52,350
You wouldn't be able to have a
block of time to really think.

1131
00:54:52,350 --> 00:54:55,510
So if you've developed this
course, and it's your course,

1132
00:54:55,510 --> 00:54:57,620
after five or six years, it's
automatically going to have to

1133
00:54:57,620 --> 00:54:59,480
be given to somebody else.

1134
00:54:59,480 --> 00:55:00,390
And that's fine.

1135
00:55:00,390 --> 00:55:02,540
Because that's around the time
that you'll be thinking about

1136
00:55:02,540 --> 00:55:03,100
other stuff.

1137
00:55:03,100 --> 00:55:05,690
And the sabbatical is a time to
reorient yourself towards

1138
00:55:05,690 --> 00:55:06,180
other stuff.

1139
00:55:06,180 --> 00:55:10,830
So looking ahead towards that,
what you want to do is write

1140
00:55:10,830 --> 00:55:12,170
up what you do.

1141
00:55:12,170 --> 00:55:14,350
So the first year, it's pretty
hard, you're just barely

1142
00:55:14,350 --> 00:55:15,760
scrambling, you're trying
to breathe.

1143
00:55:15,760 --> 00:55:17,380
It's like having four children,
or us having

1144
00:55:17,380 --> 00:55:19,150
quadruplets.

1145
00:55:19,150 --> 00:55:21,156
Well, maybe, I don't know, I
haven't had that happen to me.

1146
00:55:21,156 --> 00:55:21,830
[LAUGHTER]

1147
00:55:21,830 --> 00:55:24,760
PROFESSOR: But the first year
you do a brand new course,

1148
00:55:24,760 --> 00:55:28,480
especially a three days a week
one, it's pretty hard.

1149
00:55:28,480 --> 00:55:31,710
So I can tell you, this is two
hours a week, but it's the

1150
00:55:31,710 --> 00:55:33,490
first time I've taught
this course.

1151
00:55:33,490 --> 00:55:36,380
So it's a lot of work.

1152
00:55:36,380 --> 00:55:37,900
And that will be true.

1153
00:55:37,900 --> 00:55:40,360
So the first year, yeah, you
just want to survive.

1154
00:55:40,360 --> 00:55:43,610
The second year, you start to
figure out what to do, what to

1155
00:55:43,610 --> 00:55:46,440
write, and just start writing
stuff up bit by bit--

1156
00:55:46,440 --> 00:55:51,340
lecture notes, problem sets that
are type set, things that

1157
00:55:51,340 --> 00:55:53,200
other people can use
pretty easily.

1158
00:55:53,200 --> 00:55:55,640
So then when the course is
handed off to somebody else,

1159
00:55:55,640 --> 00:55:57,830
they can continue that and
refine it, based on what

1160
00:55:57,830 --> 00:55:58,610
you've done.

1161
00:55:58,610 --> 00:56:03,130
And everything you did
doesn't just vanish.

1162
00:56:03,130 --> 00:56:04,110
Yeah?

1163
00:56:04,110 --> 00:56:09,010
AUDIENCE: So you mentioned in
classes you really like to

1164
00:56:09,010 --> 00:56:09,990
[? do a lot of ?]

1165
00:56:09,990 --> 00:56:12,644
teaching and [? carve ?] the
main ideas and then put some

1166
00:56:12,644 --> 00:56:14,540
of the mechanistic--

1167
00:56:14,540 --> 00:56:15,240
PROFESSOR: The grunge.

1168
00:56:15,240 --> 00:56:17,210
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].

1169
00:56:17,210 --> 00:56:19,438
So do you have anything
illuminating to say about how

1170
00:56:19,438 --> 00:56:22,402
to choose those textbook
[? readings, ?] other than

1171
00:56:22,402 --> 00:56:23,540
[INAUDIBLE]?

1172
00:56:23,540 --> 00:56:25,480
PROFESSOR: Yeah, so
the question is--

1173
00:56:25,480 --> 00:56:29,880
so I like to use lecture time
for the larger ideas, for the

1174
00:56:29,880 --> 00:56:33,970
concepts, for the chunks.

1175
00:56:33,970 --> 00:56:36,160
So for example, in the teaching
equation one, and

1176
00:56:36,160 --> 00:56:38,900
leave the derivations and
detailed manipulations, the

1177
00:56:38,900 --> 00:56:45,540
mechanics of stuff, the grunge
let's say, for the textbook.

1178
00:56:45,540 --> 00:56:48,750
Do I have any suggestions for
how to choose a good textbook?

1179
00:56:48,750 --> 00:56:53,720
Well, it is important to
choose a good textbook.

1180
00:56:53,720 --> 00:56:57,980
But it becomes less important
if the classroom is focusing

1181
00:56:57,980 --> 00:56:59,440
on concepts in chunks.

1182
00:56:59,440 --> 00:57:01,680
Because that's the
differentiator, generally,

1183
00:57:01,680 --> 00:57:03,770
between the good and the bad
textbooks, is that the good

1184
00:57:03,770 --> 00:57:05,500
textbooks do more of that.

1185
00:57:05,500 --> 00:57:10,520
So if you're focusing on that
in the classroom, then you

1186
00:57:10,520 --> 00:57:11,480
have more freedom--

1187
00:57:11,480 --> 00:57:13,650
not freedom to use bad
textbooks, but the bad

1188
00:57:13,650 --> 00:57:15,280
textbooks don't do
you as much harm.

1189
00:57:15,280 --> 00:57:16,710
Because the students
don't need so

1190
00:57:16,710 --> 00:57:18,120
much out of the textbook.

1191
00:57:18,120 --> 00:57:20,790
They need to basically have a
place where the derivations

1192
00:57:20,790 --> 00:57:22,530
are correct.

1193
00:57:22,530 --> 00:57:25,320
And that's an important part,
and it has the derivations you

1194
00:57:25,320 --> 00:57:27,140
need, sure.

1195
00:57:27,140 --> 00:57:30,320
So right away, you
can relax about

1196
00:57:30,320 --> 00:57:32,220
choosing textbooks, slightly.

1197
00:57:32,220 --> 00:57:33,430
But how do you find good ones?

1198
00:57:33,430 --> 00:57:37,300
Actually now, I look at the
reviews online and see what

1199
00:57:37,300 --> 00:57:39,410
students say about them.

1200
00:57:39,410 --> 00:57:43,910
So I do a web search for books,
and I see what books

1201
00:57:43,910 --> 00:57:46,830
people are using, what people
are commenting on, look at the

1202
00:57:46,830 --> 00:57:49,620
online bookstores, the various
reviews of the books.

1203
00:57:49,620 --> 00:57:50,700
That helps a lot.

1204
00:57:50,700 --> 00:57:55,090
And then, nowadays, often people
put the first chapter

1205
00:57:55,090 --> 00:57:57,390
and the Table of Contents
online--

1206
00:57:57,390 --> 00:57:58,690
the publishers do.

1207
00:57:58,690 --> 00:58:01,030
And ideally, they would put
the whole book online.

1208
00:58:01,030 --> 00:58:03,130
Some are doing that too.

1209
00:58:03,130 --> 00:58:04,960
So have a look at that.

1210
00:58:04,960 --> 00:58:06,860
From the Table of Contents,
you can really tell a lot

1211
00:58:06,860 --> 00:58:08,020
about a textbook.

1212
00:58:08,020 --> 00:58:10,400
You can say, is this
organized right?

1213
00:58:10,400 --> 00:58:12,090
Does this have the
right philosophy

1214
00:58:12,090 --> 00:58:13,620
that I'm looking for?

1215
00:58:13,620 --> 00:58:16,360
So look, right away, at the
preface, where the author

1216
00:58:16,360 --> 00:58:18,280
talks about why this book.

1217
00:58:18,280 --> 00:58:21,180
And if they have no good reason
for why this book, it's

1218
00:58:21,180 --> 00:58:24,020
probably not the book for you.

1219
00:58:24,020 --> 00:58:25,810
Sometimes you don't have a
choice about the book.

1220
00:58:25,810 --> 00:58:28,500
People just say, well, this is
the book that we always use.

1221
00:58:28,500 --> 00:58:30,390
Or it's the first time you've
taught the course.

1222
00:58:30,390 --> 00:58:35,380
For example, you're hired say
in March, you start your job

1223
00:58:35,380 --> 00:58:39,360
in July, and in August, they
come to you and say, oh yeah,

1224
00:58:39,360 --> 00:58:43,410
by the way, Professor Blah is
on sabbatical teaching X,

1225
00:58:43,410 --> 00:58:46,990
you're up, the course book
is already there.

1226
00:58:46,990 --> 00:58:48,410
So you can't do much
about that.

1227
00:58:48,410 --> 00:58:50,060
So sometimes you don't have
freedom, but then when you do,

1228
00:58:50,060 --> 00:58:50,660
you want to do it.

1229
00:58:50,660 --> 00:58:52,880
So look at the preface and
the online reviews.

1230
00:58:52,880 --> 00:58:53,990
They're quite helpful.

1231
00:58:53,990 --> 00:58:58,540
But don't worry as much if your
classroom is interactive.

1232
00:58:58,540 --> 00:59:01,954
That mitigates a lot of
textbook problems.

1233
00:59:01,954 --> 00:59:02,451
Yeah?

1234
00:59:02,451 --> 00:59:06,178
AUDIENCE: So you [? focused ?]
on the fact that in Europe, in

1235
00:59:06,178 --> 00:59:09,906
your undegrad, you take more
specific classes towards

1236
00:59:09,906 --> 00:59:11,590
[INAUDIBLE].

1237
00:59:11,590 --> 00:59:12,640
PROFESSOR: Mm-hmm.

1238
00:59:12,640 --> 00:59:20,135
AUDIENCE: And I wonder actually
if there is some

1239
00:59:20,135 --> 00:59:24,861
[? standard ?] or analysis of
what is more effective.

1240
00:59:24,861 --> 00:59:30,065
Because in general, I goes that
if you have more variety,

1241
00:59:30,065 --> 00:59:34,062
than you have a higher
tendency to do more

1242
00:59:34,062 --> 00:59:35,523
disciplinary work.

1243
00:59:35,523 --> 00:59:37,958
[INAUDIBLE] that would
be the advantage.

1244
00:59:37,958 --> 00:59:42,230
But the advantage of having
taken only chemistry, math,

1245
00:59:42,230 --> 00:59:44,617
and physics during your
undergrad is that then you

1246
00:59:44,617 --> 00:59:45,480
know a lot about that.

1247
00:59:45,480 --> 00:59:46,440
PROFESSOR: Right.

1248
00:59:46,440 --> 00:59:50,274
AUDIENCE: And that also
goes a little bit--

1249
00:59:50,274 --> 00:59:53,260
I don't know, I keep hearing,
although I have never seen

1250
00:59:53,260 --> 00:59:59,025
proof that math skills in the
US are not as good as the

1251
00:59:59,025 --> 01:00:01,500
people who come from outside.

1252
01:00:01,500 --> 01:00:05,685
And also, [? because ?] we were
talking about doing a

1253
01:00:05,685 --> 01:00:07,090
class on music and--

1254
01:00:07,090 --> 01:00:08,854
PROFESSOR: Physics
and music, yeah.

1255
01:00:08,854 --> 01:00:12,590
AUDIENCE: And then I wonder if
I'll ever get an undergrad

1256
01:00:12,590 --> 01:00:16,980
that took that class instead of
taking a physics hardcore

1257
01:00:16,980 --> 01:00:18,530
math class.

1258
01:00:18,530 --> 01:00:22,117
And I'd be like, oh, I wish you
had taken this class that

1259
01:00:22,117 --> 01:00:25,750
would give you the tools to
work, rather than some class

1260
01:00:25,750 --> 01:00:31,430
that you would enjoy, but that
I'd rather have you taking,

1261
01:00:31,430 --> 01:00:34,380
later on, at the end of
your grad school.

1262
01:00:34,380 --> 01:00:35,970
PROFESSOR: OK, so let
me unpack those.

1263
01:00:35,970 --> 01:00:37,230
So there were several
questions in there.

1264
01:00:37,230 --> 01:00:43,080
So first, are there any studies
on the difference

1265
01:00:43,080 --> 01:00:46,510
between the results produced
by the European's, say,

1266
01:00:46,510 --> 01:00:48,850
educational system versus the
American, or the European

1267
01:00:48,850 --> 01:00:52,990
where people just do their one
subject to first order, where

1268
01:00:52,990 --> 01:00:55,070
the American one where you
take courses across many

1269
01:00:55,070 --> 01:00:57,770
different subjects?

1270
01:00:57,770 --> 01:00:59,480
I'm not sure about that.

1271
01:00:59,480 --> 01:01:05,910
But also, the notion of
effectiveness is not clear, so

1272
01:01:05,910 --> 01:01:07,070
what's the goal?

1273
01:01:07,070 --> 01:01:10,530
So that the American one, I
think the historical reasons

1274
01:01:10,530 --> 01:01:14,910
why it's different is that
education in America, early

1275
01:01:14,910 --> 01:01:19,850
on, back in colonial times, and
just post-colonial or the

1276
01:01:19,850 --> 01:01:24,170
early 1800s, was seen as
a democratic thing.

1277
01:01:24,170 --> 01:01:28,150
The idea was that this is
a democracy, and all the

1278
01:01:28,150 --> 01:01:30,620
citizens are expected to
participate in that.

1279
01:01:30,620 --> 01:01:32,960
And so they had a narrow
definition of citizens--

1280
01:01:32,960 --> 01:01:33,970
just white males--

1281
01:01:33,970 --> 01:01:37,710
but within that definition, the
idea was that everybody

1282
01:01:37,710 --> 01:01:40,020
had to participate or was
going to participate.

1283
01:01:40,020 --> 01:01:43,740
So to that end, they needed
a broad education.

1284
01:01:43,740 --> 01:01:45,670
They couldn't just specialize
in one thing.

1285
01:01:45,670 --> 01:01:46,970
Because they would
be too narrow to

1286
01:01:46,970 --> 01:01:48,920
actually help govern society.

1287
01:01:48,920 --> 01:01:51,170
Because society is
multi-farious and

1288
01:01:51,170 --> 01:01:53,270
multi-disciplinary,
intrinsically.

1289
01:01:53,270 --> 01:01:57,660
Whereas in Europe, that idea of
democracy came hundreds of

1290
01:01:57,660 --> 01:02:02,575
years later, if at all, maybe at
the end of World War I. So

1291
01:02:02,575 --> 01:02:08,660
the European educational system
was much more oriented

1292
01:02:08,660 --> 01:02:10,720
towards producing people who
would fit into a particular

1293
01:02:10,720 --> 01:02:12,680
slot in society.

1294
01:02:12,680 --> 01:02:16,220
So now if you want to measure
how effective each was at its

1295
01:02:16,220 --> 01:02:19,390
historical goals, I think
that's a fair question.

1296
01:02:19,390 --> 01:02:23,010
To measure how effective each is
at producing people who are

1297
01:02:23,010 --> 01:02:26,300
trained for a particular
slot in society--

1298
01:02:26,300 --> 01:02:28,060
I don't think that's a
very useful analysis.

1299
01:02:28,060 --> 01:02:30,620
Because the historical
origins of the

1300
01:02:30,620 --> 01:02:32,260
two systems are different.

1301
01:02:32,260 --> 01:02:34,620
It's much more fruitful,
I would say, to

1302
01:02:34,620 --> 01:02:35,650
think about the goals.

1303
01:02:35,650 --> 01:02:38,440
Which goals do we agree with?

1304
01:02:38,440 --> 01:02:41,400
Can we get the benefits of the
American goal with some of the

1305
01:02:41,400 --> 01:02:43,670
benefits of the specialization
in Europe?

1306
01:02:43,670 --> 01:02:46,500
And I think at places like
MIT, you do do that.

1307
01:02:46,500 --> 01:02:48,410
The students who come
out of MIT--

1308
01:02:48,410 --> 01:02:51,040
they have a broader education
than the students who come out

1309
01:02:51,040 --> 01:02:55,330
of European universities, and
they actually know a lot.

1310
01:02:55,330 --> 01:02:56,600
Now I would like it
to be much more

1311
01:02:56,600 --> 01:02:58,010
conceptual and long lasting.

1312
01:02:58,010 --> 01:03:00,430
But that's true of the
European ones too.

1313
01:03:00,430 --> 01:03:04,140
So I would take the question
back from just studying the

1314
01:03:04,140 --> 01:03:07,120
end result to think
carefully, as a

1315
01:03:07,120 --> 01:03:10,100
society, about their purposes.

1316
01:03:10,100 --> 01:03:13,870
Now about the Physics of Music,
I would say, actually,

1317
01:03:13,870 --> 01:03:16,960
I could imagine teaching an
intro physics course that's

1318
01:03:16,960 --> 01:03:19,560
Physics of Music, where students
would learn all the

1319
01:03:19,560 --> 01:03:23,150
fundamental ideas of say first
semester physics, but through

1320
01:03:23,150 --> 01:03:24,060
the physics of music.

1321
01:03:24,060 --> 01:03:27,200
And so they wouldn't be deprived
of the essential

1322
01:03:27,200 --> 01:03:27,880
knowledge of physics.

1323
01:03:27,880 --> 01:03:30,000
They would actually
be contextualized.

1324
01:03:30,000 --> 01:03:33,930
So it might have longer
lasting value.

1325
01:03:33,930 --> 01:03:36,420
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].

1326
01:03:36,420 --> 01:03:39,482
PROFESSOR: OK, other-- yes?

1327
01:03:39,482 --> 01:03:41,520
AUDIENCE: So you talk about
emotional barriers, and I

1328
01:03:41,520 --> 01:03:44,668
think one of the big ones that
I've seen, especially in

1329
01:03:44,668 --> 01:03:48,364
students at MIT, through TA'ing
or just through hearing

1330
01:03:48,364 --> 01:03:49,682
people talk is I don't
belong here.

1331
01:03:49,682 --> 01:03:52,152
I must have gotten
here by accident.

1332
01:03:52,152 --> 01:03:52,650
PROFESSOR: Yeah.

1333
01:03:52,650 --> 01:03:54,914
AUDIENCE: And I think so many
people say that to themselves,

1334
01:03:54,914 --> 01:03:57,427
at one time or another, or
multiple times while they're

1335
01:03:57,427 --> 01:04:00,283
here, that it can't possibly
be true, because

1336
01:04:00,283 --> 01:04:00,892
everybody is saying it.

1337
01:04:00,892 --> 01:04:03,730
PROFESSOR: Right.

1338
01:04:03,730 --> 01:04:09,140
AUDIENCE: Because if they have
that barrier up, I don't think

1339
01:04:09,140 --> 01:04:12,580
there's much to do
to combat that.

1340
01:04:12,580 --> 01:04:14,880
So how do you get through
that kind of barrier?

1341
01:04:14,880 --> 01:04:17,920
Because no matter how clear your
teaching is, if they're

1342
01:04:17,920 --> 01:04:19,495
worried that they're not
going to get it,

1343
01:04:19,495 --> 01:04:20,710
because they don't belong--

1344
01:04:20,710 --> 01:04:22,200
PROFESSOR: Yeah, if they're
in the math phobic

1345
01:04:22,200 --> 01:04:23,230
mode or phobic mode.

1346
01:04:23,230 --> 01:04:23,950
AUDIENCE: Yeah.

1347
01:04:23,950 --> 01:04:25,710
PROFESSOR: So this is a really
interesting question.

1348
01:04:25,710 --> 01:04:29,470
So the comment was that a lot
of people at MIT, a lot of

1349
01:04:29,470 --> 01:04:30,940
students, one of the emotional
barriers they

1350
01:04:30,940 --> 01:04:33,340
have is they feel--

1351
01:04:33,340 --> 01:04:36,080
I would call that a
meaning barrier.

1352
01:04:36,080 --> 01:04:39,150
Let me rephrase it in the three
levels of conversation.

1353
01:04:39,150 --> 01:04:41,540
So their emotion
is that they're

1354
01:04:41,540 --> 01:04:43,490
very tense and anxious.

1355
01:04:43,490 --> 01:04:47,950
And the meaning is that when
something doesn't go right for

1356
01:04:47,950 --> 01:04:51,020
them, they get something wrong
on a problem set or in class,

1357
01:04:51,020 --> 01:04:53,660
they think that that's exposing
how they really don't

1358
01:04:53,660 --> 01:04:55,370
belong here.

1359
01:04:55,370 --> 01:04:57,180
And that creates a
lot of anxiety

1360
01:04:57,180 --> 01:04:58,570
and tension and misery.

1361
01:04:58,570 --> 01:05:02,250
So at Caltech, there was a
saying that, oh yeah, Caltech

1362
01:05:02,250 --> 01:05:04,830
is a terrible place for the
bottom half of the 99th

1363
01:05:04,830 --> 01:05:08,550
percentile, which captures
that pretty well.

1364
01:05:08,550 --> 01:05:10,000
All these people, all the

1365
01:05:10,000 --> 01:05:11,150
undergrads who went to Caltech--

1366
01:05:11,150 --> 01:05:12,570
they were probably
valedictorians in their high

1367
01:05:12,570 --> 01:05:16,570
school and two sigmas above in
doing science fair projects

1368
01:05:16,570 --> 01:05:18,030
than everybody else
around them.

1369
01:05:18,030 --> 01:05:20,500
And now they come to Caltech,
and they feel terrible.

1370
01:05:20,500 --> 01:05:23,170
What are we doing that
produces that?

1371
01:05:23,170 --> 01:05:24,820
It's crazy.

1372
01:05:24,820 --> 01:05:28,120
So how can your teaching-- can
you take account of that?

1373
01:05:28,120 --> 01:05:30,370
So that, I would say, also
relates partly to the

1374
01:05:30,370 --> 01:05:31,450
misconceptions.

1375
01:05:31,450 --> 01:05:34,260
They have this misconception
or this conception about

1376
01:05:34,260 --> 01:05:34,740
themselves.

1377
01:05:34,740 --> 01:05:35,340
So what can you do?

1378
01:05:35,340 --> 01:05:39,530
Well phobias are
very difficult.

1379
01:05:39,530 --> 01:05:40,870
You have to work around them.

1380
01:05:40,870 --> 01:05:44,780
So one thing is, you don't
want to trigger them.

1381
01:05:44,780 --> 01:05:49,600
So every time you trigger them,
you reinforce them.

1382
01:05:49,600 --> 01:05:52,280
So any neurobiology
people in here?

1383
01:05:52,280 --> 01:05:53,080
I forget.

1384
01:05:53,080 --> 01:05:53,760
[? PCS? ?]

1385
01:05:53,760 --> 01:05:57,650
Well the fundamental rule
of neurobiology of brain

1386
01:05:57,650 --> 01:05:59,390
neurons-- so this is-- of
course, I teach Art of

1387
01:05:59,390 --> 01:06:02,190
Approximation, so forgive me
for approximating the whole

1388
01:06:02,190 --> 01:06:04,030
brain with one sentence--

1389
01:06:04,030 --> 01:06:06,660
is neurons that fire together
wire together.

1390
01:06:09,490 --> 01:06:14,360
So wiring together, that means
they activate, they increase

1391
01:06:14,360 --> 01:06:16,050
their coupling.

1392
01:06:16,050 --> 01:06:22,330
And so for example, you create
a classroom environment or

1393
01:06:22,330 --> 01:06:24,260
something happened in the
classroom that they get

1394
01:06:24,260 --> 01:06:25,150
something wrong.

1395
01:06:25,150 --> 01:06:30,960
And now that is still wired,
somewhat, to the bad feeling

1396
01:06:30,960 --> 01:06:34,480
and their thoughts of oh my
God, I don't belong here.

1397
01:06:34,480 --> 01:06:35,880
So now you've reinforced
that, they're going to

1398
01:06:35,880 --> 01:06:36,800
wire together more.

1399
01:06:36,800 --> 01:06:38,460
It reinforces that pathway.

1400
01:06:38,460 --> 01:06:40,980
So what you have to do is find
a way to actually prevent

1401
01:06:40,980 --> 01:06:42,980
those guys from wiring
together.

1402
01:06:42,980 --> 01:06:45,420
One thing is create an
environment where whenever

1403
01:06:45,420 --> 01:06:48,360
people get things wrong,
it's actually great.

1404
01:06:48,360 --> 01:06:51,620
So oh, that wasn't right, great,
now think how much

1405
01:06:51,620 --> 01:06:52,710
you're going to learn.

1406
01:06:52,710 --> 01:06:56,110
Or when you get things wrong,
you want to model that too.

1407
01:06:56,110 --> 01:06:58,160
You say, oh you're right,
oh thanks, I've learned

1408
01:06:58,160 --> 01:07:01,230
something from that.

1409
01:07:01,230 --> 01:07:04,290
So try not to be defensive.

1410
01:07:04,290 --> 01:07:07,410
Because if you're defensive,
then that triggers

1411
01:07:07,410 --> 01:07:08,740
that wiring in them.

1412
01:07:08,740 --> 01:07:12,120
And that firing together builds
up the wiring together.

1413
01:07:12,120 --> 01:07:15,510
So creating a classroom
environment where feeling bad

1414
01:07:15,510 --> 01:07:19,670
and competing against other
people isn't the goal is one

1415
01:07:19,670 --> 01:07:20,460
way to minimize it.

1416
01:07:20,460 --> 01:07:24,750
So minimizing the importance
of defined distinctions on

1417
01:07:24,750 --> 01:07:26,270
homework-- did I get a 95?

1418
01:07:26,270 --> 01:07:30,140
Or oh, that person's getting
a 95, I only got a 90.

1419
01:07:30,140 --> 01:07:33,070
So that's one reason
MIT was pass/fail.

1420
01:07:33,070 --> 01:07:36,540
For a whole year, originally,
was pass/fail.

1421
01:07:36,540 --> 01:07:39,160
And that was to mitigate the
pressure that students were

1422
01:07:39,160 --> 01:07:41,690
coming in, feeling like, oh my
God, now I don't belong here.

1423
01:07:41,690 --> 01:07:41,930
[? It was ?]

1424
01:07:41,930 --> 01:07:44,670
look, we don't care about your
grades in the first year.

1425
01:07:44,670 --> 01:07:47,400
You're really here to adjust to
university, to a different

1426
01:07:47,400 --> 01:07:51,630
way of learning, and now, it
was actually done in a way

1427
01:07:51,630 --> 01:07:55,810
that somehow the competition
was partly the students

1428
01:07:55,810 --> 01:07:58,300
reinforcing the culture, the
upperclassmen, as well.

1429
01:07:58,300 --> 01:08:01,170
If you could actually try to
mitigate that, you'd go a long

1430
01:08:01,170 --> 01:08:04,200
way towards mitigating
the wiring together.

1431
01:08:04,200 --> 01:08:07,280
But you can do it in your
classroom too by deemphasizing

1432
01:08:07,280 --> 01:08:09,140
the things that trigger that.

1433
01:08:09,140 --> 01:08:11,720
And so when you call
on people--

1434
01:08:11,720 --> 01:08:15,220
so for example, for that reason
at MIT, I almost never

1435
01:08:15,220 --> 01:08:16,899
what's called cold calling.

1436
01:08:16,899 --> 01:08:20,229
If you've ever seen that old
movie The Paper Chase--

1437
01:08:20,229 --> 01:08:24,370
so The Paper Chase is about the
what we could call today

1438
01:08:24,370 --> 01:08:27,000
the terroristic Socratic
method.

1439
01:08:27,000 --> 01:08:30,130
So the law schools all use the
Socratic method, where they

1440
01:08:30,130 --> 01:08:32,370
read a case, and you ask
them about things--

1441
01:08:32,370 --> 01:08:33,680
things about it.

1442
01:08:33,680 --> 01:08:38,270
Mr. Jones, what do you think,
what were the findings of law?

1443
01:08:38,270 --> 01:08:43,170
Mr. Smith or Mrs. d'Arbeloff,
what do you think about that,

1444
01:08:43,170 --> 01:08:46,710
do you agree with that, or
is that pure rubbish?

1445
01:08:46,710 --> 01:08:49,200
So people were just put on the
spot repeatedly, and they just

1446
01:08:49,200 --> 01:08:51,430
produced terror in the students,
and that was

1447
01:08:51,430 --> 01:08:53,500
considered part of the hazing
ritual, basically.

1448
01:08:53,500 --> 01:08:56,609
So at MIT, I just don't
do that at all.

1449
01:08:56,609 --> 01:08:58,220
Because I think it just
triggers that.

1450
01:08:58,220 --> 01:09:01,290
And I'd rather just create a
structure whereby students

1451
01:09:01,290 --> 01:09:04,430
feel ready to participate,
by, for example, in the

1452
01:09:04,430 --> 01:09:06,569
interactive teaching, giving
them time to think to each

1453
01:09:06,569 --> 01:09:08,729
other and then say something.

1454
01:09:08,729 --> 01:09:10,280
So you can do stuff, and
it's hard, and it's

1455
01:09:10,280 --> 01:09:13,090
an important problem.

1456
01:09:13,090 --> 01:09:14,000
Yeah?

1457
01:09:14,000 --> 01:09:14,319
Sure.

1458
01:09:14,319 --> 01:09:17,630
AUDIENCE: It's worthwile to
actually confront it head on,

1459
01:09:17,630 --> 01:09:20,450
is just say, a lot of you may
be feeling this way, and

1460
01:09:20,450 --> 01:09:22,782
please know that it's normal,
and in fact, I felt this way

1461
01:09:22,782 --> 01:09:23,852
most of my life.

1462
01:09:23,852 --> 01:09:26,029
Because I had a professor in my
undergrad who actually came

1463
01:09:26,029 --> 01:09:28,525
in and said to a group of us--
like, it was in a meeting.

1464
01:09:28,525 --> 01:09:30,380
And she said, how many of you
have felt like, basically,

1465
01:09:30,380 --> 01:09:32,689
you're an imposter and it's
just a matter of time

1466
01:09:32,689 --> 01:09:34,510
[INAUDIBLE] discovers you?

1467
01:09:34,510 --> 01:09:35,155
[INAUDIBLE]

1468
01:09:35,155 --> 01:09:36,009
all of us raised our hands.

1469
01:09:36,009 --> 01:09:38,072
And she said, I wanted you to
know that it wasn't until I

1470
01:09:38,072 --> 01:09:41,016
won my fourth major award in
the field that I stopped

1471
01:09:41,016 --> 01:09:42,160
feeling that way.

1472
01:09:42,160 --> 01:09:43,490
So It's normal.

1473
01:09:43,490 --> 01:09:46,310
And that's run in my
head for years.

1474
01:09:46,310 --> 01:09:49,489
So even someone who was amazing
as she was, and she

1475
01:09:49,489 --> 01:09:53,164
was an amazing individual, has
felt that way, and to know

1476
01:09:53,164 --> 01:09:55,442
that you're not the only
one [INAUDIBLE].

1477
01:09:55,442 --> 01:09:56,415
So do you think it's actually
worth saying?

1478
01:09:56,415 --> 01:09:57,560
PROFESSOR: Yes, that's
a really good point.

1479
01:09:57,560 --> 01:10:00,390
So the point was that it's
worthwhile making it explicit

1480
01:10:00,390 --> 01:10:03,160
for the students and really
naming the feeling that

1481
01:10:03,160 --> 01:10:03,740
they're going through.

1482
01:10:03,740 --> 01:10:06,470
Like look, you may be feeling
really terrible and feeling

1483
01:10:06,470 --> 01:10:08,275
like you're an imposter.

1484
01:10:08,275 --> 01:10:10,830
Well, let it be known that I
felt the same way too for a

1485
01:10:10,830 --> 01:10:13,630
long time, and describe it to
them, and talk to them about

1486
01:10:13,630 --> 01:10:14,720
why they may be feeling that.

1487
01:10:14,720 --> 01:10:20,150
Say look, there's a culture of
competition in the society and

1488
01:10:20,150 --> 01:10:21,720
the university, and
it's actually

1489
01:10:21,720 --> 01:10:23,820
harmful for your learning.

1490
01:10:23,820 --> 01:10:26,960
And share with them some
readings about that.

1491
01:10:26,960 --> 01:10:29,010
Help them see that yeah, this is
something they're going to

1492
01:10:29,010 --> 01:10:29,830
have to struggle with.

1493
01:10:29,830 --> 01:10:32,760
But there's help to do that, and
they're not alone in that.

1494
01:10:32,760 --> 01:10:34,300
So yeah, definitely be explicit

1495
01:10:34,300 --> 01:10:37,350
about things like that.

1496
01:10:37,350 --> 01:10:39,705
I think more question, yeah?

1497
01:10:39,705 --> 01:10:42,555
AUDIENCE: Just in a follow-up,
do you think that

1498
01:10:42,555 --> 01:10:45,880
contextualizing the course
is a way to fight that?

1499
01:10:45,880 --> 01:10:46,570
PROFESSOR: Good question.

1500
01:10:46,570 --> 01:10:49,450
Do I think conceptualizing the
course is a way to fight that?

1501
01:10:49,450 --> 01:10:50,530
I think it is.

1502
01:10:50,530 --> 01:10:54,530
Because when the course is not
contextualized, it generally

1503
01:10:54,530 --> 01:10:57,190
tends to be really abstractly
focused.

1504
01:10:57,190 --> 01:11:01,100
And the interest and the
orientation towards doing

1505
01:11:01,100 --> 01:11:04,600
things first abstractly
is very rare.

1506
01:11:04,600 --> 01:11:06,420
I don't have it, and
I've gone really

1507
01:11:06,420 --> 01:11:08,590
far in math and physics.

1508
01:11:08,590 --> 01:11:11,270
My office mate had it
in graduate school.

1509
01:11:11,270 --> 01:11:13,790
He was the only person I've ever
met who would rather have

1510
01:11:13,790 --> 01:11:17,390
a proof than a picture.

1511
01:11:17,390 --> 01:11:19,250
And now he's a professor
at Caltech, and

1512
01:11:19,250 --> 01:11:20,790
he's also doing well.

1513
01:11:20,790 --> 01:11:23,090
But it's pretty rare.

1514
01:11:23,090 --> 01:11:27,240
So by contextualizing the
course, for almost everybody,

1515
01:11:27,240 --> 01:11:30,760
actually I would say even for
my friend and office mate,

1516
01:11:30,760 --> 01:11:33,080
you're actually connecting to
a much larger part of their

1517
01:11:33,080 --> 01:11:34,390
mind and their experience.

1518
01:11:34,390 --> 01:11:37,550
So you're actually making people
much more intelligent

1519
01:11:37,550 --> 01:11:39,470
and much more equal
in that way.

1520
01:11:39,470 --> 01:11:42,070
So that's one reason I would
actually like to teach the

1521
01:11:42,070 --> 01:11:43,250
Physics in Music class.

1522
01:11:43,250 --> 01:11:45,670
AUDIENCE: It made me think
[INAUDIBLE] they teach drugs

1523
01:11:45,670 --> 01:11:47,606
in the brain [INAUDIBLE]

1524
01:11:47,606 --> 01:11:48,574
biology.

1525
01:11:48,574 --> 01:11:52,930
So if you're a physicist and
you're like, I can't do

1526
01:11:52,930 --> 01:11:55,834
biology, you can take drugs
in the brain [INAUDIBLE].

1527
01:11:55,834 --> 01:11:57,575
And they teach you biology
by teaching [INAUDIBLE].

1528
01:11:57,575 --> 01:11:57,870
PROFESSOR: Interesting.

1529
01:11:57,870 --> 01:12:00,330
Yeah, so it somehow
gets around the

1530
01:12:00,330 --> 01:12:01,790
phobia you might have.

1531
01:12:01,790 --> 01:12:03,335
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].

1532
01:12:03,335 --> 01:12:03,965
PROFESSOR: Pardon?

1533
01:12:03,965 --> 01:12:04,540
AUDIENCE: They do that
at [INAUDIBLE].

1534
01:12:04,540 --> 01:12:05,540
PROFESSOR: Interesting.

1535
01:12:05,540 --> 01:12:09,640
So I was there 10 years ago,
and that wasn't true then.

1536
01:12:09,640 --> 01:12:12,550
So the comment was that at
Caltech now the required

1537
01:12:12,550 --> 01:12:16,570
classes all have a contextual
version, as well.

1538
01:12:16,570 --> 01:12:18,750
And I think that's
a great idea.

1539
01:12:18,750 --> 01:12:21,890
It's also, from your point of
view, it's really fun as a

1540
01:12:21,890 --> 01:12:24,930
future teacher, because you
get to think of all the

1541
01:12:24,930 --> 01:12:27,780
interesting contexts in which
your field is useful.

1542
01:12:27,780 --> 01:12:30,500
It connects you back to the
reason you did the field,

1543
01:12:30,500 --> 01:12:30,980
originally.

1544
01:12:30,980 --> 01:12:32,600
And that's good to remember.

1545
01:12:32,600 --> 01:12:36,320
Because you'll be going along,
and you'll be absorbed in your

1546
01:12:36,320 --> 01:12:38,670
research, trying to get tenure,
whatever it may be,

1547
01:12:38,670 --> 01:12:40,840
and there will be all these
layers that are created on

1548
01:12:40,840 --> 01:12:43,210
top, and you'll forget
why you came into the

1549
01:12:43,210 --> 01:12:44,170
field to begin with.

1550
01:12:44,170 --> 01:12:48,760
And if you can capture that
feeling, actually if you can

1551
01:12:48,760 --> 01:12:51,770
connect to that feeling in you,
then you'll actually be

1552
01:12:51,770 --> 01:12:54,360
able to transmit that feeling
to your students.

1553
01:12:54,360 --> 01:12:57,010
And they'll have it, as well,
and you'll actually be doing

1554
01:12:57,010 --> 01:12:59,760
good for the field,
good for you, and

1555
01:12:59,760 --> 01:13:00,970
good for your students.

1556
01:13:00,970 --> 01:13:04,860
So with that, I'll
wish you lots of

1557
01:13:04,860 --> 01:13:06,160
success in your teaching.

1558
01:13:06,160 --> 01:13:09,980
I hope that the principles and
examples that we've done

1559
01:13:09,980 --> 01:13:13,150
throughout the term you find
useful, at least in one way.

1560
01:13:13,150 --> 01:13:18,300
And I look forward to hearing
from you later how you use or

1561
01:13:18,300 --> 01:13:21,260
not use or any suggestions
that you may have.

1562
01:13:21,260 --> 01:13:23,240
So good luck.

1563
01:13:23,240 --> 01:13:28,077
[APPLAUSE]