henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (03/17/89)
A week or two ago I posted an article about PhDs and teaching and so on. I've just been slightly horrified by the realization that it could have been taken two different ways. "PhDs are all lousy teachers and we'd be better off replacing them with undergrads" is *not* what I meant to say! Now that all my faculty friends are now ex-friends :-), I'd like to clarify what I meant. The intent was to point out that possession of a PhD does not always imply strong teaching ability, that teaching ability is more important than PhD-level technical background for teaching first-year courses, and that it would seem possible to make more effective use of available manpower. Sorry if anyone was offended; it wasn't deliberate. -- Welcome to Mars! Your | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology passport and visa, comrade? | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
harrison@utfyzx.uucp (David Harrison) (03/17/89)
In article <1989Mar16.215619.27824@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: > ... teaching ability is more important >than PhD-level technical background for teaching first-year courses I don't know which is "more important", but at least in Physics I think a PhD-level technical background is extremely important in teaching first-year courses. Typically, an undergraduate Physics specialist learns the subject in a very compartmentalised way: mechanics, E&M, statistical Physics, etc. An integration of the knowledge occurs at the graduate-student level for most (although some able students achieve it as undergraduates); by "integration" I mean realising that the thematic and mathematical content of the different sub-fields is essentially similar. Before that realisation I think it unlikely that the person will be capable of effectively teaching at the first-year level, although (s)he may be quite good and second, third, or fourth year courses. I *am* implying above that teaching at the first-year level is more difficult than any other. Also, Physics changes fairly rapidly and without a PhD-level background, 10 years down the road that person is going to find it quite difficult to understand those changes in a sufficiently deep manner to teach them effectively to first-year students. None of the above is meant to argue that a particularly able person without a Ph-D cannot be a spectacular first-year pedagogue. But I believe that my PhD training has been extremely helpful in teaching at the first-year level, and think that for most people, similarly not particularly able, this would also be true. Henry also wrote: >Now that all my faculty friends are now ex-friends :-) A recent .signature from another person stated: "Those who do not understand Henry Spencer are doomed to re-invent DOS", or words to that effect. Does that mean that U of T is now "Microsoft North"? -- David Harrison | "Where it is a duty to worship Dept. of Physics, Univ of Toronto | the sun it is pretty sure to UUCP: uunet!attcan!utgpu!utfyzx!harrison | be a crime to examine the laws BITNET: HARRISON@UTORPHYS | of heat." --- John Morley
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (03/21/89)
In article <1989Mar17.090858.18170@utfyzx.uucp> harrison@utfyzx.UUCP (David Harrison) writes: >... An integration of the >knowledge occurs at the graduate-student level for most (although >some able students achieve it as undergraduates)... Before that... >I think it unlikely that the person will be capable of effectively >teaching at the first-year level, although (s)he may be quite good >and second, third, or fourth year courses. Okay, we'll have the PhDs teach the first-year courses, and hire undergrads to teach the other years! :-) :-) More seriously, although I wasn't aware of this situation in physics, note that my original posting specifically suggested hiring the *best* final-year undergrads as first-year teachers, not just any random bunch. The selection process would not be trivial, but I think it could be done. -- Welcome to Mars! Your | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology passport and visa, comrade? | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu