Question

question for those with formal teaching experience - on qc sometimes I feel like I'm just teaching a set of steps/algorithm, rather than teaching the underlying concepts/the intuition behind the problem, any advice on how I can do better in this aspect? @angle @hero

Answer 1

Personally, I have not actually had any formal teaching experience. I have basically only been taking classes on theories of educational psychology and such.

However, my education professors have encouraged discussions on topics you have asked here. Here are some good suggestions from my professor:

"When we tutor, we often have a way that we want students to behave, but we should always stop and listen to see how the students are thinking and what they understand. When it is possible, it is best to build off of what the students already know and their way of thinking, but we can only do that if we listen carefully to the students first."

"If the student cannot solve a harder problem, ask them to work through an easier problem. If the student can solve this easy problem, great! You have something to build on. If they can't, you know more remedial actions are needed. I always try to start at a firm base of knowledge that students are comfortable with."

"One thing that I do with word problems. After students "translate" the word problem into an equation, I ask them to plug in numbers into the equation that should work. This is a good habit for students to get in, because if they do this, they will be able to see if they made a mistake right away, and may also have an inkling for how the mistake can be fixed."

"I like Lauren's idea about having students explain the problem to you. I think Lauren's suggestion is useful for two reasons. First, it allows you to see how students are thinking about the problem. This is ALWAYS a good ideas when tutoring. Good teaching involves building off what students already know and identifying what they are confused about, and you can only do this by being a good listener. Second, students sometimes get overwhelmed with word problems or they sometimes jump straight into algebra without thinking about what the problem means. By asking students to describe what the problem is about, you are forcing the students to engage in sense making. This is often this is really helpful to students. By the same token, Reuben's advice to ask the students to read the problem aloud is actually really helpful. You'd be surprised how often students skip sentences when reading a problem!"

"For the student nodding his head that he understands and then not doing the problem: One key issue here is you are not starting where the student is at. When this occurs and students do not know what is going on, they sometimes give up and stop trying as a coping mechanism. This actually highlights a real problem with lecturing: If the student is not paying attention or lacks basic knowledge, the best and clearest explanations won't do an ounce of good, and your poor student might be in this situation. It might be good to start with something really easy: Double the following numbers. (Presumably the student can double). Then highlight that this is f(x) = 2x. Do a few more. Add 3 to the following numbers. Okay, what you are doing is f(x) = x + 3. If you make the task so easy that any student engages, it will block them from staring at you like I have no idea what to do. And, of course, if the student cannot double-- well at least you know you have more serious issues and giving a good explanation on evaluating functions will be fruitless."

"I loved Dana's point that you all suggested three different ways to approach this problem. This is a very important point. With word problems, there are often many ways to make sense of these problems. There is no one right way for the student to build an understanding of what is being asked-- although there are certainly plenty of wrong ways. I'd add one additional idea. As Juliet noted, the big trick to these problems is usually representing them the right way. I'd add that even good problem solvers often represent the problem in the wrong way when they first approach it. What makes them effective is they catch their mistake. For these reasons, I ask my tutees to plug in simple numbers after they represent the problem to make sure their representation is correct."


If you're interested in the full conversations or contexts of these conversations, I'll be happy to provide them. My classmates and I had a lot of the same questions as you, as tutoring is different from "teaching" or lecturing. Teachers have consistent interaction with students, while we as tutors only see these students on occasion and thus are limited in our understanding of how much the student already knows. Because of this, tutors would find it difficult to "build conceptual knowledge on the students prior knowledge" when tutors don't know of the student's prior knowledge. Not to mention, this is an online environment, where we can't see facial expressions or the subtle body language signs of a student struggling to understand what we are trying to tell them.

Answer 2

good to know, thanks for sharing ~ <3