Having been the guy at the front of the class trying to get someone (anyone!) from the audience to answer a question, and then no one can answer it, even though you felt as though you have taught the class well enough that they should be able to answer it, can feel as though you've failed. However, introductory physics is something that is not instantly intuitive, and I still make mistakes at it (even though I have many upper-level physics courses under my belt and have TA'd intro labs for several years).

As the teacher, though, saying such things like "you should know this already" and "you won't be given information on a silver platter" can be rather damaging to a student who expresses interest in a subject but has not forged the skills necessary to master it. In fact, the second quote bothers me a bit, because while it's true that people won't necessarily hand you information on a silver platter, science is highly collaborative, so if you do get stuck on a research problem there will always be someone whom you can bounce ideas off of and get their input.

When I teach, I try to put myself in the student's shoes and try to gauge what experience they've had in the past with such material. In an intro course, I assume very little and try to explain something from the ground up, but in an advanced course I try to push for the students to kind of show me how the problem should be solved, and when they get stuck I try to give them advice on how to get unstuck.

Also, HyperPhysics is fantastic. Your drawing is quite adorable, too.

Being somone who has never actually taught a course before, I do not have such an insight to give you.

However, teaching methods are interchangeable at least on some level no matter the subject. For me, my favorite teachers didn't seem as critical. For example, one of my teachers asked the class what the boiling point of water was and my brain was foolishly stuck in Celcius when I answered 100 degrees. When I realized my mistake, I recalled the number 212 and when I explained it to the teacher she was actually somewhat impressed I had remembered both.

How does that relate to your situation? Honestly, I haven't the slightest. =P

Though, when at first I seemed wrong, I wasn't told "You should know this" or "Nobody is going to correct you when you make a mistake ever because you're the only person working in an entire office filled with other people when this obscure bit of information comes in handy for calibrating a thermometer." Instead she handled it with minimal embarassment, even if the rest of the class put me off of ease.

Generally in a workplace (based on my experience) there will be people who ask you questions (which is why you should at the very least know the basics) and people who you ask questions. And that's perfectly fine. It actually comes in handy because with everyone asking questions, more information is exchanged and more is learned day-to-day which comes in handy when you have to train a new employee. "I asked the same thing when I started and the boss told me ___" is something I'm pretty sure I've said a few times now.

I can't say physisisisisists (=P) have the same work environment, but like Akano said, I'm sure there will be other people to bounce ideas off of.

Having been the guy at the front of the class trying to get someone (anyone!) from the audience to answer a question, and then no one can answer it, even though you felt as though you have taught the class well enough that they should be able to answer it, can feel as though you've failed. However, introductory physics is something that is not instantly intuitive, and I still make mistakes at it (even though I have many upper-level physics courses under my belt and have TA'd intro labs for several years).

 

As the teacher, though, saying such things like "you should know this already" and "you won't be given information on a silver platter" can be rather damaging to a student who expresses interest in a subject but has not forged the skills necessary to master it. In fact, the second quote bothers me a bit, because while it's true that people won't necessarily hand you information on a silver platter, science is highly collaborative, so if you do get stuck on a research problem there will always be someone whom you can bounce ideas off of and get their input.

 

When I teach, I try to put myself in the student's shoes and try to gauge what experience they've had in the past with such material. In an intro course, I assume very little and try to explain something from the ground up, but in an advanced course I try to push for the students to kind of show me how the problem should be solved, and when they get stuck I try to give them advice on how to get unstuck.

 

Also, HyperPhysics is fantastic. Your drawing is quite adorable, too.

 

I do get that it can be frustrating if you've taught the class before, really. But imagine you have just taken over the course (it's split into two sections...)...

Of course it's annoying if people don't know vital information. I'm currently in a course where I'm basically mentoring/tutoring beginners, and sometimes they don't know background information, either; but I'm already glad if they're showing interest, and at least try to understand what's going on, and use the small bits of information that I can give them.*

As for the quotes, I mean okay, the first one I could accept, too, if we got an explanation, no matter how short, aftwerwards. Something along the lines of "Well it's XYZ*short, compact explanation*, but I strongly suggest that you look it up at home because it's important." That I'd be more than okay with.

Your approach sounds quite sensible to me, actually.

It really is, and thank you! :3

~

*now this may go a bit far, but one of the two small groups I'm looking after absolutly doesn't do this. Which causes me headaches, but okay. I too had problems with differential equations (I still have them to this point ^^") but at least I tried to understand them and not simply blamed it on incompetence of the teacher. So yeah, I really get how it's frustrating. (am I contradicting myself yet? I hope not...)