TITLE: Teaching for the Perplexed and the Traumatized
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: February 19, 2014  4:12 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:

Teaching for the Perplexed and the Traumatized


On need for empathy when
<A HREF="http://www.ams.org/notices/201403/rnoti-p286.pdf">
   writing about math for the perplexed and the traumatized</A>,
Steven Strogatz says:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
<B>You have to help them love the questions</B>.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

Teachers learn this eventually.  If students love the questions,
they will do an amazing amount of working searching for answers.

Strogatz is writing about writing, but everything he says
applies to teaching as well, especially teaching undergraduates
and non-majors.  If you teach only grad courses in a specialty
area, you may be able to rely on the students to provide their
own curiosity and energy.  Otherwise having empathy, making
connections, and providing Aha! moments are a big part of being
successful in the classroom.  Stories trump formal notation.

This semester, I've been trying a particular angle on achieving
this trifecta of teaching goodness: I try to open every class
session with a game or puzzle that the students might care
about.  From there, we delve into the details of algorithms
and theoretical analysis.  I plan to write more on this soon.
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