I think this is a very important question that many people don’t ask themselves, because they have a very skewed view of the importance of learning. If you do ask this question, you are not taking into account the fact that you are teaching a student that will someday be a professor.
People who are teaching have a very skewed view of what a professor will value. You need to be aware of this, because it is a very important factor in determining how well you are helping your students.
Teaching is a very broad thing to talk about. I personally teach at a university that teaches a very broad idea of academia. We have a number of classes that are very broad in scope, but the average number of students that I see in the classes that I teach are very few and very far between. On the other end, I teach a class that has very very few students and very very many professors at a very high level.
I don’t personally know very many professors in academia, but I do know that I’m not a very good teacher. But I’m not a bad teacher either, it’s just that I don’t have a lot of students and so I don’t actually get to see them very often. I guess it’s a bit like the difference between a basketball coach and a golf pro.
You don’t get to see a lot of people because your students don’t really interact with you. You get to see them only when they ask to see you, and since they don’t know how to ask for help, you get to help them instead. And since you don’t really know how to help them, you have to give them a lot of advice and support. This is one of the things that you can do to be a good teacher and help your students.
I think students know that they can usually get better support from people around them. Like a friend, a teacher, a parent, a sibling, a classmate, or a friend of the family. Of course, that wont be the same as being there to help them. It has to be the other way around.
Well I mean if you are always telling them how to fix their problems, how to fix their homework, fix their mistakes, etc. then you are really not helping them. You are basically saying “I know what you did wrong, so I have to tell you how you should fix it.” That is not helping them.
You are not helping them by giving them advice. You are not helping them by saying, “You know, this is my fault.” You are not helping them by saying, “Yes, you are right. I should have done this.” You are not helping them by saying, “I know, I should have done that. It’s not a big deal.” Instead you are saying, “I know, I should have done that.” And then you are making them feel bad about themselves.
This is the problem with people who get into sales or professional counseling. They will try to sell you the things you want to sell them, but if you want to sell me, all I have to do is tell you how you should do it, and I will be happy to do it. But instead, they are being a little obnoxious. “This is my fault.” “Yes, this is my fault.” Etc.
This is the problem with people who think they can sell you anything. They think they can sell you anything because they are selling you ideas about what you should do. They are not really selling you anything, and it’s really not that hard to figure out how you SHOULD do things. How they SHOULD do things is not the same as how they actually do things. And the first step to selling you is figuring out what you are actually buying.