True, but college professors are often not expert teachers. I agree that ideally all teachers should be experts at understanding what the student is asking, but they often aren’t. Having a PhD means you have great depth of knowledge in your subject, but teaching skills only have to be acceptable, not stellar. And this question is an uncommon and challenging one. It doesn’t surprise me that he got answers that he personally felt didn’t answer the question. In one of the other splinter conversations that came out of this post someone told me that the answer to the question in relativity is an actual true unknown. Which means no average college professor would be expected to be able to answer.
As far as asking questions that deliberately lead the students the wrong way, I only think that’s acceptable if you VERY SOON tell them why, and what the real circumstance is. If you’re trying to teach people to challenge assumptions, yes, I agree, it’s a very valuable tool.
Thanks for the comment. I was fascinated by the question he had, and still am.
In one of the other splinter conversations that came out of this post someone told me that the answer to the question in relativity is an actual true unknown. Which means no average college professor would be expected to be able to answer.
In that case the right answer would consist of explaining conservative force fields and potential energy, and then to say something along the lines of “but nobody knows what this potential energy is.” Feynman tells a story of his father explaining inertia in the same way: things in motion tend to keep moving and things at rest tend to stay at rest, and we call this inertia, but no-one really knows why this happens.
One can always correctly answer a question. It’s just that sometimes, the correct answer is “I don’t know.”
I completely agree with you that an accurate answer to a student is “I don’t know”
But teaching in general, and PhD’s in particular are specifically trainined never to say that. I mean look at how much effort they have to put into proving that they DO know. Oral examinations are NOT a place to say “I don’t know.” Just in general smart people don’t like to say it, and authority figures don’t like to say it. But I’ve heard it said that the one thing a PhD will never say is “I don’t know”
A great story about that from the opposit direction is one about astronaut John Young. Apparently he would ask instructors question after question until he reached “I don’t know” and if he never got to it you would never gain his trust.
Is it important? Yes.
Should teachers say it? Absolutely.
Is it one of the hardest things for people to say? Oh yes. I mean, even my kids teachers never say it. I’ve met with my son’s teachers a lot over the years, and I ask tons of detailed questions. It’s really, really hard to get them, or any authority figure to say “I don’t know.”
I tell my kids lots of things. They ask me all kinds of questions and I give them all the info I’ve got to give. They’re like me and keep asking more and asking more. I did that so much growing up (and still do!) that I annoyed the heck out of people with my questions. So I’m generous when my kids do it and don’t get frustrated and keep giving the next answer I’ve got. Eventually I get to “I don’t know.” I’ve started saying things like “That’s one of the mysterious scientists are still trying to figure out” because I’ve said “I don’t know” so much that it’s gotten monotonous.
My point is that it’s not surprising to me that a questioning student gets frustrating answers from frustrated college professors. Even if the best answer in a perfect world should have been “I don’t know.”
I know a lot of PhDs and haven’t noticed any tendency for such people to be more reluctant than others to say “I don’t know”. By whom have you heard it said that that’s one thing a PhD will never say?
(Disclaimer: Some of those PhDs are friends are mine. One of them is me.)
True, but college professors are often not expert teachers. I agree that ideally all teachers should be experts at understanding what the student is asking, but they often aren’t. Having a PhD means you have great depth of knowledge in your subject, but teaching skills only have to be acceptable, not stellar. And this question is an uncommon and challenging one. It doesn’t surprise me that he got answers that he personally felt didn’t answer the question. In one of the other splinter conversations that came out of this post someone told me that the answer to the question in relativity is an actual true unknown. Which means no average college professor would be expected to be able to answer.
As far as asking questions that deliberately lead the students the wrong way, I only think that’s acceptable if you VERY SOON tell them why, and what the real circumstance is. If you’re trying to teach people to challenge assumptions, yes, I agree, it’s a very valuable tool.
Thanks for the comment. I was fascinated by the question he had, and still am.
In that case the right answer would consist of explaining conservative force fields and potential energy, and then to say something along the lines of “but nobody knows what this potential energy is.” Feynman tells a story of his father explaining inertia in the same way: things in motion tend to keep moving and things at rest tend to stay at rest, and we call this inertia, but no-one really knows why this happens.
One can always correctly answer a question. It’s just that sometimes, the correct answer is “I don’t know.”
I completely agree with you that an accurate answer to a student is “I don’t know”
But teaching in general, and PhD’s in particular are specifically trainined never to say that. I mean look at how much effort they have to put into proving that they DO know. Oral examinations are NOT a place to say “I don’t know.” Just in general smart people don’t like to say it, and authority figures don’t like to say it. But I’ve heard it said that the one thing a PhD will never say is “I don’t know”
A great story about that from the opposit direction is one about astronaut John Young. Apparently he would ask instructors question after question until he reached “I don’t know” and if he never got to it you would never gain his trust.
Is it important? Yes.
Should teachers say it? Absolutely.
Is it one of the hardest things for people to say? Oh yes. I mean, even my kids teachers never say it. I’ve met with my son’s teachers a lot over the years, and I ask tons of detailed questions. It’s really, really hard to get them, or any authority figure to say “I don’t know.”
I tell my kids lots of things. They ask me all kinds of questions and I give them all the info I’ve got to give. They’re like me and keep asking more and asking more. I did that so much growing up (and still do!) that I annoyed the heck out of people with my questions. So I’m generous when my kids do it and don’t get frustrated and keep giving the next answer I’ve got. Eventually I get to “I don’t know.” I’ve started saying things like “That’s one of the mysterious scientists are still trying to figure out” because I’ve said “I don’t know” so much that it’s gotten monotonous.
My point is that it’s not surprising to me that a questioning student gets frustrating answers from frustrated college professors. Even if the best answer in a perfect world should have been “I don’t know.”
I know a lot of PhDs and haven’t noticed any tendency for such people to be more reluctant than others to say “I don’t know”. By whom have you heard it said that that’s one thing a PhD will never say?
(Disclaimer: Some of those PhDs are friends are mine. One of them is me.)
Sorry, how did you form this impression?