Lessons from Laureates to Stoke Curiosity, Spur Collaboration, and Ignite Imagination in Your Life and Career
Carl Wieman: The Teacher's Teacher
Carl Wieman
2001 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates."
If we want to have good teachers, they need to be experts on how to teach
That means that they have to know
Latest research on basic learning
Cognitive psychology
How to implement those insights in the classroom
We are in education where medicine was in the mid-1800s, when scientific medicine was starting to emerge
“The standard University professor is still currently practicing the pedagogical equivalent of bloodletting when there are antibiotics out there” Carl Wieman
If our culture recognized the importance of training new faculties and set up efficient programs to do so, both professors and students would benefit tremendously
To be creative in a discipline you need to be very well-grounded in it
Picasso didn’t start out with Cubism; he started as a classical artist replicating the Masters
Dr. Wieman mentioned Anders Ericsson’s book Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise in regards to Malcolm Gladwell’s idea that you need 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at something
In this interview, I talk with Dr. Wieman about the lessons he learned in pedagogy and creativity, especially in regards to how they can be applied in Physics
I was surprised to learn that to become a certified flight instructor I had to study a great deal of human psychology
That made me realize that in my 14 years as a professor, I was never taught how to teach
I ask Dr. Wieman whether he thinks Physics professors should be taught how to be instructors
He thinks it’s clear that if we want to have good professors, they need to be experts on how to teach well
That means that they have to know
Latest research on basic learning
Cognitive psychology
How to implement those insights in the classroom
Until 20 years ago, there was not much research on the topic, so teaching was considered more as an art
We’re still in a transition, as we have to integrate the lessons from research
We are in education where medicine was in the mid-1800s, when scientific medicine was starting to emerge
“The standard University professor is still currently practicing the pedagogical equivalent of bloodletting when there are antibiotics out there” Carl Wieman
Science professors seem to be very confident about their knowledge and intelligence
This may prevent them from wanting to learn how to be more effective teachers
“It doesn’t take any more time to teach well than it does to teach the old, traditional stuff” Carl Wieman
If our culture recognized the importance of training new faculties and set up efficient programs to do so, both professors and students would benefit tremendously
New professors often spend enormous amounts of time not so productively
There’s no need to re-invent the wheel every time you start teaching a course that’s been taught for many years
It would only take several tens of hours to instruct teachers on how to be effective
From then on, it wouldn’t take any more time
It would provide professors with huge leverage for the rest of their careers
Dr. Wieman sees creativity as finding a different way to look at an existing situation
Creativity is not about bringing something completely new but realizing how we can apply things we already know in a different way
To be creative in a discipline you need to be very well-grounded in it
Picasso didn’t start out with Cubism; he started as a classical artist replicating the Masters
Many physicists had tried solving the problem of Bose-Einstein condensation
Dr. Wieman’s breakthrough occurred by realizing that the bottleneck that needed to be solved, was not the bottleneck that other physicists were working on
Through his work in education, Dr. Wieman learned that negative feedback is more useful than positive to improve learning outcomes
I remember my first flight instructor telling me:
“Never stop learning because once you stop learning you get complacent. Once you get complacent bad things happen”
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