Re:Why won’t anyone teach me math?
by mcv on Friday February 11, 2022 @11:48AM
(#30303602)
Research and teaching are both important, and a smart university tries to use its professors' talents most effectively.
I studied at the VU, where Andy Tanenbaum, writer of a ton of famous CS books teaches. Of course I followed his classes. His books are excellent, but his classes are basically him reciting his books from memory. The jokes are literally identical.
At some point, more and more of his classes would be taught by Maarten van Steen instead; he's an excellent teacher who really knows how to engage the students and make them think about problems, instead of merely telling them the answer.
There was another professor who, as far as I know, didn't do any research at all; he just taught a ton of classes.
A professor who is great at one thing is not necessarily good at something else.
I studied at the VU, where Andy Tanenbaum, writer of a ton of famous CS books teaches. Of course I followed his classes. His books are excellent, but his classes are basically him reciting his books from memory. The jokes are literally identical.
At some point, more and more of his classes would be taught by Maarten van Steen instead; he's an excellent teacher who really knows how to engage the students and make them think about problems, instead of merely telling them the answer.
There was another professor who, as far as I know, didn't do any research at all; he just taught a ton of classes.
A professor who is great at one thing is not necessarily good at something else.