The Best Professors Teach Humility
Office of Graduate Education ·
I used to despise economics.
ECO101, the introductory economics course I took at the University of Toronto, had convinced me that the field only offered dangerous half-truths. “Minimum wage laws increase unemployment,” I was taught. “Rent control laws are economically harmful; fairness can and should instead be achieved through other means.” I had started the course as a fourth year undergraduate Engineering student hoping to understand how and why our world works. I finished knowing only that economics lacked answers.
Or so I thought. Imagine my surprise when a mandatory economics course at MIT became one of my favorite courses ever. Here’s how Prof. David Autor’s teaching, in 14.003 Microeconomics & Public Policy, redeemed the field of economics for me.
Magic tricks for active learning
‘Active learning’ is a divisive concept among professors. I know this because I interviewed professors about their views on education as part of my undergraduate thesis. While one instructor argued that “students learn close to nothing from traditional lecturing,” others claimed that, “the inverted classroom doesn’t work,” or “active learning activities take away from class time.”
Eventually, I reached the cynical conclusion that there are no magic tricks to making students learn. Learning is hard, and—active learning or not—a student’s success is primarily determined by their motivation.
I was wrong. There are magic tricks to make students learn, and here are three that I learned from Prof. Autor—perfect for classes of up to 50 students.
I call these techniques ‘magic tricks’ because their effects are indeed miraculous. Students are suddenly attentive. Professors don’t need to adopt a radically different teaching style like the inverted classroom. They don’t need to take time away from teaching for an unfamiliar ‘active learning activity.’ Professors just need to ban distractions, call on students via lottery, and learn their names. Now that they’ve captured their students’ attention, they can focus on converting it into genuine interest.
From tricks to skills
Some teaching skills, like making class fun (Prof. Autor used Plicker cards to make class fun!) or students curious, are universally beneficial. Often, however, the most important teaching skills vary by the field. Mathematics involves drawing mental pictures of and across otherwise abstract concepts. Engineering requires translating science and its uncertainty into decision-making contexts with appreciable tradeoffs. When it comes to economics, or any science that is intertwined with societal issues, I believe Prof. Autor exemplifies two crucial teaching skills.
Unlike earlier, these two points are skills, not magic tricks. Success is not instant and mastery requires practice. Yet, the work is well worth it. You might even earn an entire blog post of praise.
Can anyone be a skilled teacher?
If there could be one trait underlying these magic tricks and skills, might I suggest it be humility?
Randomly calling on students means facing the disconcerting fact that sometimes, as teachers, we struggle to explain ourselves and students cannot answer our questions. Learning student names and building rapport invariably means that students will feel comfortable pointing out our occasional mistakes.
Emphasizing assumptions and engaging with complex, thorny topics necessarily means recognizing the limits of our discipline’s knowledge. Prof. Autor’s recognition that basic economic theory cannot answer questions of fairness allowed me to learn and love economics without becoming (overly) bothered by the field’s inherent limitations.
Perhaps, by finding our humility, we too can perform magic and have students love our discipline.
Editor’s note: Prof David Autor has also been recognized as Committed to Caring .