What to do when your instructor is wrong?

Chemicist

In my high school Phyiscs class, we have a new teacher, it's his first year teaching. And based on the things I am reading here, he has been giving the class some wrong information. There are times at which even the inexperienced students correct simple mistakes.

Should I ignore everything he says and do my own independent study? I'd like to get a college degree in Theoretical Particle Physics and Astrophysics, and I doubt his misinformation is going to help get near that goal.


Thanks!

Chemicist

bcbwilla

What kind of wrong information? Teachers / professors make mistakes, just like anyone else.

Chemicist

I understand that, I mean completely false statements. Wrong answers. I think he even gave us a wrong equation one time.

I know he's not doing it on purpose, but it's kind of annoying when you're passionate about the class and you're being given a giant load of....

Woopydalan

This teacher of yours probably went through a lot harder courses than you give him credit for.

Chemicist

I didn't give him or take away any credit. Sorry, but I fail to see how that's relevant.

Pengwuino

Well, the first lesson you should take away from this is the fact that you should be reading ahead so that the material that shows up during class is not new. When something seems wrong, tell the teacher why you feel something is wrong. When you're new to teaching, you're bound to make multiple mistakes and give poor information from time to time. It's probably in the best interest of all parties involved to have an interaction between the students and teacher to make sure the correct information is being given out. Any teacher worth their wage should want to give the correct information and as long as you speak up in an inquisitive , rather than accusative manner, you should be able to nudge him into being more careful and possibly prep more for the lesson. I don't think any new instructor wants to be bad at their job from the get-go and will probably respond well to questions.

Chemicist

That's actually not a bad idea! Thank you! I guess I should of remembered that I do have a textbook available. Oh, and I forgot to mention, I don't believe he gets the course material out of the textbook. I am always quick and ready to raise my hand and ask a question, but I am very shy and have a hard time speaking in public, so it gets tough for me to talk to the teacher without choking.

I know he means well, it's just that I think he needs to review his material a bit more before giving it to us.

Moonbear

Along those same lines, politely asking at the time it's taught also gives your teacher a chance to correct you if s/he's not wrong and you've misunderstood something.

Antiphon

I did this with one of my teachers.

He said that in a closed system like a flashbulb, the weight of the bulb didn't change after the chemical reaction. I raised my hand and told him that the flashbulb was a little bit lighter after the flash because of the light that escapes. He said no, that light didn't weigh anything. I then said that the light had an equivalent mass by E=mc^2 so that was the mass that was lost.

He started screaming at the top of his lungs that light didn't weigh anything. I just calmly told him he was wrong. The principal took over the science class after that for about a month.

I suggest talking to him when the rest of the class isn't around.

genericusrnme

I'm assuming this was a highschool class as such relativity doesn't exist yet. Would you do the same thing when someone is trying to teach F=ma?
There's quite a few things wrong with F=ma depending in what level you want to go, to yet I wouldn't say anything about it because everything I could say would be completely out of context, just like what you said.

Pengwuino

You're ridiculous. That's nice that you had an understanding beyond the class, but most students are simply trying to get the basic concepts. One doesn't need to include general relativity in a course where students are barely learning currents and basic electricity. Including that simply creates more confusion and no self-respecting teacher would do such a thing.

Woopydalan

besides no teacher would ever have an nervous break down over something as stupid as that, atleast its a good story

Jorriss

I recant my statement.

DaveC426913

I confess Antiphon, your intention may have been good, but that was certainly a smartass answer, even of you didn't realize it. You derailed a chemistry class with irrelevant information.

Students need to understand that, in a closed environment, chemical reactions don't cause changes in mass.

Nano-Passion

You guys are being a little harsh and a bit quick to judge. Antiphon simply wanted to point something out. And in fact, he pointed out something a bit interesting that might spark a bit of curiosity in a couple individuals. And if it didn't then so what? It was in completely good intentions anyways. His professor was the one who had the inappropriate reaction (screaming in a class?). No point in watering things down too much. It often does injustice to human curiosity, something that is lacked in this society.

And besides, it isn't like he intentionally wanted to confuse other students (I doubt it even did any harm to students' understanding) or belittle the professor's example. He did what a scientist-mind would want to do, and that is correct something that is misinformed. By the way his story sounded, he had a normal response to the misinformation; no one is perfect and will know for sure how the professor would react. Another likely reaction would have been, "oh yes, interesting point. That is true but lets not get into the technicalities for the basis of this classroom, that won't be discussed and we will worry more about more basic chemical reactions." It kind of depends on the relationship with the professor I guess.

Antiphon

You may be right. It was a 7th grade science class; E=mc^2 isn't general relativity and had in fact been taught but the point was conservation of mass.


My instructor had an inappropriate and abusive reaction to my earnest attempt to clarify the science.

I guess my point today is that if your instructor is teaching incorrect facts it might be better to take him aside after the lecture to make you point. You dont know how people will react in a public setting. That's my advice to the OP.

Edit: I agree with Nano-passion. Some of the kids were interested until they became terrified of the instructor. A couple kids even asked why light doesn't weigh anything. It could have been a positive thing.

bcbwilla

If I was a 7th grade science teacher and a student corrected me by invoking relativity, I would say something like "Wow! Excellent! You're right, but for the purposes of our example, we don't need to worry about that. You'll learn more about E=mc^2 in more advanced courses."