• Question: Do you prefer leaning new things yourself or teaching students what you know already?

    Asked by snowdona to Alastair, Emma, Hywel, Keith, Vicki on 21 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Hywel Vaughan

      Hywel Vaughan answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Both!
      Personally Snowdona I love teaching – I get a huge buzz off having someone understand something that I have spent some time explaining. On the other hand though, I also love learning new things! I am one of those people who could quite happily read article after article about something just because it interests me!
      I cannot choose between them. 🙂

    • Photo: Keith Brain

      Keith Brain answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      I prefer learning new things, but its nice to be able to do both at the same time. For example, last week I had to give a lecture to Dentistry students about an area of science very close to my area of research. I could have given a fairly standard presentation on how drugs like “adrenaline” (which is also a hormone) work, but I found it really interesting to try work out: what does a dentist need to know about this?; how does injecting adrenaline into gums differ from injecting it under the skin (something that I didn’t know)? etc.

      So, teaching can help you to learn, and even help your research, by getting you to engage with different problems, outside of your immediate area of expertise.

    • Photo: Emma Carter

      Emma Carter answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      That’s a good question. I suppose I get more of a kick out of teaching people stuff I know really well because it’s I just get to go on about something I’m passionate about and if they find it interesting or useful that’s very rewarding. I also enjoy learning new things – in fact when you work in research you’re learning new things all the time – and one of the best ways of really understanding something new is to have to explain it to someone else. So teaching and learning actually go together quite well.

    • Photo: Alastair Sloan

      Alastair Sloan answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Hi Snowdonia

      I don’t have a preference and really enjoy both. They both give you a different feeling and are both rewarding so I’m sitting on the fence on that one!

    • Photo: Vicki Stevenson

      Vicki Stevenson answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Hi
      that’s a really good question! Both are very rewarding. I think the great bit is when I talk to students afterwards and they let me know that they understood and valued the teaching!
      I just had an e-mail this weekend from a student I taught last year – he is working on a project that is relevant to what I taught him about carbon last year and he wanted to find out if there was anything new he should include before he started his project.

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