I'm in college. the problem with professors is not their education level and how smart they are, it's how they lack and suck at teaching. I'm sick and tired of schools hiring professors /teachers when they lack the biggest component: which is teaching.
+GoldenRetriever Abbie EXACTLY! I have been very very fortunate to get awesome teachers, however there is one or two who just teach out of the book. It's stressful to teach the same thing over and over, ie where reading straight out of book comes in
+GoldenRetriever Abbie You beat me to this exact same view. Just got out of my Calc II class today and teacher treated me like a total idiot for not understanding something in lecture.
I just want and NEED teachers like you. I honestly come to your videos when I have a test to study for because I can't even follow my own notes. I just want to say thank you so much for helping me in math!
+cryptexify When we did school science lessons we were given (and practised) a basic template to write up every experiment. It went: Apparatus, Method, Results,Conclusion All the student had to do was follow this script and all the information was then provided - and remained memorable - for later review. It was a great learning and exposition method I felt. It made 'the method' of doing science quite expicit. I wish that approach - effectively report writing - might be adapted broadly to other subject like mathematics and the formatted lesson-style you suggest seems to mirror that idea. 'Proof' in mathematics is too hard often - because it comes at the end of knowing something and appears overly prescriptive when.. you just know already! It's as though mathematics is taught like grammar instead of literary appreciation in an English class.
I love proofs they help you understand how the idea was formed and does not allow you to just memorize,worked out examples online with most steps written out to the point to you won't get lost, straightforwardness, I love how you make a plan of what you are going to cover in the beginning that is good too. Worked examples are everything they help you with getting skills down that you need.
my experience with calculus in university is that teachers always give us simple questions that is easy enough to follow. Then comes final the question suddenly becomes 10x harder and i fall flat when that happens. They expect us to understand all the course material inside and out within 2-3 months like we are all math experts with decades of practice and experience. I rather they test us on both the easy and the hard questions in class before exams to tell us if we really know our materials
I'm in college and have 2 professors doing this and really liked it. They would post their lectures online and might go into more detail for certain topics or maybe do more examples. I find it useful because usually I'll understand the topics from lecture (or textbook) but I often have trouble applying the content to problems. This makes having worked out examples online great (especially because they won't really have to rush to finish the example as much).
As a college student I personally believe teaching is a vocation. To be a teacher you need patience and fairness. My favorite teachers were all passionate about teaching or talking about their subjects. They add real life examples and tie in pop culture references to their lectures. They are the teachers that make me love the subject as well because their passion is infectious. Please do not teach just to pay rent because you will make yourself and 20+ others miserable.
Also, 92% of my grade is tests. How primitive is that? We have all the technology in the world and yet not an efficient way to evaluate students skills. My school has also banned formula sheets even though in the relevant world of working, we will have these tools at our disposal
(High school student perspective) Videos are really helpful because they allow me to interact personally with what i am learning. Rather than listen to a lecture and attempt to envision a scenario, videos allow me to learn through my own curiosity and take time on what I find difficult.
Now with online videos and textbooks students can attempt to learn material on their own. Where teachers really come in handy is in taking content and relating it to the real world. For example, math can be very new and abstract to some, so teachers can try to relate math to the real world. Saying "math is everywhere" doesn't help, but by showing students examples of math in every day life helps. For example, my calc 4 professor showed us population growth models and applied them to differential equations. He explained to us without math how two populations interact with each other. After understanding that then he showed the differential equations that modeled the interaction between population. That really helped me feel the math and relate it to less abstract ideas. I noticed how teachers get the blame for students not learning properly. I have to say that you can't help a student that really doesn't want to learn. After showing passion and reason for learning a subject, the responsibility of learning turns into something that is out of control of the teacher. We can't blame teachers as harsh as we do for lack of student success. Society's mindset is to learn something practical and move on. Not many people today enjoy learning just for learning.
just started my calc. class, and honestly seems like i am putting in face time at school and coming here to your videos for my education. Perhaps given the amount of students per class and time, he give just a quick over view of certain examples / concepts, and alot is left for the student to figure out from external sources. not sure if this is becoming the norm. but i know that everytime i leave my class, i am confused of what the professor is trying to explain(speaks good english btw.). You make your videos very easy to understand. thks so much!!
As an engineering senior, I'd like to see more real life applications of the theoretical stuff we are learning. Reading slideshows helps nobody. Also, testing should not be 2 test per semester but rather smaller biweekly test would force students to keep up with the material and actually learn more. P.S. You got me through calc 1, 2 and 3 as well as DE. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!
I passed my Calculus classes with your videos.I loved the way that you are not rushing into hard questions and taking it step by step.I like that you are using Sharpies (I have got 48 of them now :) ). I think you should use some extra colors .I like the way that you are taking 1 question at a time. Please don't use board in future ( A4 is much more better). The thing that i learned from you , no teacher needs to be seen . Even , just your voice gives me confidence that i'll get through with hard chapters. Thank you!
I have been turning to you for years for all my math tutoring needs... thanks for that by the way! I have finally come across something that I cannot find and do not understand. The class is differential equations. I am having trouble with lipschitz!
I am well aware that teachers have different teaching styles. I strongly believe that professors should develop a teaching regiment fit to cater to the needs of every type of learner. I'm an aesthetic/visual learner and I remember having one professor that did nothing but talk. The notes he wrote on the board were for the next lecture so it wasn't helpful at all. We had no homework (you could obviously tell this wasn't a math class now). It seems cool right? Not for people like me. I had a tough time. I depend on homework to help solidify the concepts into me. I know not everyone is an auditory learner, so if a professor can cater to every type of learner, that would be great!
+Abiel Malepeai (Ace) Yes I love Math homework just because it make me learn the stuff on my own. Also the pressure of failing the class when I don;t do it really help motivate me to learn more lol
+Abiel Malepeai (Ace) Tangentially related to what you said. I feel like classifications like "auditory learner" can be improved upon, because we're talking about the brain here, and listening to words is very different from hearing other noises. Just an example.
I feel like the flipped classroom would work very well in todays technology setting. Today, if you do not understand the material its straight to your favorite solutions website. This is of course bad because then the professor is focused on finding problems not on the internet versus problems that best work the concepts. I see a flipped classroom working like this: Require the students and the professor a designated time in which problem solving sessions are done and stragglers who need more time can stay and get help from TAs or fellow classmates. Student community seems to be what is hurting learning and retention the most due to technology. Students are using technology to seek out short cuts, and texting homework solutions which isn't too helpful. Getting students all in the same room working problems from the start creates a conversation. A conversation in which students dont fall off the learning cliff because they missed one or two small concepts. Flipped classrooms are still only a fad in the university environment from my point of view so far. What I have seen is instructors that want to be trendy and create their own videos, make you watch the videos, and then you go to class only to hear the exact same lecture! So in my opinion, the flipped classroom isn't moving tables and chairs around, making videos, and buying 72" touch screens. It is students required to attend study sessions which starts the path of good study habits. Teachers learning to teach that get through to the students in a personal way.
I sent feedback. I'd like to take a second to say thank you to you for your videos. I came to them in late 2009 after losing my job due to the economic downturn. I figured that I needed to do something proactive and I came back to school. I'd had a bad experience in high school with a math instructor who was just clocking time so going back to a JC to see if I could even navigate a math class was daunting. I lucked out and my first math teacher coming back has since become my academic adviser, mentor and friend. Your videos have been, and continue to be, invaluable tools in the effort to get my head around some of these concepts. You have indirectly helped me with elementary algebra through today with calculus. It doesn't surprise me that a math channel has as many subscribers as you do. The sad fact is that more teachers are clocking time than interested in helping students understand. Teachers who really want to help tend to stand out. So, thank you again and keep up the good work.
+seanaustin71 Thanks for words of encouragement. I am always happy to hear that my videos are helping; it is why I made them in the first place! Good luck in all of your studies.
Just seen this! I'm from a slightly different background from most. I'm studying Maths and Statistics through distance learning with the Open University. For some modules, we get no actual face-to-face contact. Most of the material is in textbooks which we have to follow very closely within set intervals. There are screencasts uploaded for each unit, but I'd say there were about 10 per unit, which doesn't add up to full coverage of all the main topics/ideas in the textbook. If something doesn't make sense to me as its written in the book, my first reaction is to look up your page and see if you've done a video on the subject. Usually I find that I can go back to the textbook, having watched the relevant video, and understand it perfectly the second time around.
One of the best calculus professors at my school still uses an old fashioned overhead projector. Good clear teaching is what matters not technology. However technology allows better teaching to reach more people.
Teaching using a projector. We need to eliminate writing on white boards, the teacher is always in the way! It'd help the students so much to consistently learn calculus by watching the teacher in a similar style to how we watch your videos (we see the paper as if we are in your point of view)
Most teachers are just inefficient, especially in high schools. Many teachers lecture the same class multiple times a day, even though if they did videos they could reduce their work and help students work through examples in class. IDK about other people, but I'd rather watch a 5 hours of short videos in one sitting than read most textbooks for 5 hours. Also there are already many tools that can randomly generate problems and can automatically grade them, so teachers would again be able to do less work, reduce cheating, and give students more robust assignments. Obviously these suggestions work better for some subjects then others.
Hey Patrick, my recommendation is more about the learning setting, I have noticed that in very crowded classroom it becomes harder for students to focus and most people yawn from lack of oxygen. I read an article talking about this and I have experienced it myself, I believe smaller size classes would be more beneficial for students
+Marc Rogue Yes, there is no doubt that smaller class sizes are better. But how small is good enough? Small classes means more instructions, means higher tuition (in an age where tuition is already crazy expensive the in the US)
patrickJMT I don't have a precise answer to that, I do feel teaching should be treated less as a business and more as an ''labor of love''since none really has a right to knowledge, human knowledge has been more of a collaboration thru history than anyone's individual effort. of course I want teachers to get paid and I feel they are not treated fairly, I also don't think it should be free, maybe more accessible whatever that means.
hey patrick,do you think that university level maths and physics 's difficulty level is much greater than that of high school's?right now we are doing second order differential equations(fp2) and i find them easy enough but in 1.5 i will go to college and honestly i am kind of scared/anxious. keep up the great work btw,i have been a massive help for me!
+kotzzz9 in regards to math, yes. i have rarely seen a high school calculus course that is as hard as a university level calculus course although I am sure some do exist. I routinely people have make 3,4,5 on the AP exams and struggle in my calculus classes.
Watching videos in class just distract me, I'd rather just take notes over a lecture. But I love to watch video outside of the class to guide me through the homework and studying for a test. Often the notes I take in class aren't as clear without a voice over to fill in the gaps where I forgot why or what exactly I am doing.
am in the university and i forget basic maths like two years i havent study nothing and calculus is about basic i failed first semester what should i do even i dont have enough time to read any advise
Your math videos are an enormous help! My daughter and I watched through the quadratic equations/rational expressions ones and they were lifesavers. The problem in school is the large class sizes, it's hard for the students to follow along. Much better to have the videos and an unobstructed view of what you are doing. Also, they shove teachers in front of the class that have no math background and just copy from the solutions book. They cannot explain the problems, just copy the solutions (seriously, when my daughter once asked how they had determined a certain angle, the answer was "I can't go into detail right now, but I remember seeing it was 78 degrees."). So yes, please, please more math videos!
+Kirsten Jany great! i am happy that i have been able to help your daughter out. and although there are some great teachers out there, there are also some bad ones
+patrickJMT We have moved on to the discriminant videos. Huge help! Thanks again for saving our butts! Have signed up with patreon, and will be sending pi each month. Thanks again!
I should also let you know that the high school math teachers themselves give out the links to your videos with the assigned homework. That way they get to collect their salaries while not having to do the actual work of explaining.
Patrick, I know you're really not looking for a comment; but here is one anyway. I used your videos to help get me through my mathematics minor. Videos really help with solidifying information that I would learn in class. Without them I would have struggled through a lot of concepts, and certainly would have not preformed as well as I did in class. With this being said, I think having partial lectures with your examples would be a huge benefit to the people who look to your channel for help. Perhaps an overview of history, and a more thorough introduction for certain topics would make, in my opinion, your videos absolutely perfect. Also, I love your stuff. I'm a total fan; and RUclips educators are amazing. Something else that I would love to see is you doing some mathematics series with crash course. My life would be complete.
patrickJMT I'm not sure what I said that made you think that I care about what you're doing haha. But really, a pre-lecture would make some of your videos just a little more useful. Sorry for the wordy comment and confusion
the problem with teachers is not how much they know , i mean one of my teacher has a phd but she really does not know how to teach , she just translates the words in the book, so i really rely on videos
I want professors that will actually explain a math problem instead of simply copying an example straight from the book, step by step, and calling that a lecture. I could read the book on my own without having to wake up at 8 am.
+Robert Summers Upload it to RUclips and mark it as public or unlisted and send us the link (not private though cause then we can't see it!). Thanks Mr. Summers! Let's play chess again soon if it is not too distracting; I should be on chess.com more often soon.
I know this is late. But I have a few thoughts: Patrick, how many times have you been told, "I wish my math teacher could teach as well as you?" This seems to be a common complaint and it won't change until teachers are hired for their teaching skills rather than simply for their credentials. Since the primary objective of an educator is to teach students, if they cannot accomplish this then they simply aren't good at their job. And that's a problem. Who'd want to take their car to a mechanic who wasn't good at fixing cars? I wouldn't. But unfortunately students often have no choice about which professor to take. But as for RUclips educators (this doesn't necessarily apply to you) one of the complaints I have is often the educator will give an example of how to solve a basic problem and ignore more complicated problems. I really like your vids where you show lots of different example problems.
I enjoy learning math and this happens best whenever I am on my own watching videos. Whenever I don't understand something I can pause the video or rewind it to watch it again. However long it takes for me learn that bit of info. Real life classrooms and school in general are "one size fits all." it doesn't take account into a student who is slower or faster learner. the pace stays the same. Fast learners tend to get bored and slower learners lag behind. to me, conventional education has always been....for lack of a better word...not appropriate for me. I am not stupid but need longer time to learn...and teaching myself as I have been since late October 2015 I have learned a lot. hopefully this helped
Ever heard of free schools? I saw a RUclips video briefly mentioning the school of free choice located in Brooklyn... I wish I knew about this when I was younger.
i use videos online for almost all of my school work for maths it's a bit tricky in the sense that teacher may not use the same processes to find the answers as the in the videos i watch but that can't be helped and classrooms bored me
I'm in the same boat also, teachers at my university are really bad at teaching such as in math and physics courses. Anyways, I end up relying into watching videos such as of Patrick's to learn and understand these concepts for my calculus class and other websites also. If any of you are interested, check out Professor Leonard's videos, he's really good at calculus also! x)
+patrickJMT yup. I feel like their inclusion makes it far more easier to remember the knowledge and connect with it. It makes learning TONS more easier to me
As a student-teacher, I feel like the use of kinesthetics in the classroom works. If professors were to use physical objects in the universities it would help students intuitions. Ex. the use of cylinders inside of each other to build volume intuition or disks/washers stacked together. this would be helpful in Calculus courses.
+camerababe ludy The basic idea of a flipped classroom is that students watch videos before class so that in class, a teach can spend less time on the theory and preparatory topics and instead spend more time on interesting applications which hopefully garners more interest from the student.
+camerababe ludy According to a source found by Google, "The flipped classroom is a pedagogical model in which the typical lecture and homework elements of a course are reversed. Short video lectures are viewed by students at home before the class session, while in-class time is devoted to exercises, projects, or discussions." (net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7081.pdf)
+ngon 1618033 yep, people come to class better prepared so that class time can be used in a more productive and interesting fashion. that is the basic premise.
What are you doing to live in expensive Austin? I've assumed that you taught at UT or ACC. I reluctantly moved to Tennessee in 2014, because of the real estate market. I hope you're doing great you're a great math teacher. Have you heard of blab.im? Do you think a platform like that shows any promise? I'm finishing my BA for Soil Science. Should I even worry about PhD? The web of bureaucracy hurts my education, even though I know that it's a necessity. Teachers have strict rules on how they can communicate with me. The time structure of the classes is ridiculous. A difference between STEM and general education classes like English and history is that, of course STEM almost always has more than one way to skin the cat. BUT, in humanities and arts, I'm always wondering what my professor is actually wanting to teach me. For instance, in English, the professor is trying to teach writing and composition, logically and artistically, but what of the readings? How much of what we read is chosen by the teacher and how much is university mandated material? If I ask these questions, I'd be in some violation of the student teacher relationship. Why would I be worried about that and not trying to make a good grade they would ask. We don't live in tomorrow-land, public education, utilities, and our infrastructure are in a mess. People are so powerless and modular, yet everyone has a voice thanks to social media. Brick and mortar universities are best for socialization, yet it costs gas for thousands creating more carbon, but you can't smell my breath through the monitor. Maybe the answer is less physical presence in the class room and a credentialing revolution. A peer to peer credentialing network? But the old problem of money will always rear its head. You will be against many financial stakeholders, the academia industry, the oil industry, how many other businesses rely on the the current system for day to day profits?
The problem that ive come across and noticed with teaching, coming from a students point of view, it seems as if teachers that have tried to "teach" people through just showing them the material through paperwork and expect them to understand it without teaching them why, for just a simple example 2+2=4 we all know this but why? RUclips and the internet have helped out with this issue yet on average to figure out the full understanding or what's not being said in class I have figure out the correct question to type into the engine to understand whats holding me back. Sometimes this take me a few nights to find that correct video and and others you just can't. This got me thinking, is there a better way to sub categorize topics on here what you're searching for, since the search engines are giving to broad of a category to where you usually end up in the weird part of the internet.
+taylor primm i agree with that: youtube is NOT built as an education platform. It is an entertainment platform which some of us are using to post educational content because there are no other viable alternatives in terms of where people watch.
Typical problems I find are profs who... go slow on basics, then run out of time and wiz through the hard stuff. Also, inconsistency in variable names, hard enough learning something without changing variable assignments. Use the same ones as the textbook and stick with it. I don't care if you're bored and want to switch it up a bit, you're here to teach me, so make it easier on me, not you. Finally, show complete solutions, don't short hand. Pet peeve, Sigma's that are hand written like an upside down e. A sigma is a σ , write it like that.
I am really tired and sick of final and test counting for all your grade. It so stupid that 3 test will determine how smart or well you know the material. All the cramming, pressure, and stress just to pass them are not healthy. Teacher need to find another way to test student then pressure exam. Final are the worst since they usually count for 20-50% of a student grade. You can basically failed everything and pass that to pass the class. It not fair and very corrupt system.
Terrible profs need to be fired, students should have access to a voice/video clip upon registration that samples the professors voice/accent, and all lectures need to be recorded and released online so students can rewatch until the idea sets in. Time pressured calculus exams are also pretty ridiculous.
I'm sick of all the education fads coming from higher ups. Also i see so much biased research out there. When is education going to start following the rules of academia instead of silly biased business advertising mingled with statistics?
So I grew up in Idaho and during my high school years there were many attempts to change the school from trimesters to semesters (and vice versa after that was accomplished) as well as creating alternative high schools centered on technology and team work. My brother actually attends one now. But these all come with the promise of being better prepared for college and the workforce and a more technological world. But what so many times there is little emprical data backing up these change (albeit some are fairly exploratory by nature.) And often when they do have data, it comes from the business/organizations that make a living based off of the implementation of such programs in school. (I wish I had time to get some more details for you.) But anyhow, the goal of research is to understand and present the world as it is. I think there are serious conflicts of interest when companies doing the research are in the game to sell their product. That is what I mean by rules of academia I suppose. I worry about the data and results they aren't sharing. I'd be happy answer more specific or general questions if you need me to.(BTW thanks for helping me pass calculus. You are great!)
I love proofs they help you understand how the idea was formed and does not allow you to just memorize,worked out examples online with most steps written out to the point to you won't get lost, straightforwardness, I love how you make a plan of what you are going to cover in the beginning that is good too. Worked examples are everything they help you with getting skills down that you need.
I'm in college. the problem with professors is not their education level and how smart they are, it's how they lack and suck at teaching. I'm sick and tired of schools hiring professors /teachers when they lack the biggest component: which is teaching.
+GoldenRetriever Abbie i agree; professors are often hired for research ability, not teaching ability
+GoldenRetriever Abbie EXACTLY! I have been very very fortunate to get awesome teachers, however there is one or two who just teach out of the book. It's stressful to teach the same thing over and over, ie where reading straight out of book comes in
+GoldenRetriever Abbie You beat me to this exact same view. Just got out of my Calc II class today and teacher treated me like a total idiot for not understanding something in lecture.
I just want a math teacher like you in universities.....You helped me so much in Calculus
+stayflyxx I can't get a full time job at a university, I don't have a PhD :)
+patrickJMT in all seriousness, you are much better than some of the PhD ones ....
+The Sage not much better but a Thousand times better
i didnt want to sound too cynical and/or disrespectful to the Doctors out there trying to impart knowledge.
i understand what you are saying, but dont you think that only a few are as egocentric as that ?
I just want and NEED teachers like you. I honestly come to your videos when I have a test to study for because I can't even follow my own notes. I just want to say thank you so much for helping me in math!
I'd like to see a consistent format. Something like:
1-Motivation
2-Example of problem
3-Derivation
4-Definition
5-Proof
6-Example(s)
+cryptexify When we did school science lessons we were given (and practised) a basic template to write up every experiment. It went: Apparatus, Method, Results,Conclusion All the student had to do was follow this script and all the information was then provided - and remained memorable - for later review. It was a great learning and exposition method I felt. It made 'the method' of doing science quite expicit. I wish that approach - effectively report writing - might be adapted broadly to other subject like mathematics and the formatted lesson-style you suggest seems to mirror that idea. 'Proof' in mathematics is too hard often - because it comes at the end of knowing something and appears overly prescriptive when.. you just know already! It's as though mathematics is taught like grammar instead of literary appreciation in an English class.
Pauls SecondChannel
The reason I mention proof is that sometimes a student wouldn't be convinced that something works the way it does.
I love proofs they help you understand how the idea was formed and does not allow you to just memorize,worked out examples online with most steps written out to the point to you won't get lost, straightforwardness, I love how you make a plan of what you are going to cover in the beginning that is good too. Worked examples are everything they help you with getting skills down that you need.
Your videos are so helpful, I've been watching your videos for 2 semesters now. 2As are all because of you! Thanks a lot.
my experience with calculus in university is that teachers always give us simple questions that is easy enough to follow. Then comes final the question suddenly becomes 10x harder and i fall flat when that happens. They expect us to understand all the course material inside and out within 2-3 months like we are all math experts with decades of practice and experience.
I rather they test us on both the easy and the hard questions in class before exams to tell us if we really know our materials
I'm in college and have 2 professors doing this and really liked it. They would post their lectures online and might go into more detail for certain topics or maybe do more examples. I find it useful because usually I'll understand the topics from lecture (or textbook) but I often have trouble applying the content to problems. This makes having worked out examples online great (especially because they won't really have to rush to finish the example as much).
As a college student I personally believe teaching is a vocation. To be a teacher you need patience and fairness. My favorite teachers were all passionate about teaching or talking about their subjects. They add real life examples and tie in pop culture references to their lectures. They are the teachers that make me love the subject as well because their passion is infectious. Please do not teach just to pay rent because you will make yourself and 20+ others miserable.
+MADEbySOUL i agree, if you just want a 'job', please don't go into teaching.
Also, 92% of my grade is tests. How primitive is that? We have all the technology in the world and yet not an efficient way to evaluate students skills. My school has also banned formula sheets even though in the relevant world of working, we will have these tools at our disposal
(High school student perspective) Videos are really helpful because they allow me to interact personally with what i am learning. Rather than listen to a lecture and attempt to envision a scenario, videos allow me to learn through my own curiosity and take time on what I find difficult.
Now with online videos and textbooks students can attempt to learn material on their own. Where teachers really come in handy is in taking content and relating it to the real world. For example, math can be very new and abstract to some, so teachers can try to relate math to the real world. Saying "math is everywhere" doesn't help, but by showing students examples of math in every day life helps.
For example, my calc 4 professor showed us population growth models and applied them to differential equations. He explained to us without math how two populations interact with each other. After understanding that then he showed the differential equations that modeled the interaction between population. That really helped me feel the math and relate it to less abstract ideas.
I noticed how teachers get the blame for students not learning properly. I have to say that you can't help a student that really doesn't want to learn. After showing passion and reason for learning a subject, the responsibility of learning turns into something that is out of control of the teacher. We can't blame teachers as harsh as we do for lack of student success.
Society's mindset is to learn something practical and move on. Not many people today enjoy learning just for learning.
just started my calc. class, and honestly seems like i am putting in face time at school and coming here to your videos for my education. Perhaps given the amount of students per class and time, he give just a quick over view of certain examples / concepts, and alot is left for the student to figure out from external sources. not sure if this is becoming the norm. but i know that everytime i leave my class, i am confused of what the professor is trying to explain(speaks good english btw.). You make your videos very easy to understand. thks so much!!
As an engineering senior, I'd like to see more real life applications of the theoretical stuff we are learning. Reading slideshows helps nobody. Also, testing should not be 2 test per semester but rather smaller biweekly test would force students to keep up with the material and actually learn more.
P.S. You got me through calc 1, 2 and 3 as well as DE. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!
Agree with you
I passed my Calculus classes with your videos.I loved the way that you are not rushing into hard questions and taking it step by step.I like that you are using Sharpies (I have got 48 of them now :) ). I think you should use some extra colors .I like the way that you are taking 1 question at a time. Please don't use board in future ( A4 is much more better). The thing that i learned from you , no teacher needs to be seen . Even , just your voice gives me confidence that i'll get through with hard chapters. Thank you!
my teacher represent using the projector and i do not understand at all , thanks to you , you have helped me a lot in your short videos
I have been turning to you for years for all my math tutoring needs... thanks for that by the way! I have finally come across something that I cannot find and do not understand. The class is differential equations. I am having trouble with lipschitz!
I am well aware that teachers have different teaching styles. I strongly believe that professors should develop a teaching regiment fit to cater to the needs of every type of learner. I'm an aesthetic/visual learner and I remember having one professor that did nothing but talk. The notes he wrote on the board were for the next lecture so it wasn't helpful at all. We had no homework (you could obviously tell this wasn't a math class now). It seems cool right? Not for people like me. I had a tough time. I depend on homework to help solidify the concepts into me. I know not everyone is an auditory learner, so if a professor can cater to every type of learner, that would be great!
+Abiel Malepeai (Ace) Yes I love Math homework just because it make me learn the stuff on my own. Also the pressure of failing the class when I don;t do it really help motivate me to learn more lol
+Abiel Malepeai (Ace) Tangentially related to what you said. I feel like classifications like "auditory learner" can be improved upon, because we're talking about the brain here, and listening to words is very different from hearing other noises. Just an example.
I feel like the flipped classroom would work very well in todays technology setting. Today, if you do not understand the material its straight to your favorite solutions website. This is of course bad because then the professor is focused on finding problems not on the internet versus problems that best work the concepts. I see a flipped classroom working like this: Require the students and the professor a designated time in which problem solving sessions are done and stragglers who need more time can stay and get help from TAs or fellow classmates. Student community seems to be what is hurting learning and retention the most due to technology. Students are using technology to seek out short cuts, and texting homework solutions which isn't too helpful. Getting students all in the same room working problems from the start creates a conversation. A conversation in which students dont fall off the learning cliff because they missed one or two small concepts. Flipped classrooms are still only a fad in the university environment from my point of view so far. What I have seen is instructors that want to be trendy and create their own videos, make you watch the videos, and then you go to class only to hear the exact same lecture! So in my opinion, the flipped classroom isn't moving tables and chairs around, making videos, and buying 72" touch screens. It is students required to attend study sessions which starts the path of good study habits. Teachers learning to teach that get through to the students in a personal way.
I sent feedback. I'd like to take a second to say thank you to you for your videos. I came to them in late 2009 after losing my job due to the economic downturn. I figured that I needed to do something proactive and I came back to school. I'd had a bad experience in high school with a math instructor who was just clocking time so going back to a JC to see if I could even navigate a math class was daunting. I lucked out and my first math teacher coming back has since become my academic adviser, mentor and friend. Your videos have been, and continue to be, invaluable tools in the effort to get my head around some of these concepts. You have indirectly helped me with elementary algebra through today with calculus. It doesn't surprise me that a math channel has as many subscribers as you do. The sad fact is that more teachers are clocking time than interested in helping students understand. Teachers who really want to help tend to stand out. So, thank you again and keep up the good work.
+seanaustin71 Thanks for words of encouragement. I am always happy to hear that my videos are helping; it is why I made them in the first place! Good luck in all of your studies.
Just seen this! I'm from a slightly different background from most. I'm studying Maths and Statistics through distance learning with the Open University. For some modules, we get no actual face-to-face contact. Most of the material is in textbooks which we have to follow very closely within set intervals. There are screencasts uploaded for each unit, but I'd say there were about 10 per unit, which doesn't add up to full coverage of all the main topics/ideas in the textbook. If something doesn't make sense to me as its written in the book, my first reaction is to look up your page and see if you've done a video on the subject. Usually I find that I can go back to the textbook, having watched the relevant video, and understand it perfectly the second time around.
Respected sir ur videos r vry helpful. to the students like us.
One of the best calculus professors at my school still uses an old fashioned overhead projector. Good clear teaching is what matters not technology. However technology allows better teaching to reach more people.
Teaching using a projector. We need to eliminate writing on white boards, the teacher is always in the way! It'd help the students so much to consistently learn calculus by watching the teacher in a similar style to how we watch your videos (we see the paper as if we are in your point of view)
Most teachers are just inefficient, especially in high schools. Many teachers lecture the same class multiple times a day, even though if they did videos they could reduce their work and help students work through examples in class. IDK about other people, but I'd rather watch a 5 hours of short videos in one sitting than read most textbooks for 5 hours. Also there are already many tools that can randomly generate problems and can automatically grade them, so teachers would again be able to do less work, reduce cheating, and give students more robust assignments. Obviously these suggestions work better for some subjects then others.
Hey Patrick, my recommendation is more about the learning setting, I have noticed that in very crowded classroom it becomes harder for students to focus and most people yawn from lack of oxygen. I read an article talking about this and I have experienced it myself, I believe smaller size classes would be more beneficial for students
+Marc Rogue Yes, there is no doubt that smaller class sizes are better. But how small is good enough? Small classes means more instructions, means higher tuition (in an age where tuition is already crazy expensive the in the US)
patrickJMT I don't have a precise answer to that, I do feel teaching should be treated less as a business and more as an ''labor of love''since none really has a right to knowledge, human knowledge has been more of a collaboration thru history than anyone's individual effort. of course I want teachers to get paid and I feel they are not treated fairly, I also don't think it should be free, maybe more accessible whatever that means.
hey patrick,do you think that university level maths and physics 's difficulty level is much greater than that of high school's?right now we are doing second order differential equations(fp2) and i find them easy enough but in 1.5 i will go to college and honestly i am kind of scared/anxious.
keep up the great work btw,i have been a massive help for me!
+kotzzz9 in regards to math, yes. i have rarely seen a high school calculus course that is as hard as a university level calculus course although I am sure some do exist. I routinely people have make 3,4,5 on the AP exams and struggle in my calculus classes.
I'd say better teaching over lecturing. Also,do you have anything on proving trig identities?
Watching videos in class just distract me, I'd rather just take notes over a lecture. But I love to watch video outside of the class to guide me through the homework and studying for a test. Often the notes I take in class aren't as clear without a voice over to fill in the gaps where I forgot why or what exactly I am doing.
am in the university and i forget basic maths like two years i havent study nothing and calculus is about basic i failed first semester what should i do even i dont have enough time to read any advise
Drop it, study the basics and retake it.
Your math videos are an enormous help! My daughter and I watched through the quadratic equations/rational expressions ones and they were lifesavers. The problem in school is the large class sizes, it's hard for the students to follow along. Much better to have the videos and an unobstructed view of what you are doing. Also, they shove teachers in front of the class that have no math background and just copy from the solutions book. They cannot explain the problems, just copy the solutions (seriously, when my daughter once asked how they had determined a certain angle, the answer was "I can't go into detail right now, but I remember seeing it was 78 degrees."). So yes, please, please more math videos!
+Kirsten Jany great! i am happy that i have been able to help your daughter out. and although there are some great teachers out there, there are also some bad ones
+patrickJMT We have moved on to the discriminant videos. Huge help! Thanks again for saving our butts! Have signed up with patreon, and will be sending pi each month. Thanks again!
I should also let you know that the high school math teachers themselves give out the links to your videos with the assigned homework. That way they get to collect their salaries while not having to do the actual work of explaining.
I live in Austin too. Born and Raised. True OG
+Phillip Torres (45Bandit) You are a rare breed given how many people move here each day!
Patrick, I know you're really not looking for a comment; but here is one anyway. I used your videos to help get me through my mathematics minor. Videos really help with solidifying information that I would learn in class. Without them I would have struggled through a lot of concepts, and certainly would have not preformed as well as I did in class.
With this being said, I think having partial lectures with your examples would be a huge benefit to the people who look to your channel for help. Perhaps an overview of history, and a more thorough introduction for certain topics would make, in my opinion, your videos absolutely perfect.
Also, I love your stuff. I'm a total fan; and RUclips educators are amazing.
Something else that I would love to see is you doing some mathematics series with crash course. My life would be complete.
+Nathan Kibler ha, i don't think you guy are interested in me and what I am doing
+patrickJMT Came for the math, stayed for the... hm
patrickJMT I'm not sure what I said that made you think that I care about what you're doing haha.
But really, a pre-lecture would make some of your videos just a little more useful. Sorry for the wordy comment and confusion
the problem with teachers is not how much they know , i mean one of my teacher has a phd but she really does not know how to teach , she just translates the words in the book, so i really rely on videos
I want professors that will actually explain a math problem instead of simply copying an example straight from the book, step by step, and calling that a lecture. I could read the book on my own without having to wake up at 8 am.
Do you want the video uploaded to RUclips and then sent? Or does it matter of it is in an .mov or .wmv file? I have a Mac so idk what you prefer
+Robert Summers Upload it to RUclips and mark it as public or unlisted and send us the link (not private though cause then we can't see it!). Thanks Mr. Summers! Let's play chess again soon if it is not too distracting; I should be on chess.com more often soon.
Should cover some of the Australian VCE study design for math methods! Really need your help boss!
What do you need help with fam?
Rao Saad pretty bad at trig tbh
I want you to talk about planetary motion in mechanics
He's so adorable
+pinkybananas1 was my cat in the picture?
NOPE! Just you!! You just seem like an extremely nice and good person. And just an overall adorable person.
I know this is late. But I have a few thoughts:
Patrick, how many times have you been told, "I wish my math teacher could teach as well as you?" This seems to be a common complaint and it won't change until teachers are hired for their teaching skills rather than simply for their credentials. Since the primary objective of an educator is to teach students, if they cannot accomplish this then they simply aren't good at their job. And that's a problem. Who'd want to take their car to a mechanic who wasn't good at fixing cars? I wouldn't. But unfortunately students often have no choice about which professor to take.
But as for RUclips educators (this doesn't necessarily apply to you) one of the complaints I have is often the educator will give an example of how to solve a basic problem and ignore more complicated problems. I really like your vids where you show lots of different example problems.
hey patrick, how much do youtubers earn if they have 500K subs? or does it vary with sponsors?
+Brix Monton i guess it varies; i don't have sponsors
I enjoy learning math and this happens best whenever I am on my own watching videos. Whenever I don't understand something I can pause the video or rewind it to watch it again. However long it takes for me learn that bit of info.
Real life classrooms and school in general are "one size fits all." it doesn't take account into a student who is slower or faster learner. the pace stays the same. Fast learners tend to get bored and slower learners lag behind.
to me, conventional education has always been....for lack of a better word...not appropriate for me. I am not stupid but need longer time to learn...and teaching myself as I have been since late October 2015 I have learned a lot. hopefully this helped
+Laurent Huor so how do you fix this?
Ever heard of free schools? I saw a RUclips video briefly mentioning the school of free choice located in Brooklyn... I wish I knew about this when I was younger.
When is your conference? What is the deadline?
+Ranjani Krishnan deadline has passed, conference starts tomorrow
i use videos online for almost all of my school work for maths it's a bit tricky in the sense that teacher may not use the same processes to find the answers as the in the videos i watch but that can't be helped and classrooms bored me
@patrick do you have any videos, reviews on ASVAB tests and preparation?
+Jeremias Sachiungue no, nothing specifically for that
patrickJMT thanks
I'm in the same boat also, teachers at my university are really bad at teaching such as in math and physics courses. Anyways, I end up relying into watching videos such as of Patrick's to learn and understand these concepts for my calculus class and other websites also. If any of you are interested, check out Professor Leonard's videos, he's really good at calculus also! x)
Demonstrations of real world applications. Show us how the subjects relate to real life.
+Alejandro Martin i agree: i think applications are seriously lacking often times
+patrickJMT yup. I feel like their inclusion makes it far more easier to remember the knowledge and connect with it. It makes learning TONS more easier to me
I hate spending 200 bucks on a textbook that turns out to be useless and totally unrelated to in class content.
As a student-teacher, I feel like the use of kinesthetics in the classroom works. If professors were to use physical objects in the universities it would help students intuitions. Ex. the use of cylinders inside of each other to build volume intuition or disks/washers stacked together. this would be helpful in Calculus courses.
In Calculus 2; When you are finding volumes.
humor!
I really want to answer these questions, but I don't quite understand what "flipped classroom" mean.
+camerababe ludy
Student first style of teaching
+camerababe ludy The basic idea of a flipped classroom is that students watch videos before class so that in class, a teach can spend less time on the theory and preparatory topics and instead spend more time on interesting applications which hopefully garners more interest from the student.
+patrickJMT Awesome! I get it now, thank you!
+camerababe ludy According to a source found by Google, "The flipped classroom is a pedagogical model in which the typical lecture and homework elements of a course are reversed. Short video lectures are viewed by students at home before the class session, while in-class time is devoted to exercises, projects, or discussions." (net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7081.pdf)
+ngon 1618033 yep, people come to class better prepared so that class time can be used in a more productive and interesting fashion. that is the basic premise.
What are you doing to live in expensive Austin? I've assumed that you taught at UT or ACC. I reluctantly moved to Tennessee in 2014, because of the real estate market. I hope you're doing great you're a great math teacher. Have you heard of blab.im? Do you think a platform like that shows any promise? I'm finishing my BA for Soil Science. Should I even worry about PhD?
The web of bureaucracy hurts my education, even though I know that it's a necessity. Teachers have strict rules on how they can communicate with me. The time structure of the classes is ridiculous. A difference between STEM and general education classes like English and history is that, of course STEM almost always has more than one way to skin the cat. BUT, in humanities and arts, I'm always wondering what my professor is actually wanting to teach me. For instance, in English, the professor is trying to teach writing and composition, logically and artistically, but what of the readings? How much of what we read is chosen by the teacher and how much is university mandated material? If I ask these questions, I'd be in some violation of the student teacher relationship. Why would I be worried about that and not trying to make a good grade they would ask.
We don't live in tomorrow-land, public education, utilities, and our infrastructure are in a mess. People are so powerless and modular, yet everyone has a voice thanks to social media. Brick and mortar universities are best for socialization, yet it costs gas for thousands creating more carbon, but you can't smell my breath through the monitor. Maybe the answer is less physical presence in the class room and a credentialing revolution. A peer to peer credentialing network? But the old problem of money will always rear its head. You will be against many financial stakeholders, the academia industry, the oil industry, how many other businesses rely on the the current system for day to day profits?
The problem that ive come across and noticed with teaching, coming from a students point of view, it seems as if teachers that have tried to "teach" people through just showing them the material through paperwork and expect them to understand it without teaching them why, for just a simple example 2+2=4 we all know this but why? RUclips and the internet have helped out with this issue yet on average to figure out the full understanding or what's not being said in class I have figure out the correct question to type into the engine to understand whats holding me back. Sometimes this take me a few nights to find that correct video and and others you just can't. This got me thinking, is there a better way to sub categorize topics on here what you're searching for, since the search engines are giving to broad of a category to where you usually end up in the weird part of the internet.
+taylor primm i agree with that: youtube is NOT built as an education platform. It is an entertainment platform which some of us are using to post educational content because there are no other viable alternatives in terms of where people watch.
you are an excellent teacher. finally saw ur face lol.
+200moesaleh200 it is not me, it is an actor and we dubbed the voice
+patrickJMT no way that sounds exactly like u
+200moesaleh200 we did a great dub job
Typical problems I find are profs who... go slow on basics, then run out of time and wiz through the hard stuff. Also, inconsistency in variable names, hard enough learning something without changing variable assignments. Use the same ones as the textbook and stick with it. I don't care if you're bored and want to switch it up a bit, you're here to teach me, so make it easier on me, not you. Finally, show complete solutions, don't short hand. Pet peeve, Sigma's that are hand written like an upside down e. A sigma is a σ , write it like that.
You should make a draw my life video. That would be interesting 😊
+Tony Koter i still don't really know what those are, but mine would be pretty boring
patrickJMT Just a common thing that popular RUclipsrs do. By the way, may thanks for your amazing videos!
I don't know about the American system. am in india can I give an opinion
+Deng Chier sure! go for it
+patrickJMT where/how can I send a video to you?
I am really tired and sick of final and test counting for all your grade. It so stupid that 3 test will determine how smart or well you know the material. All the cramming, pressure, and stress just to pass them are not healthy. Teacher need to find another way to test student then pressure exam. Final are the worst since they usually count for 20-50% of a student grade. You can basically failed everything and pass that to pass the class. It not fair and very corrupt system.
☺aha
Terrible profs need to be fired, students should have access to a voice/video clip upon registration that samples the professors voice/accent, and all lectures need to be recorded and released online so students can rewatch until the idea sets in. Time pressured calculus exams are also pretty ridiculous.
+Mobliz yeah for real. fifty minutes to do ten, sometimes eleven or twelve calculus problems is fucking awful.
That one dislike....
+The-Caprisun-Boy! always got to be at least one :)
Is your brain available for rent? I have an exam tomorrow
I'm sick of all the education fads coming from higher ups. Also i see so much biased research out there. When is education going to start following the rules of academia instead of silly biased business advertising mingled with statistics?
+Bombed Nevada what fads don't you like? what biased research? following what rules of academia?
So I grew up in Idaho and during my high school years there were many attempts to change the school from trimesters to semesters (and vice versa after that was accomplished) as well as creating alternative high schools centered on technology and team work. My brother actually attends one now. But these all come with the promise of being better prepared for college and the workforce and a more technological world. But what so many times there is little emprical data backing up these change (albeit some are fairly exploratory by nature.) And often when they do have data, it comes from the business/organizations that make a living based off of the implementation of such programs in school. (I wish I had time to get some more details for you.) But anyhow, the goal of research is to understand and present the world as it is. I think there are serious conflicts of interest when companies doing the research are in the game to sell their product. That is what I mean by rules of academia I suppose. I worry about the data and results they aren't sharing.
I'd be happy answer more specific or general questions if you need me to.(BTW thanks for helping me pass calculus. You are great!)
I love proofs they help you understand how the idea was formed and does not allow you to just memorize,worked out examples online with most steps written out to the point to you won't get lost, straightforwardness, I love how you make a plan of what you are going to cover in the beginning that is good too. Worked examples are everything they help you with getting skills down that you need.