The Brilliance of Our Teachers
A recent newspaper question and answer
column raised an interesting subject. The query noted that, for a
science course at a local school, there were two instructors. One of
those instructors explained the concepts clearly and his students did
well on standardized tests.
The other instructor's teachings were scattered and his students performed poorly. The
students, however, believed that the second instructor was brilliant
and thought that his explanations are simply over their heads. The
query went on to ask why such a misperception occurred.
The answer given was that both groups were
easily misled into believing that mysterious people are highly
intelligent. When those listeners heard material they didn't grasp,
they assumed that the fault was theirs and not the teachers. And, since
the listeners considered themselves fairly intelligent, it was obvious
that the teacher must be brilliant!