I have found this exercise hard, not because I haven’t been demotivated by events in the past, but by the fact that I have always had the philosophy of ‘You can’t change the past, you can only use the present to influence the future’. I am a great believer of ‘it happened for a reason’ although at the time it is often unclear to me why it has happened.
My story is about a 2nd year undergraduate Maths course on Fourier Transforms. I had always liked Maths and whilst Maths was getting harder, I continued to be motivated to learn new things. The lecturer was old school who insisted on writing everything on the board (in chalk) at speed. The large lecture theatre had 3 banks of boards and he would rapidly fill each board with very little explanation. He actually wrote so fast that I and two of my friends would choose one of the banks each and copy the board contents down since it was impossible to keep up. In a 50 minute session, the boards were repeatedly filled and cleared. It also didn’t help that this lecture was held at 2pm on Friday afternoon, a time when most students would rather by elsewhere. I always disliked having Maths classes in the afternoon, maybe I am a morning person, so that probably contributed to my lack of motivation for the topic. The impact was that I never understood Fourier Transforms, which 30 years later is a shame because they form an integral part of what some of my colleagues use in their work. More immediately, it meant that I changed track in my Maths course moving away from Pure Maths towards Numerical Analysis, which ultimately turned out to be a good decision!
What could have been done. It is easier now to reflect with experience and hindsight but it is clear that the lecturer should have slowed down, worked with the class and asked for confirmation that we were understanding what was being explained. As he spent so much time writing, he spent little time talking, questioning or listening. I suspect that he wasn’t that motivated about giving the course on a Friday afternoon, so his lack of motivation was probaboy sensed by the class. I also feel that he probably lacked empathy with the students; he was an expert in Fourier Transforms and had clearly forgotten what it was like to be a novice in this difficult (which is my lasting memory of this course) topic.
What should have been done. A different lecturer who was more in tune with the students (which was done in some of my other Maths lectures). Over time I could sense those lecturers who would rather be teaching and those who would rather be researching. No guessing which one provides the more motivated and engaging lectures! Finally having lectures on a Friday afternoon is probably a bad idea so re-schedule lectures for a different time slot would probably help.