Confessions of a Converted Lecturer: Eric Mazur

Why HN readers recommended it

Repeatedly recommended in education threads as the definitive talk on why lectures fail and what works better.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

UMBCtube

Topic

peer instruction teaching

Format

lecture

Level

general

HN recommenders in dataset

9

HN mentions in dataset

14

Recommendation years in dataset

2009–2023

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• Strongly reminiscent of this really fantastic talk from Eric Mazur, a Harvard physics professor (and a charismatic speaker!) who was shocked when he discovered the pervasive misconceptions held by his undergraduate students. [VIDEO] Mazur describes how he discovered and carefully measured the lack of fundamental …

• Great video on how a pretty good teacher (as conventionally measured) learned how to really teach. [VIDEO] titled: Confessions of a converted lecturer.

• I strongly disagree with the notion that college algebra ought to be the place where one learns practical applications of mathematics. A valuable skill for any educated person is the ability to plod through minutia and make sense of it. Being able to be focused …