

Ask HN: Teach Undergrad or Grad Students - rhhfla

I have taught entrepreneurship for 5 years to undergraduates in a business school. I am now being offered the opportunity to teach masters level students in an engineering school. My instinct says that it will be more enjoyable with the more accomplished masters students. Thoughts appreciated.
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RiderOfGiraffes
Personal expectations:

 _It will be different._

The following comments are sweeping generalizations, and do not apply to
individuals. Any given individual could be the opposite of my description or
expectation ...

My experience is that undergrads are less focussed, harder to engage, demand
more instant feedback, and lack motivation. They are are also more willing to
learn, less indoctrinated with how things "should" be, and more adaptable.

My experience is that post-grads are more focussed, better motivated, clearer
in their objectives, and more able to look at the big picture and delay
gratification. They also tend to have more knowledge, and perhaps becuase of
that sometimes they might feel that they know better, and not really believe
what you tell them.

My expectation is that your approach will need to adapt, but that anyone who
comes to you to learn should be able to be taught. But do you want to teach
them? I don't think so. I think that any entrepreneur that has a chance of
succeeding won't be taught.

You need to give them the opportunity to learn.

Patrick White: 'I forgot what I was taught. I only remember what I've learnt.'

B.F.Skinner: 'Education is what survives when what has been learned has been
forgotten.'

Confucius: Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve
me, and I will understand.

But in the end, whether you stay teaching the undergrads or leave to teach the
postgrads depends on how you feel about the opportunity to change.

Can't you do both?

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thewordpainter
I think ROG is spot-on with many of his initial generalizations.

As much as I think the Graduate students are more focused and eager to learn,
I don't think you'll find the same enthusiasm or creativity as you may
encounter with your undergrads.

I find Masters students to often operate very much by the book. Great
managers. Not the greatest leaders. Of course that's not always the case, but
many students go back to grad school because they're not exactly sure what
they want to be doing.

If I were in your shoes, I would take the Top 10% of an undergrad class over
the Top 25% of a graduate class in terms of what would motivate me to teach.

Best of luck either way!

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rararational
With my personal experience of being a student in graduate level engineering
classes, one thought to consider is that while there is a load of books for
undergraduate courses when you get in the tougher subjects (or more advanced
subjects) there really exist little amounts of new books to teach with which
leaves the burden on the teacher to create notes and problems for the students
so make sure it is in a field you enjoy and do indeed know a good amount about
(of course if it isn't engineering courses you are teaching it may be
different).

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solost
Most universities offer the option of a mixed teaching load, have you
considered that? Also I know when I was a student a number of my classes were
mixed with Graduate and Undergraduate stundetns have the opportunity to share
the class. Otherwise I think the thoughts by ROG are pretty spot on.

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maxbrown
The question seems to be - Do you want to motivate younger students towards
entrepreneurship or support those who are already committed to it?

