[DesigningWoman]

I am studying new faculty experience in a Uni setting. I was reading some of the previous studies. Something that surprised me was that the consistently most disliked faculty in student evaluations were the youngest/newest. Considering my own past, I have always gravitated toward the more experienced faculty. In fact my absolute fav professor was in his late 70's or early 80's. He was wickedly funny and brilliant.
For fun question. Do you agree that elders have the wisdom or are the younger newbies being short changed?

Thinking back on my college experience, I would mostly have to agree. The younger, less experienced teachers (probably teaching assistants or grad students still) were merely tolerable most of the time. I had some rather brilliant tenured professors and their expertise, particularly in the area of research and those minute details about their area of teaching was something that just wasn't found with the TA's. The teaching assistants were okay to run basic science lab classes and all, but when it came to my major studies, I absolutely learned the most from my professors. Getting beyond the basic classes and into my major fields of study was a great pleasure because I was no longer at the mercy of just "good enough to dispense the material" teachers and finally into the depths of my studies with professors who, by nature of their years of research, just had much more to offer than the basics.

I did have one regular teacher (not a professor) who I do feel did a really good job, but most were rather forgettable.

Now, I did have a few professors that were almost far too along the line of expertise to be good teachers though. For instance, I had a chemistry professor who was actually one of the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project. The man was brilliant, and if I had actually been a chemistry major I probably would have been thrilled with his level of expertise, but he was a horrible teacher to undergrad students who weren't necessarily chemistry majors and were a bit lost in his lectures. So, there is a point at which the expertise can be negated by bad teaching.

Still, most of the tenured professors I studied under were very good teachers and I learned a great deal from them. I enjoyed the challenge (except in chemistry) and detail they could provide that just wasn't quite in the grasp of most of the younger teachers yet. I found their comfort with their subject matter helpful, and yes, most of them were pretty humorous because they had so many interesting stories to tell while they taught. Definitely kept the interest level up.

Wisdom is not years at a job or ones chronilogical age. There are a lot of educated idiots today that have dropped wisdom for knowledge and you cannot confuse the two.
Many have a lot of knowledge without wisdom, how to apply it. Old timers had common sense which most have traded for tell me rather than me search for the answers myself. And common sense is mostly learned by mistakes. that is my spin on it... tc

[qwerty68]

I don't know if age ever played a factor for me. Almost universally, I liked the instructors with a Masters better than those with a PhD. I think the reason is because teaching was an annoyance to PhD's who usually view it as a distraction to their research, which is what really counts for them. The instructors with a MS were there only to teach.

It is probably not that way at a non-research university.

Not that I didn't have any great professors, I definitely did. My favorite econ professor was 25, on the other hand my favorite physics teacher was in his 70's and my favorite computer science instructor was in his 60's.

[PinkFreud11]

I do believe that elders have a particular wisdom that no other age group can aspire to. In fact, it comes from experience, from the range of situations and actions these people have been a part of and that taught them certain things that don't appear in books, courses or any theoretical materials. Furthermore, ideas lack essence in case they are not supported by practice and one cannot fully comprehend an idea until they see its practical use and manifestation. So yes, elders can provide students a peculiar wisdom that will help their individual studies tremendously.

At the same time, I feel like younger teachers do not receive the credit that they deserve. Most of the time, they are thought to be too young to preach what they were academically entitled to preach, while age says nothing about someone's level of intelligence or culture. Moreover, a good teacher does not always know lots of stuff, but they also know how to teach the stuff that they know. One cannot work without the other, and I can't see why a young teacher cannot respect this model.

All in all, I believe in the idea of a balance. A healthy educational system needs both older and younger teachers to function efficiently. As for me, I don't have a particular preference. I had encountered different examples of teachers so far, and although I do appreciate the wisdom of an elder, I still am into a young teacher's innovative approach to education.