What do professors think of slow learners in the classroom?

老师怎么看待学习慢的学生？

获得272.3k好评的回答@Richard Muller：

When I was five years old, I played the role of the turtle in a play organized by my older sister. I had one line at the end, when I beat the sleeping rabbit to the finish line: slow and steady wins the race.

我五岁时在我姐姐组织的一场演出中扮演乌龟，最后打败熟睡的兔子冲过终点线时有一句台词：又慢又稳赢得了比赛。

I’ve always felt that those words guided my career. I was never the fastest; I was rarely an A student. 我总是感觉那些话对我的事业有指导作用，我从来不是最快的，我几乎没得过A。

But as the careers of others stalled, I kept going. 但当其他人事业停滞不前时，我的事业一直在发展。

My goal was always the same: to learn more this year than I had last year.

我的目标始终如一：今年要比去年多学点东西。

When I see slow students, that’s what I think of. 我看到学习慢的学生时就是这样想的。

Are those the students who will keep learning over their entire lifetime, and leave the “quick” students far behind?

那些学生能否终其一生都在学习，然后把学习快的学生远远落在后面？

获得1.4k好评的回答@ Gene Spafford：

Some people have difficulty with particular topics. They may also have a slow deliberate style. 有些人理解某些特定话题有困难，他们可能是缓慢从容的风格。

I don’t have a problem with them either, so long as they are trying. 我教他们也没什么困难，只要他们努力即可。

I usually have them come in to see me during office hours, and/or spend time with a TA (if there is one) if they need the extra help. 我经常会在工作期间叫他们来见我，或者如果他们需要额外帮助就让他们跟助教聊聊（如果有助教的话）。

The goal of education is not to gain as much knowledge as quickly as possibly, but to gain useful knowledge and retain it. 教育的目标不是以最快速度获取最多知识，而是要获取有用的知识并记在大脑里。

As such, I would prefer a slow, thoughtful student to a fast, superficial one.

正因如此，相较于学习快、肤浅的学生而言，我更喜欢学习慢但深思熟虑的学生。

获得2.2k好评的回答@Alvin Grissom II：

Technically¹, I’m not a professor yet, but I have taught middle and high school students, and I’m currently teaching undergraduate machine learning. 从专业角度来说，我还不是一名教授，但我教过中学生和高中生，我现在教大学生机器学习。

As a teacher, I don’t care how “fast” someone learns something. 作为一名教师，我不在乎学生学习有多快。

There may be a lot of reasons someone picks up a particular subject or topic more quickly: more background, natural adeptness², previous exposure to the material, more sleep that night, less stress, and so on.

有很多原因会导致学生学习某一特定学科或话题比别人快：更多的背景知识、天生的熟练、之前接触过相关材料、前一晚睡眠更充足、压力更小等。

We process information differently.

我们处理信息有所不同。

To use myself as an example, I tended to be comparatively slow in my advanced undergraduate mathematics classes. 以我自己为例，我在大学高数课上就属于相对学习慢的。

In retrospect³, I’ve come to realize that one of the ways I learn is “error-based.” That is, I effectively learn by making mistakes. 回顾过去，我意识到我的一种学习方法是“以错为鉴”，就是通过犯错有效地学习。

This may be slower than other methods of learning, but when I learn something, I really learn it.

这个方法可能比其他学习方法慢，但只要我学会了，就是真的学会了。

Personally, I think that this method of learning is well-suited for research. Now, this is quite different from someone who is simply uNPRepared for a course.

就我个人而言，我认为这种学习方法很适合做研究。现在我要说明一下这跟课前准备不充分可不是一回事。

获得1k好评的回答 @Thomas R. Jackson：

I seldom worried about “slow learners” when teaching residents or even medical students. I knew these young men and women could learn. 在教当地居民或者甚至医学生时我不怎么担心学得慢的人，我知道这些年轻人能学会。

There is a lot of material to master in medicine, but there is also time. That is what training programs are about. 医学上有很多需要掌握的材料，但也需要时间，这就是培训项目的意义所在。

Like in so many other professions, knowledge is only a part of being a doctor. 像很多其他职业一样，知识只是医生职业的一部分。

I spent decades learning enough to be a doctor and decades more keeping up and improving. 我花费数十年时间学习医生所需的足够多的东西，又花费数十年时间追赶潮流并提高自我。

It never stops, and never should.

学习永不停歇，也永远不该停下。

Slow learners need a study plan, and time, and good classes, and periodic assessment⁴. 学习慢的人需要学习计划、时间、好的课堂和定期评估。

Now the world is competitive and sometimes being too slow means you miss out. 现在社会竞争激烈，有时速度太慢意味着你会错过机会。

But speed is seldom the biggest marker of success. Learning, like a career, or like life, is a marathon, not a sprint⁵.

但速度也极少是成功最大的标志。学习就像事业或生活一样，是一场马拉松，而不是冲刺。