Review of Preconceptions

Raesintoast
October 30, 2021

This story was very pleasant. Trip had a strong and believable character voice which I deeply enjoyed. My main focus in this story was actually Velik. As someone who works in education, I couldn't help but take notice of how good Velik's teaching was. He employs active learning, constant feedback both positive and constructive, and project based learning. He also states that lectures suck (which pedagogically they do). It makes sense to me that Vulcans would have great teachers, as I feel that Vulcan teachers would be up to date on the latest scientific research about how students best learn. Velik comes across as having an encouraging tone while expecting a lot of his students, that is what we call in the business being a "warm demander". I can see how some readers might criticize this tone as being too emotional, but I think there is logic to positive encouragement when you consider a human audience.

There was some techno-babble but honestly it wasn't too bad, it never got ridiculous. My favorite thing about the story was even though at the end Trip was very mad at Velik, Velik did what he set out to do: push his students to their potential. They learned a lot of skills (especially how to write a grant proposal, because boy do academics spend a lot of time writing grant proposals), and most importantly they wanted to do better, learn more. Trip was instilled with a growth mindset, and teaching a mindset is a lot harder than just teaching a skill, believe me trying to teach students to have a growth mindset is what I do everyday and it is so much harder than it sounds.

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