>>12251937When I was a TA, I had to take a short teaching course. One of the things pointed out that really resonated was that professors, by and large, were high performers at every educational stage, and learned quickly how to make the most out of any educational situation. They don't really understand most students' academic struggles because they never really experienced them. Then they spent years studying at the graduate level so that the undergrad material seems trivial to them now. They tend to either assume their students are idiots or else they teach to themselves and leave the class behind - matching your experience.
It's not really the research focus (although that doesn't help), it's this. The US military prefers to take the students who struggled but passed and make them instructors precisely because they understand how current students struggle, but universities don't do that because no one WANTS to be taught by the guy who got a C in the course.
Regardless, its up to you to figure it out. Try your TAs, they can usually help more than the professors can. And get used to it - most managers in industry struggle to communicate with their own staffs.