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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.rumor
Subject: Re: Any news about the reputed bomb explosion in the UCB CS Dept?
Message-ID: <5717@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Jun-85 13:36:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.5717
Posted: Fri Jun 21 13:36:18 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 21-Jun-85 13:36:18 EDT
References: <1457@utah-gr.UUCP> <8@ucbcad.UUCP> <157@jendeh.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 27

> You seem to be confusing the notion of passing a course with learning the
> material covered by the course.  
> 
> A one semester, three credit course involves about 45 hours of lecture, and
> 50 to 150 additional hours of study.  Do you really think a two hour exam can be
> made up that adequately measures your knowledge of that much work? Do you
> really think you have learned the course because you have been able to answer
> 70% of the questions? Do you really think that if you complete the final
> programming project on which the grade is based there was nothing worth
> learning in the lectures?  ...

You seem to be confusing the notion of attending lectures with learning the
material the course covers.  Do you really think that listening to the
prof recite the textbook is going to teach you anything that you wouldn't
learn by reading it?  I have yet to see a coherent explanation of why a
lecture is a useful form of teaching for properly-motivated students.
A question-and-answer session, yes, but not a lecture.

"A lecture is a means of transferring the contents of the professor's notes
to the student's notes without passing through the mind of either." -- anon

"I am not inclined to lecture at people who know how to read." -- G. Weinberg

(Yes, I am well aware that some profs do better than this.  Some don't.)
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry