Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!burl!codas!killer!elg
From: elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Ph.D.'s and Teaching
Message-ID: <2768@killer.UUCP>
Date: 10 Jan 88 17:54:26 GMT
References: <3469@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu>
Organization: Bayou Telecommunications
Lines: 30

in article <3469@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu>, moreno@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu (Andres Moreno) says:
> Recent postings on the net reflect a much needed attitude towards improving
> the quality of teaching in colleges.However, I must point out that
> ultimately, the student is responsible for his or her own learning. 

Certainly. However, that doesn't excuse the poor professor who doesn't know
how to do much more besides write the book on the chalkboard!

Just about every CS book I've ever read gives plenty of details, but is a bit
sketchy about "The Big View" (so-to-speak). Students are notoriously good at
memorizing meaningless details and then forgetting them the moment finals are
over. It is part of the professor's job to give the students a framework of
meaning into which they can assimilate all these details into a coherent
whole. The professor had to do this for himself, most probably, by steeping
himself in the subject for a number of years. Most students have a semester,
not years. Otherwise, why have a professor there? Might as well just tell the
students "I'm going to give you an exam on these three dates", and send them
home till exam time, if the professor is just going to recite what they can
read for themselves in books and journals.

I guess you could then say that the professor's job is to summarize. One way
of putting it, even if incorrect. I'd suggest looking in any educational
psychology book for more info on how people learn... for that matter, maybe
I'll do that, myself, even though I'm not an instructor.

--
Eric Lee Green  elg@usl.CSNET     Asimov Cocktail,n., A verbal bomb
{cbosgd,ihnp4}!killer!elg              detonated by the mention of any
Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191              subject, resulting in an explosion
Lafayette, LA 70509                    of at least 5,000 words.