Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!ucdavis!iris!windley
From: windley@iris.ucdavis.edu (Phil Windley)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Ph.D.'s and Teaching
Message-ID: <818@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>
Date: 13 Jan 88 19:07:25 GMT
References: <1759@rayssd.RAY.COM> <2804@killer.UUCP>
Sender: uucp@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu
Reply-To: windley@iris.ucdavis.edu (Phil Windley)
Organization: U.C. Davis - College of Engineering
Lines: 30

In article <2804@killer.UUCP> elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green) writes:
>in article <1759@rayssd.RAY.COM>, hxe@rayssd.RAY.COM (Heather Emanuel) says:
>> will follow.  However, it is THE INSTRUCTOR'S RESPONSIBILITY to
>> ensure that the students are learning, not the the students'
>   I don't believe that to be true. I think the instructor's responsibility
>ends at presenting the material clearly, providing feedback, and all those
>other things that make up good teaching. The instructor isn't a babysitter who
>has to ram learning down the throats of the class.

I agree wholeheartedly.  The idea that it is the instructor's
responsibility to ensure learning is reminiscent of high school.
At a university I assume that everyone there is an adult and are there
because they want to be.  I know this is not 100% true;  I have
taught courses that were mostly freshmen and dealt with the problems
that many freshmen have (I had them too).  The point is, by putting
the responsibility on their shoulders, a different kind of learning
takes place; students learn how to learn, something most of them
didn't learn in high school.  I think the most important thing I got
out of my freshman year was figuring out how universities (and the
real world) work with regard to learning.  Some students of course
never leran and others might need special help form campus programs,
but most of them do and their better off because of it.





Phil Windley
Robotics Research Lab
University of California, Davis