Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!udel!princeton!mccc!pjh
From: pjh@mccc.UUCP (Peter J. Holsberg)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: What is CS? (Was re First languages)
Message-ID: <500@mccc.UUCP>
Date: 24 Mar 88 15:31:00 GMT
References: <4022@ames.arpa> <2400002@otter.HP.COM> <932@its63b.ed.ac.uk> <1000@mcgill-vision.UUCP> <4807@ecsvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: pjh@mccc.UUCP (Peter J. Holsberg)
Organization: The College on the Other Side of US Route 1
Lines: 24

In article <4807@ecsvax.UUCP> hes@ecsvax.UUCP (Henry Schaffer) writes:
|(Unfortunately,
|the lab parts of science courses have been abbreviated or dropped over the
|past decade.  I believe that this is a *bad* thing, and that it has been done
|mostly to save money in teaching - and that many faculty have acquiesced
|because they have thought that concepts can be taught in isolation.

In defense of the faculty: in many institutions, the question of how
many hours of lab "go" with a theory course is no longer in the hands of
the course designer/instructor.  The courts have defended this as
"managerial perrogative"!  At my place, there is tremendous pressure to
make labs 2 hours instead of 3, and to use technicians and student aides
in the lab room rather than a faculty member.  The reason is, of course,
$$$$.  Another restriction for many institutions is imposed by the
bodies that accredit curricula.  They usually have "guidelines" for the
maximum number of credits and the maximum number of mandatory
hours/work.  Clearly, "good" students will spend as much time as needed
to learn, provided that the facilities are available, but ....

-- 
Peter Holsberg                  UUCP: {rutgers!}princeton!mccc!pjh
Technology Division             CompuServe: 70240,334
Mercer College                  GEnie: PJHOLSBERG
Trenton, NJ 08690               Voice: 1-609-586-4800