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From: kathryn@arcturus.UUCP (Kathryn Fielding)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.math,sci.physics
Subject: Re: Student preparedness
Summary: Going to Class is Helpful??
Message-ID: <3350@arcturus>
Date: 9 Jan 89 17:15:49 GMT
References: <4893@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <6435@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> <558@mccc.UUCP>
Organization: Rockwell International, Anaheim, CA
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In article <558@mccc.UUCP>, pjh@mccc.UUCP (Pete Holsberg) writes:
> Never understood why a student wouldn't come to class.  A class meeting
> has as its goal making learning easier.

Well, off the top of my head, I can think of a few reasons why students
might feel that it is not worthwhile going to class:

1) A professor who reads the text verbatim and only works examples in the
   book, even when asked to do others by the students.

2) An instructor who fails to answer questions. If I spend several hours trying
   to solve a problem, and approach the instructor for guidance, I expect
   something a little more enlightening than "It's intuitively obvious" or
   "I'll get back to you" and when asked again, repeats the response.

3) An instructor who's English communication skills are so poor that the
   class (including the TA) is unable to understand him.

These example are all drawn from personal experience, and involve instructors
from three different universities.

Kathryn Fielding				kathryn@arcturus.UUCP
							..!sun!sunkist!arcturus!kathryn
							..!hplabs!felix!arcturus!kathryn

My opinions are exclusively mine!