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There are many courses in humanities (social sciences) that need to be revamped. What these professors do all the time is this: assign some publications and wri
by raincom 8y ago
There are many courses in humanities (social sciences) that need to be revamped. What these professors do all the time is this: assign some publications and write a paper on it. That is not the right way to go about teaching.
- 52-6F-62 8y agoThe best literature or topical courses I had were seminars. Each class was about an hour of lecture followed by an hour of discourse and prompted discussion. Assignments were reading and often papers, but with an open format. The essays would be coupled with a brief presentation that may or may not prompt discussions. This was in first and second year undergrad as well (U of Toronto).
- exogeny 8y agoI disagree, mostly on the basis of how many people I know write like shit, and analyze/synthesize arguments like toddlers. To put it another way, it’s not about the publication. Or even the material. It’s about improving and setting standards for how you communicate and interpret the world.
- raincom 8y agoIn that case, these students should be sent to different classes like Writing 101 or Analyze Arguments 101, or Evaluate hypotheses 101.
- munchbunny 8y agoMany of those classes do exactly those things. The scholarly criticism exercise uses the subject matter to create "play" exercises to teach students to organize thoughts, construct and analyze arguments, etc. College math classes often do the same thing. For most people, the math is just a medium for the intellectual "play" that teaches critical thinking skills. You probably won't need literary criticism in your day to day life, but then again you probably don't need much of the math either.