On 11/13/2011 8:15 AM, Sean Kelly wrote:
That hasn't been my experience, even at a community college I attended. I
think it's really up to the teacher though, barring a school like Caltech
that actually has policies to encourage better teaching methods. Ironically,
some very well-respected schools seem to be big offenders. Berkeley, for
example, uses scantron tests almost exclusively, from what I understand, and
combined with the drive to achieve, I've heard that cheating there is
rampant. It's not size though. I attended a CSU that had smaller classes and
no standardized testing.
I still have my old exams. I should post them :-)
(I couldn't solve them now. However, that is not to say my education was
useless. While I've forgotten the details of the classes, the main benefit which
has stuck is how to solve seemingly intractable problems, and how to learn how
to solve them. I.e., it's taught me organized thinking methods.)
Another thing I picked up on at Caltech from the professors was the palpable joy
in knowing the material.
