March-April 2010

by Marc Chun

Imagine a typical student taking an average set of courses. She has to complete a laboratory write-up for chemistry, write a research paper for linguistics, finish a problem set for mathematics, cram for a pop quiz in religious studies, and write an essay for her composition class. Her professors almost exclusively lecture (which, it's been said, is a way for information to travel from an instructor's lecture notes to the student's notebook without engaging the brains of either). And somehow she is supposed to not only learn the course content but also develop the critical thinking skills her college touts as central to its mission.

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