College Course and the Outcomes That Result

¶ … college course and the outcomes that result for students in these courses. In addition, describe a situation in which you found yourself falling into this style of learning.

The typical design of most college courses is a top-down, or hierarchical style of learning. The teacher imparts knowledge to the student via lectures, assignments, and exams. The student is responsible for studying the material and is viewed as the passive recipient of knowledge. Knowledge acquisition takes place by fulfilling assignments, which demand memorization; research about an assigned or agreed-upon topic; and directed class participation. There is little input by the student in this mode of learning. In almost all of my classes (but particularly my large, lecture-based classes), I have found myself falling into this mode of approaching a subject. When a teacher is more willing to be guided by student ideas and input, students are more enthusiastic and engaged with the material and more willing to 'make it their own.' However, with typical course designs, students tend to merely study for the tests or work on the assigned paper and give little input into the learning 'process' of the class. The result is that they frequently forget what they learned shortly after the class is completed. For an idealistic teacher who would like to have a lasting impact on the students and inspire a love of learning in his or her particular field, this can be frustrating.

Q2. Describe the logic behind a subject that you have studied. Answer questions about the underlying assumptions, problems, and point-of-view of the subject.

The logic behind studying the discipline of history is that it is necessary to learn about the past to function more effectively in the present. It is assumed that the past is interesting and has lessons to teach us. It is also assumed that the past is a different 'country,' with different intellectual assumptions, ways of life, and ways of being in the world. There is also the assumption within the discipline of studying history that the historian should have an objective attitude towards his or her subject. The historian can take a particular perspective (such as feminist, postmodern, or another theoretical lens) but that does not absolve him or her of responsibility to the evidence. History asks that we "pay very close attention to the fine-grained particularities of, and differences among, those times and places" and asks questions such as why did people think, behave, and act as they did long ago ("Why study history," 2014). The discipline does not seek to judge the past in a moral light or necessarily use it to set policies in the present, although there is an assumption that valuable understanding can be gleaned from the study of history.