Prof FELKER Greg
- Michael G. Gale Medal for Distinguished Teaching, 2002
- Awards for Teaching Innovation, 2001
An important teaching question is "how much structure?" Some students equate "studying" with "memorization" and wish to have all course information completely digested, itemized, and pre-sorted. For example, requests for detailed lecture notes are common. Though appropriate in some subjects, in my courses this would create a substitute for the assigned readings. A good course requires a clear informational structure - for the overall course outline as well as for individual lectures and assignments. But providing too much detail without any freedom for student creativity can frustrate the goals of teaching students "how to think" or "learning how to learn" - i.e. having students master the skills of reading and analyzing materials, arranging information in terms of priority or importance, and researching and formulating their own answers to questions, rather than committing to memory answers and other information pre-selected by their teachers.
In adjusting to HKUST's educational culture, I provide more structure than I was previously accustomed. Rather than assuming that students have done and firmly grasped the readings, and then using lectures primarily to develop new themes, I have my lectures follow assigned readings rather closely. At the same time, however, I provide only lecture outlines, and never full lecture notes, so that students must "fill in" the outline with their own reading and note-taking in lecture. A similar balance must be struck in answering student questions, which I encourage as a key form of active learning. I want to reward students who pose questions by providing prompt and useful answers, but some questions should be readily answered through students' own efforts in reading the material and attending lecture. In such cases, I always encourage the student to first present his / her own understanding, and promise that I will then respond with confirmation or clarification. An obvious but important point in all such settings is to provide positive reinforcement for the type of self-teaching skills that one is trying to foster. Many students lack confidence in their abilities to analyze and answer questions autonomously, and a little praise for their efforts can have a large impact on their motivation.
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