Assumptions: So, let us make some linear assumptions about the students. I will like to assume that the students who come to take the course are really interested in the course material and want to learn and apply it and are very honest about it. There might be some nonlinearities for sure, like the student is supposed to take the course as a requirement, the student is not interested at all and just goofing off. We will account for that later.
Another simple assumption I will like to make without any kind of prejudices is that the teacher really wants to teach and make the student understand the material.
The Problem: So, if the student wants to learn and the teacher wants to teach and both parties in the system are fine. What is the problem ? The problem lies in the mode of communication, the way of teaching. The problem lies with the fact that the what teachers follow in the class a routine I like to call active teaching. I am totally against the active teaching. It is time we rule out the process of active teaching. In most cases the professor forgets that he is not supposed to be an educator, but a facilitator of education. This mode of teaching was ok and worked may be 100 years back, today it might not work. Sure some professors try to improve the learning experience in the class with some aids, but most of them are crude and I dont think it will work. So what are the things the teachers try to do?
1. Use Presentation slides: Though I think it is a good introduce the course, it can never replace the chalk and board system. Reason being, if you are using the classic chalk and board, the amount of information that is being produced in front of the class is more engaging and it is a process that takes some time, giving the brain enough time to inculcate the new information, whereas the time spend between slides is never enough to get the information from the slides to the notebook to the brain. Come on, give some time to learn. Also, while a chalk board system involves the professor in the process, a slide system keeps both the student and the teacher aloof from the process.
2. Take more tests: Really you think, that will help in a graduate course. The people sitting on the benches have passed 100s of tests before to be able to sit on those benches. You cannot scare them with tests and if that is what you are trying to do, it is not really teaching. It is force feeding, either you mugg up everything taught or u fail in the class and really you cannot make some one learn anything with that.
3. Asking Rhetorical Questions: Well I am sure most professors do that and it is always the same response to the question, "Are you following?" A 10 sec silence and few head nods on the first benches and that is probably a "full-proof guarantee" for the professor that the students got it.
4. Prejudices: Now this is a tough one, and to the most part I will like to blame the graduate students. Come on people till now you have taken so many courses and everytime you ask the "senior" students the same questions. 1. How is the professor? 2. How does he grade? 3. Is the course easy or hard? Really it is a big big mistake that they do everytime and yet never learn. And the senior students give their honest opinions and let out all their griefs. They take you for a half an hour crash ride about the whole thing because they also did the same when they were wearing your shoes. They lay it all over you. The course is hard, too many test, professor is grumpy or they say he is nice and really god with grading. So, you start making an opinion about the whole thing and go to class with a prejudice and really that is a bad thing. Its like asking some one hey you watched that thriller movie? How does it end? At what times you laugh and what times you are scared? Come on if it was hard for the senior student, it might not be hard for you. It might be an easy A for him, it might not turn out the same for you. It is a ride that you need to take and enjoy don't make the prejudices come in your way and ruin the process. We all are different, with different individualities and different cognitive ability, with so many differences still we fall for the "honest opinion" of the other student.
The Solution: So, what is the solution to these problems, how can we improve in order to have a better understanding of the course material. How can we restructure the system so that the students do not sleep in the class. This whole process I will like to call passive teaching and it will require a good deal of effort from both sides. Active learning is too easy a process to follow and that is why people do it, and if it is too easy may be it is not right.
Ever wondered, why you hardly read instructions of a new game and start playing it without knowing the rules and in a matter of hours you end up mastering it, but also find the loop holes and the bug in the system, inspite of the initial boredom and fuzziness of not understanding the deal with the game. So, why didnt you fall asleep while playing the game. The reason being you were using the brain's cognitive ability in order to understand the game. Brain is a huge cognitive machine and it has amazing cognitive abilities and when put to proper use, it does amazing things. And, ever wondered why you never forget cycling even after 20 years while you forget the thermodynamic equations right after the semester got over or may be during the semester sometimes too. The reason being, we hard-wired the cycling in our system, developed a plasticity in the brain for cycling rather than the equations where we didnt use the real cognitive ability to learn it and everything just remains in the volatile memory. That is probably the reason, even the students who got an A+ in some course are unable to answer the questions after a semester and that is anything but learning.
Proposal There is always a gap between different students. I cannot stress this more. For some the course material is too easy (so they sleep or loose interest), some find it really hard to follow, so they loose interest. So, why not keep everyone in the class engaged at their level of understanding and make the teacher a facilitator of the learning. Why not let the students knit their own stories about the subject matter and then correct for the mistakes they commit in the process, make use of their ability to form stories, because Science is science, but it is also an art. Why separate the art from science? Because my understanding is if you learn this way it stays with you all the time. So, what I propose is that, instead of teaching, may be it is better idea to create a series of presentation slides for one class and just give the students and let not the professor speak during the class at all. Jus present the series of slides with thought provoking question pictures or results. Like which makes them wonder How it happened, and also such that the series of slides are able to draw a conclusive connection and a train of thoughts that will complete the process of understanding. Because we can learn looking at a pattern, that is how the mankind learnt just by observing and formulating rules. That is how Dr. Feynman puts it, "Nature plays a game of chess, and we look at the moves and try to learn few things about it." So why break this natural way of learning through observation. Why not make the students come up with their own way of putting the pieces all together. Who knows they will be able to see some loop hole which was not seen before. And of course, if there is something wrong (well lets say incorrect, because nothing is wrong, it is just a matter of perspective), the professor is always there to correct it through a series of conclusive debate with the student. Observe and learn that is the way of nature, that is how research is done, and so why to take research out of the class to the labs, why not bring it into the class and learn together. There is no need to separate classrooms and labs.
Well, they are just my thoughts on why we end up sleeping in the class even in hot sweaty summer and cramped up benches...
