Education in today's society is the main basis for starting a career. Here at Augustana, students are geared towards a liberal arts education. Students are encouraged to study a broad range of subjects in order to become a well rounded student. In order for students to receive a proper education, they need instructors and a curriculum. As demands for specialized jobs are increasing so are specialized majors and educational courses. Since this new material is becoming available teachers and professors created new ways of introducing the material. Mark Edmundson, a professor at the University of Virginia believes that teaching styles have changed over time. The changes in class room teaching techniques are de-centered classrooms, more group work, and computer generated atmosphere.
[...] Edmundson explains where this idea comes from in his article the Uses of a Liberal Education: As Lite Entertainment for Bored College Students”, he states “It's my generated of parents who sheltered these student's, kept them away from the hard knocks of everyday life, making them cautious and over fragile, who demanded that their teachers, from grade school on, flatter them endlessly so that the kids are shocked if his/her college professors don't reflexively suck up to them” (42-43). Since children are accustomed to being guided by parents, teachers and professors have changed his/her styles too. [...]
[...] Miller uses a common program, power-point, as his method of explaining the new material. After explaining the material, Dr. Miller puts the ideas and concepts into action. Dr. Miller runs through problems as a class. He does not bring his calculator to class but looks for students to give him the answer. This method proves that students are grasping ideas and can perform the equations on his/her own, while also increasing class participation. If a student is not getting the correct answer, another student may be able to help out, while in turn answering questions for students who are too shy to ask. [...]
[...] A large majority of the work we do in LSFY is in small groups or as a class. In recent classes we created a mock election. Our class was broken up in to groups of three's. Each group was to choose a person to run for President, Vice President, and Secretary. Each student was given a type of argument method to use and a fallacy to put inside his/her argument. The purpose of this exercise was to help students better understand pathos, ethos, and different types of reasoning by recognizing how they are used. [...]
[...] This type of encouraging teaching also boosts the student's confidence in speaking up and participating in class. Another way to encourage class participation is how the class room is laid out. Class rooms are often altered to make each student few equal so that students gain the sense that they he/she has equal opportunity to speak up. A prime example of this is in my LSFY class. We rearrange the class room to form a circle. This follows the idea that everyone is created equal. [...]
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