Frustration - Turned - Idea

[calbiterol]

Over the past... however many weeks it has been since school started, I have grown increasingly frustrated by my government class. It is an AP course (AP U.S. and Comparative Government, for those of you residing outside of the States) and should be university-level education. However, the class reminds me more of grade school than uni.

 

We constantly do nothing in the class. We continually do projects that teach us nothing and allow us to fake doing work. In the past... two months I don't believe I have learned a single thing in that class. In fact, the teacher has made progress in dumbing us down - she encourages 5-paragraph essay format, which is heralded by our English department (and rightly so) as a trite and juvenile format. It works well for things like book reviews, which really should not be done past the middle-school level. The entire class, with one or two exceptions, agrees that we are perpetually doing nothing.

 

And the worst thing? The attitude of the teacher. She flat out told us that "there isn't any way she'd be able to prepare us for the AP test" and essentially that she isn't even going to try to actually educate us.

 

AHEM!! I'M ALL FOR SELF-TEACHING, BUT PREPARING US FOR THE AP TEST IS YOUR JOB!!

 

 

***

 

So, past the moaning and groaning. I am very seriously considering dropping the course at semester (at least 1 sem of government is required to graduate) and teaching myself the remainder of the course, and still taking the AP test.

 

But while I was considering this, an idea hit me that I would like to try and pass by the social studies department as well as the administration.

 

Why not a student-conducted class? The best way to learn something is to teach it, is it not? So what about a small (5-7 people would probably be ideal) class with NO teacher and only students, responsible, diligent students, teaching themselves the material? They would still follow a curriculum, and would still be evaluated (by tests, probably the ones the teacher is already giving). However, instead of the typical hierarchical format, the students would be self-motivated. The "class" would meet two or three times a week, and in the middle each student would do research/work/etc. When the group would convene, they wouldn't just share what they'd found. Each person would have a specific task during the off-days. For example, if the "class" were researching political parties, one person might have to explain the platform of the Constitution Party (bleh!!!), and another the platform of the Green Party, etc etc. When the group met, each student would teach the rest the information. The rest of the group would note-ify the information, or commit it to memory however each student saw fit.

 

The other possibility that comes to mind is that of student-proposed projects. Keeping with the political party example, someone might come across some information on the World Socialist Party of the United States. That student could propose to the group that they do a sidebar on it. One person might focus on its history, another two or three on its platform, etc. This particular example does not meld very well, mostly because it is a tangent from the subject of US Government, but that is aside the point.

 

 

So before I open this up to comments and suggestions, I must apologize if that is incoherent. It has been a long, cold, long day and I'm not thinking totally straight. Thanks much.

[-Demosthenes-]

I think it's an amazing idea, but it might be hard to get the school to go for it. Maybe you could talk it over with the government teacher first, and get his/her support, or maybe just do it inside the class.

[insane_alien]

that happenes in uni as well. last year i turned up to maths a grand total of 3 time in the second semester. the lecturer lapsed into russian and didn't provide notes. so we just studied the course ourselves 86% in the exam. compared to the 52% average of people who only went to his class. Doing it on your own is a very very good way of working as long as you don't muck about too much.

[Neil9327]

Students teaching the class. isn't that like lunatics running the asylum?

 

Seriously though I think that is a good idea, as long as you can persuade the teachers that you can maintain discipline and a steady work-rate in the class.

[ecoli]

Too bad.. my AP US teacher was simply incredible. I'd say about 50% of the class got 5s on the test because of him (that's a high percentage). One of my favorite teachers. He helped up prepare for the AP, not by writing dozens of essays, but but learning concepts and teaching us how to write a thesis.

 

By and large, we did have to learn a lot on our own to fill in the gaps. There simply isn't enough time to go over every historical detail in class, unfortunately. However, in his class, most people managed to do it.

 

In fact, this teacher was so good, they promoted him right out of the class room. He's an administrator now and the new AP US history teacher (from what I've heard) is terrible. But, that's the education system for you.

[Bignose]

I think in a decently run university level class the students should be responsible for learning on their own a fair % of the time anyway. The prof only gets 40 some-odd hours of lecutre a semester. Take away exam periods, and you might be looking at 40-35 total hours. You cannot cover all the material that you want or need to cover in just lecture. The students have to be able to do some work on their own. The one teaching methods class I took some time ago suggested that about 25% of self-taught information was a good mix. That is, 25% of the material is assigned in the required reading, and students could ask questions about the reading, but the professor would not set aside a day or 3 to "lecture" on the material. It was up to the student to teach themselves. And, you make sure the students are self-teaching themselves with homework and exam questions.

[calbiterol]

Like I said before, I'm all for self-teaching - in fact, I prefer it - but her job is to prepare us for the tests, which she is decidedly not doing. We do (almost literally) nothing in class. The "lectures" are all jokes, and a typical day has us either talking about something that has absolutely nothing to do with government all day, or arguing over gay rights or abortion or something like that in a "structured" debate.

 

The teacher is also extremely condescending, and very, very favoritist. There are things I get away with in that class that I really shouldn't (late assignments, late to class, etc etc) simply because of the fact that I'm me (being a NMS semifinalist probably has something to do with it. Come February I'll find out more in that regard...). The majority of the class hates it, mainly because we do absolutely nothing. It's pretty ridiculous.

 

The idea is to self-teach - but to help learn the material by teaching others along the way. That's the core of the idea, at least.

 

Cheers.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I'd say go for it. If the school won't sponsor it, say you'd like to form a "US Government study group" and do it there.

[Mokele]

In grad school, we actually have this sort of thing all the time, in the form of discussion groups. There's a mix of profs and students, but everyone's on equal footing, and everyone takes turn presenting papers on their expertise, and everyone learns from them.

 

Mokele