One of the main goals of CH112 is to teach you to become an independent learner who can learn new things continuously throughout the rest of your life. This is a big deal. As you move through your degree and eventually into your career and your adult post-college life, your main value to the rest of the world and to the people you love is your ability to learn and grow without needing other people around to make it happen. There are many times in life where you MUST learn something, and you can’t wait for the next semester at the local college to come around for you to sign up for a course. You have to take charge. You have to learn on your own.
It is likely that many of your classes have worked the same: the professor lectures, you take notes, you replicate the notes on tests, and you get a grade. But we’re all smart enough to realize that the problems that matter in the real world don’t work like that. The problems that matter most to the world defy the lecture/example/homework/test/grade cycle. They require creative thinking, lots of failures and mistakes, careful analysis, and ultimately people who have the ability to adapt and learn on their own without depending on a professor to lecture to them first. So now that we’re here, we need to be realistic about the future and start preparing for a life of learning that matches up to the problems we’ll need to solve.
CH112 is not set up along the traditional classroom model of lectures and examples in class, followed by homework outside of class. Instead, you will be expected to acquire basic familiarity with new concepts before coming to class through a variety of means. This will effectively remove lectures (which don’t work very well to begin with, despite what we may feel about them) from the classroom, freeing up massive amounts of time for us to deal with things that matter: answering questions, working on hard problems with each other, and hammering out an understanding of the material that cannot be conveyed by some person talking to you.
By adopting this approach, you’ll become less dependent on other people for your learning, and rediscover your ability to learn things on your own. (You have always had this ability, but it’s easy to forget about.) And you’ll be prepared to be a continuous learner, able to contribute something useful to the world.
In CH112, here’s how this will go.
- Every class will begin with a short quiz that gives you credit for coming to class prepared. This preparation will come from the textbook, handouts, ALEKS, etc. This preparation does not mean you have mastered the material, rather it means that you are familiar with the broad concepts, have tried to work problems to test your understanding, and you are ready to ask questions and discuss the topic. I will always try to make clear what you should prepare, and if you are confused, please ask right away.
- During our class time I don’t plan to stand in front and talk at you (though from time to time I probably will). I will prepare short lessons with problems for you to work on as groups. In your groups, you will help each other overcome difficulties in the material. This will allow me to see exactly what we as a class must focus on to be successful.
- Outside of class you will work with your online tutor, work problems in the textbook, study with other students. This will depend a lot on what works for you. Just remember to always be willing to try new ways of learning
- Discussion times will be run by your Supplemental Instructor (Taylor Keeney). He and I will be working on problems and handouts for you to work during this time that challenge you and get you ready for the exams. This time is meant for you to work with someone who can help in the room. The handouts are meant to challenge you and your group, so never be afraid to ask a question.
- Office hours will likely be the most powerful learning time you spend. This is because by the time you come to an office hour you have read, worked, and studied enough to have some idea what you are struggling with. Once you have identified that, the staff is very effective at helping you.
You’ll notice that the real work happens both inside and outside, the classroom. My hope is that this setup does two things. First, like I said above, I hope it helps you to become a more independent learner. Second, I hope that it helps make the workload of the course a little more bearable. CH112 is a traditionally hard course for a lot of people, primarily because of the workload. Hopefully the combination of in class and outside of class work will help work through the course material more smoothly.
This is a different setup than you are used to, and it will take a few class meetings to acclimate to the change. But I think you’ll find that the effort will be worth it. And remember you can always voice your questions to me about what we are doing — I will listen.
——————————
This page is adapted from “How the inverted classroom works: A manifesto for students“