aterial and then quantitative assessors of the intellectual intake. We are hear to facilitate the learning process the actual teaching is done by the students in the classroom. The discussion that is generated by the concepts presented allows the students to think out loud, so to speak, and thus provide them the opportunity to give and receive feedback on how they are processing the information provided by the teacher. This is where true learning occurs, I believe. That is when the student can be affirmed or confronted about ideas in other words, for true learning to occur the teacher must challenge the students to think by creating an environment that encourages thinking and interaction. Perhaps a measure of a teachers effectiveness is the ratio of how much the teacher talks versus the students.Another thought occurred to me during our first class meetings in which it was mentioned that in our early years we are more concerned with acquisition of skills. Thus college level teachers tend to present the material and evaluate the learning that occurred based on the content that was presented. I did wonder though whether the notion that younger college students are more concerned with acquisition of skills is the result of what they indeed want or is it that most elementary and secondary education is geared towards that type learning. Is it possible that younger college students have been conditioned to accept that type of teaching style? As young children we are constantly asking Why?. We are questioning the process more than the actual content. Do we develop teaching methods at that level to address the need to understand why something works the way it does or are we more concerned with filling the young student with content? After all, how can you evaluate how much learning has taken place and thus validate and quantify our effectiveness as teachers if you cannot measure the content level? Maybe as children we are more ...
