Introduction
Today our group met the
instructor of the Data Structure and Algorithms course Dr. Jarkko about 15
minutes before the lecture started. The session started at 10:00 am in
Metropolia university. The professor was very cooperative and well prepared. He
provided us with useful handouts
explaining the course outline in general, the first lecture slides, and this
lecture slides. Also he provided us with a handout of the advanced course of
course he is teaching.
As understood from the
professor and the handouts, the course consists of theory lectures and lab
workshop. The attendance is not a must for the lecture part, but it is for the
lab section. A student has to finish all
the labs and to take a final exam in the period of exam time which is at the
end of the semester.
My personal
reflection
In my opinion the method
of learning of this course is considered to be a mixed of behaviorism and
socialism. In the lecture part of the course the professor has to do all of the
work of teaching, preparing, and explaining to the students. the students as
our group has noticed are sitting in the class listening to the professor and
take some notes if needed. The handouts are available to them through the university
system. We noticed there were no any kind of interaction between the professor
and the students. 
As noticed by our group,
the course was a very typical class and there was nothing new has been
explored. In comparing, the students in this course to our students back home in
somehow they acted mostly the same. Some of the students were not paying any
attention to the lecture. And this is normal since the professor was doing most
of the course.
The lab part of the
course which our group didn't have the chance to attend is more an interactive
class than the lecture part. The students attend the lab and work on the course
labs and try to finish writing the programming codes. The professor doesn't
have to give and kind of lecture or lessons to the students, but he may explain
clarify some issues or programming theories whenever a student asks for his
help.
Again in my opinion the
lab part of the course may be considered more socialism since the students may
work in groups and on their own and the professor acts as if he is one of them
trying to provide help whenever is needed.
Finally, I would to say
that I think until to this point, learning cultures are similar to each other
even though names and places are different. I think the difference is not how to
prepare or teach the course, the difference is how the knowledge is implemented
and link to real life. In general, it was again a nice and helpful experience
being in this course and I had enjoyed this shadowing session.
Getting the course outline and slides in advance can make the difference! I just read in Othman's blog that in the first shadowing session these weren't provided, so you really had difficult to follow the full pedagogic script. This time, although you only saw the lecture part you at least had a chance to understand that there was a more active role for the student in store!
ReplyDeleteTraditionally (before UAS was implemented) we used to have three kinds of teachers in technical colleges. I use here physics as an example:
- theory teachers with masters or Phd depending on the subject (for "pure" physics as a core subject one had to have Phd, but for applied physics integrated to the students vocation a masters degree was enough)
- "exercises teachers" who supervised the sessions where calculations take place, mostly masters degree
- lab teachers who supervised work in labs and also maintained the equipment, engineering degree from a technical collage
When the system of UAS was implemented from the beginning of 1990 on, these traditional boundaries didn't automatically disappear! Many think that even today the separation between theory and practice exists although there are no real grounds for it. A tradition dies slowly!
If you compare the first session and this one, you can see that the first one has attempted to dissolve the separation: the students work on their projects and the teacher gives short lecture showers, whereas in this programming class theory and application are in separate blocks.
How is it organized in your school? Do you have separate theory classes and practical application classes? Or do you blend them together? Which one do you personally prefer and why?
- Irmeli
Back home we have separate theory classes and practical application, but both classes are related. In other word if a student takes web programming, he has to take its practical class too, so he can't take a lab class for java programming for example. In the college where I teach I have to teach both theory and practical classes, but in some universities it is as you mentioned. The theory class is taught by a PhD professor while the practical class is given by a master degree professor. Personally I prefer the second one where two professors have to cooperative to give the classes.
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