<p>Hey, I was wondering how discussion-oriented classes at McGill generally are. Of course, this doesn't apply to math or science classes where everything's to learn and nothing's to discuss. I'm talking about humanities and english classes. If anybody has some insight, thanks.</p>
<p>thats an awful generalization of matha nd science classes.
i mean, every week, my biology class has a conference on biology and ethics, each student has to present a topic once during teh semester.
so don't be so quick to judge. </p>
<p>but to answer your question (although you were quite rude about asking it), it depends on what year youa re in. your first year, most arts classes have a conference, and since the lectures are so big, the conference (led by a TA) is where you discuess things. after that, your class size will proabbly drop, and there will eb a little more discussion. it also depends on the classes you take, what prof you have, etc</p>
<p>Well, I'm sorry if you were offended but I didn't mean to be rude. I don't really think it's better to have discussion over no discussion anyway. Some topics are more subjective and thus can be discussed by students while some are more objective and technical and are mostly learned instead of discussed unless you're really an expert on the subject. One is not better than the other, they're just different. I've taken math, chemistry, and physics last semester and like you said, there was one big lecture, then the lecture was broken up into discussion sections headed by a graduate student (TA) where we discussed things. But the TA mostly taught instead of heading a discussion. We asked questions but a discussion where everyone could play an equal part like what would occur if we were discussing literature, for example, did not occur because the material is either right or wrong and usually the graduate student knows better. From your post I learned that science has aspects which are more subjective like ethics which are discussed among students. By the way, I actually hate discussions because I'm really shy in person, which is why I posted this question.</p>