<p>What I hate about high school is having to sit in class, praying the teacher won't call on me and ask me to explain my feelings or answers on a question, or picking me to read. I understand that this kind of stuff is a part of life, (and if it freaks me out that much I should get it checked for an anxiety disorder or something) but I was wondering if the professors at the universities tend to do this, or if they just lecture on and on and let you just sit there and listen.</p>
<p>depends on how many people are in the class. My chem class of 200 is just lecture, my two classes with under 20 people are mostly discussion, although the teacher doesnt usually pick on people.</p>
<p>In large lecture halls, its always the professor that speaks, though at the end, you can talk if you have a few questions to ask him. Otherwise, he won't call on anybody. </p>
<p>In my english class however, my teacher requires everybody to participate at least once in the discussion, this is a small class, like a high school class.</p>
<p>i have about 20/30 people in 2 of my classes, and less than that in the other 2. classroom discussions in one of my less than 20/30 (its about 15 or so) we HAVE to talk. its part of our grade. (the other one is a photography class, so little to no lecture in there) in my sociology class (about 30 people) the teacher likes you more if you talk but he never picks on us. in my psych class (also about 30 people) our teacher never gives us the chance to talk, but then again, at 830 in the morning nobody is really that sociable :-P</p>
<p>two of my classes have less than 17 people, and those are almost completely discussion based. the other two have less than 40, and while you do not HAVE to talk, its highly encouraged, and it helps your teachers both get to know you, and know that you are active and care about the subject matter.</p>
<p>It depends; I have a 200-student sociology lecture that has a lot of discussion - sometimes too much, "I know that for me, like this one time when..." people take over... and then I have a 20-student philosophy class that is mostly the professor reading us his PowerPoint slides.</p>
<p>My classes: </p>
<p>thermo: 15 students, 2 days of 1 hour lecture, 1 day of 2 hour problem solving</p>
<p>matsci: 11 students, 2 days of 1 hour lecture followed by 2 hours of project time </p>
<p>immunology: 9 students, completely discussion-based</p>
<p>genetics: 10 students, completely discussion-based</p>
<p>In all of these classes participation is expected and 'just sitting there and listening' is not enough.</p>
<p>As others have said it's going to depend on the class. If you're in a seminar of 15 people however and you sit there and never talk, your grade will suffer.</p>