<p>My son had a very positive experience at Owl Days last week. There was only one thing that concerned him. He sat in on four different classes and they ranged from very good to excellent. But there wasn't much classroom discussion. </p>
<p>Could any Rice students or parents tell us your opinions and observations about this topic? </p>
<p>I think this is the only thing that's keeping him from making the commitment to Rice.</p>
<p>I am an Anthropology and Political Science major, so I am social sciences all the way. In the political science classes I am taking (Comparative Politics & International Relations) the lectures don’t have that much class discussion, but there is a mandatory discussion section that meets once a week along with the lectures. During those discussion groups is when students really are engaged in talking about the week’s topics. The discussion groups are around 10 students so everyone gets a chance to really be engaged and discuss what we have learned in the class lectures or any other concerns or thoughts we may have. </p>
<p>In my Anthropology seminar, there is around 8 people and we sit around a conference table and every class involves very in depth discussions with the professor leading and urging us to delve deeper into the week’s topic. This is the type of class I love and I feel many social science classes that aren’t introductory classes are like this. </p>
<p>I am also taking a Criminology class (Sociology) and the Professor encourages us to get involved in every class. Even though there are around 50 people in the class, he encourages class discussion and in every class, we get to be an active participant instead of just a passive sponge absorbing the information.</p>
<p>If lack of class discussion is the only thing keeping your son from committing to Rice, I want to assuage your concerns and say that in most social science and humanities courses at Rice, that is definitely something that is not lacking.</p>
<p>OP, it’s likely that your son was only able to sit in on the larger introductory courses that usually are not catered toward having class discussions, even though as boots points out, many of them still try. </p>
<p>However, the upper division social science and humanity courses are some of the smallest and most intellectually engaging classes you will see across the country. I currently have an anthropology seminar with 4 other students and a sociology seminar with 10, and all we ever do in class is have discussions. </p>
<p>The classes are here, all one has to do is ask around and find them.</p>
<p>Which four classes did he sit in on, and how many people were in each of those classes? That may help us contextualize the lack of discussion.</p>
<p>I have had tremendous experience with classroom discussion in my career at Rice. I’m actually kind of amused with this high school senior fascination with discussion — some subjects are better-suited to lectures, and often I’d rather learn from an expert in the field than from my peers. That said, discussion — and good discussion at that — exists where it should. It’s just that in college you have the chance to learn from experts in their fields, and those experts should not be reduced to mere discussion leaders.</p>
<p>
I’m in between meetings right now so I’ll just respond briefly; I’ll get back again this evening. As best I can recall, the four classes were:</p>
<p>A visiting Israeli Art History prof discussing Pre-Raphalites, or the lack thereof, in the US
A Spanish intermediate level course
A psychology course taught by an Asian American woman, who he thought was fantastic
A political science class where pirates were discussed, or rather, taught about</p>
<p>To be clear he thought all the teachers were good to excellent, and I’m guessing that there was discussion in the Spanish class, but that was a given</p>
<p>I’ll speak with him and have more to say tonight.</p>
<p>I am a prospective student for Rice next year and I also attended Owl Days as well. One of the classes I sat in on was a Native American Literature course. It was upper level and only had 6 students! It was amazing - the whole class was one long, on-going discussion between the professor and the students sitting around a small conference table. It was also somewhat amusing that there were about twice as many prospective students as there were actual students; we were like their “audience”! Needless to say, the class was excellent and the professor constantly engaged the students in discussion. There was never a dry moment.</p>
<p>
First I want to say how much I like the above quote from NYSkins1’s post. It’s easy to forget that there is a place for a great lecturer, in fact lots of places in any college. From my own experience I rarely learned much from classroom discussion; it was almost all from books and teachers. And my education worked out fine. I was thinking of posting a link to a great lecture or speech with a comment like “Would it help if he stopped to raise a question to the audience?” but there’s no need to overkill the point.</p>
<p>Also, just to follow through on my previous post I did speak to my son and he didn’t have much to add about what courses he took. I think he said the art history and Spanish class had less than ten and the other two had more than twenty.</p>
<p>I also got two excellent PMs in response to this OP and taking it all together, I’d like to say a strong “Thank you” to all who responded. The clear consensus is that there is plenty of discussion opportunity if one wants it, probably as much as at any LAC. And that’s very helpful for my son to hear at this point.</p>
<p>As I said in the OP this is the last stumbling block, so I expect that he will commit to Rice after sleeping on this for a few days.</p>