<p>I've heard GA Tech instructors are busy with their own research. Did you find this to be the case? Was there a lot of self-learning? Use of TAs? Study groups? Are you/were you happy with the courses?</p>
<p>DS is a freshman so he’s only had the normal freshman classes Calc II & III, Physics,Chem,CS for engineers and some gen ed classes. Some Profs are better than others. He hasn’t said anything about them not being available just a couple aren’t the best at explaining the material. Lots of study groups. I think he has only had TA’s for recitation. It might help if you said what major you are interested in since that might make a difference.</p>
<p>@AnyParent: I hate to be blunt, but often self-learning (though it should not be 100%) is good for students (via study groups and other sources). We benefit less from being constantly spoonfed material in a “super duper” organized fashion. My best instructors were great at explaining things, but because they were very difficult (gave assessments that tested on creativity, analysis, and application), we were still required to do a lot of learning and thinking about material at higher levels on our own time (one instructor would actually provide lots of supplementary material on his course website that covered special topics in detail that we were indeed expected to learn, that would not be covered in lecture explicitly). Whether this involved, being aggressive about problem sets, reading primary literature or youtube videos, whatever…full engagement with the material outside of class was necessary. It wasn’t enough to merely get what was said in class (and often the best instructors used Socratic method, discussion, or other styles where you could not just simply copy what was coming out of their mouth. You had to consider the answers of other students along with the feedback the instructor gave. Some students would call this “bad” and disorganized because they don’t know what to copy down, but I think it was good because you had to really pay attention or participate yourself to maximize benefit). </p>
<p>I feel like the only courses that have less self-teaching are the ones that are memorization/plug and chug based (which is what newcomers from highschool like, because often we excelled in courses like that. You pretty much accept what the instructor presented as it was, do not think about it too much more, and then do well on the exams). In this case, transfer and integration of material is almost one-directional and primarily depends on the delivery of material to the students (so that they know for sure what to spit back out on the exam. Learning is hardly a process because little problem solving or critical thinking is involved). When in a challenging problem based/critical thinking oriented course (as many Tech students or any student doing STEM at a selective college will end up in), I think having an instructor that can convey concepts/material adequately while also promoting independence of student thought/learning process is good for students. In such cases, merely being the perfect lecturer (again, there are other ways to teach, even science) doesn’t really help that much because what they lecture about will either not be on exam or be presented on the exam in a completely different way. No amount of going over perfectly delivered lecture notes and memorizing them (or the problems solved in class) will save you. Struggling through the material at first may actually be more beneficial in this scenario because you are more likely to critique or question it. Also, I find that some students complain about science instructors (especially freshman taking a rigorous instructor) because they don’t completely “get it” while in lecture. Again, some material/content is difficult and you aren’t always supposed to understand it on the spot (no matter how well it’s explained or how smart you think you are, you may not get it initially. You have to review and think about it). Sometimes the complaints are derived from our often tremendous egos and the belief that we are the most intelligent person ever such that it is always the teacher’s fault if we don’t get it. </p>
<p>Some are good and some aren’t. With this being said they’ve gotten rid of most of the really terrible ones over the last few years.</p>