Help Understanding the Purpose of Readings and Lectures

Different professors have different thoughts about teaching and learning, and one professor may even approach different courses differently. This document will help you understand the ways readings and lectures are used in this course.

1 The Purpose of Readings

The readings provide you with a (mostly) error-free presentation of (most of) the topics you must know to succeed in the course.

Everyone in the course must be able to learn from readings for two reasons. First, because of time constraints, some of the material you will be required to know will be presented only in readings. Second, learning from readings is an essential part of being a lifelong learner (since you will not always have the luxury of attending lectures).

2 The Purpose of Lectures

Lectures focus (typically) on the topics that students find most difficult to learn on their own in the hope that hearing about these topics after reading about them will promote greater understanding. In addition, lectures provide students with the opportunity to ask questions about those (and other) topics.

To these ends, readings are most valuable if you complete them before they are discussed in lecture.