Suggestion 15. Focus your course on the classic issues and concepts

IF YOU WANT TO:

• Emphasize conceptual understanding

• Stress fundamental concepts and issues in your discipline

Focusing your course on the classic issues and concepts in your discipline.

A history professor explains that she has moved away from presenting the most esoteric and up-to-date concerns of professional historians in her undergraduate courses. "The most interesting issues and themes for undergraduates," she explains, "generally turn out to be those which originally excited historians about a particular person, event, or epoch, not the historiographical controversies of present day historians.

"The classic issues are the ones which attracted me to the field," she says, "and I find that they are still the most exciting for students." Following this approach does not mean that you cannot introduce new research findings where they are relevant, of course. Nor does this suggest that ideas which have little or no current validity should be taught. It does mean that, in limiting your coverage, you select the major classic themes and concepts wherever possible.

Limitations on Use of Suggestion

  Discipline:  Subjects for which the classic concepts remain
               relevant
Course Level:  Primarily undergraduate courses
 Course Size:  None
        Mode:  None

Copyright 1983 by the Regents of the University of California

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