Re: 18weekvs16weeksemester

[John Cooper <jcooper@BUCKNELL.EDU>]

At 07:32 PM 12/14/2000 -0800, Leon Leonardo wrote:

> We at El Camino College may be forced (?) to change
> from an 18 week semester to a 16 week semester against
> the wishes of most the science and math faculty, as
> far as I can tell. Our new calendar will keep total
> class time the same as it was under the 18 week
> semester. I've been teaching at ECC in the physics
> department for about 20 years and am quite happy with
> the 18 week schedule and have no desire to change. I'd
> appreciate any feedback/advice from others who have
> gone through such a change.

    We've done two such shifts in the last 33 years, shifts
driven principally by marketing and administrative convenience
considerations, not pedagogic efficacy.
   With all the formal and anecdotal evidence about students'
attention spans' shortening, I should think that educational
administrators would wish to find ways to improve students'
learning, not stuff it into tighter, more continuous, compressed
boxes.
   But then maybe schooling is just a business these days,
with marketing strategies replacing quality assurance and
production standards.   Certainly seems that way from this
perspective.


John N. Cooper
Chemistry Department
Bucknell University
Lewisburg PA 17837
jcooper@bucknell.edu
http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/jcooper
VOX 570-577-3673   FAX 570-577-1739