My first week of classes has just ended. It's been a difficult week, considering that for the past week and a half all I've had to do was meet people and have a good time. However, I am slowly getting into my classes, and there are some real differences between the way Aussie uni students are taught and how we're taught back in the States. Right now, I'm not too excited about these differences, but I am sure that after a year I will at least get more used to them, if not grow fond of them.
The biggest shock I've gotten so far is how hands-off the teaching style is here. Most students don't go to their classes, and to be honest, there's not much of a reason to: my classes are all recorded and uploaded on the internet within minutes of class ending. My environmental studies class held 200 people on its first day; by the second class, the number of students who showed up to the lecture was cut in half. Since the professors are mostly teaching for students who aren't in attendence, lectures tend to get a bit dry. Students don't ask questions, nor are they asked questions by the professors. I don't think I have ever had a class at A&M where the professor didn't talk to their students at least somewhat often; yet, a few days ago I had a professor who joked about (Heaven forbid) making his classroom "interactive." Oh, the horror of the thought.
If that's not dry enough, most of the classes I am taking have no textbooks. The only text I've had to buy is an English anthology (whoo hoo Norton). The other classes have references, but they're more of a "look at this if you're really bored" sort of reference. It feels weird to have just one point of reference-a lecture- for material that you'll be tested on extensively. I know that there is no way I will be able to feel confident for a final weighted 70% of my grade if I have to go off of what the professor rushingly says/scribbles on the board.
But anyhow, besides those two differences, I am struck by how specific a uni education is here in Australia. There are absolutely no core curriculum requirements. None. When you begin school as an english major or a business major, you start off by taking 100% english courses or business courses. You never take anything else- taking other subjects is almost seen as decreasing the value of your education. In the words of a female maths major I spoke to today, "I'm so glad I didn't study overseas. That's not uni, that's school." I could taste her distain. As a student who has taken (and loved!) my anthropology, chemistry, art, and music classes, I was a bit offended.
I assume it's good for people who want to go into academia or who want to devote an extra six years of their lives into a doctoral thesis, but what happens to everyone else? If I've learned anything about the job market (from what people have told me, mostly), it's that flexibility in learning and connecting ideas from different areas is extremely important to getting things done. I don't know if 3 years of solely working reaction mechanisms or analysing poetry can breed those skills.
Personally, I really appreciate taking classes that fall outside my field of study. I hope I never live in a world that revolves around just mathematics, chemistry, sociology, or art history. If that happens, maybe I will study that one subject alone. Until then, though, I want to make sure that I learn about as many different aspects of the world as I can. I'm going to be here for a while, and so ignoring so many parts of the life I will be experiencing is negligence, plain and simple.
Of course, this rant might just be my reaction to a second wave of culture shock. Just because I am here in Australia does not mean I have to learn by the Australian method. I might just have to put my own spin on things while I'm at school here- if I don't, I think going to school here will become way too tedious for me.
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