Classroom culture

Year after year Duke boasts its standing as a top ten university. One of the key factors that goes into that ranking is academic reputation, and there is no questioning whether Duke has a good one. If academic success is an indicator of real life success, then Duke students represent our future leaders. I don’t doubt that when I see students studying for exams or even playing Frisbee on the quad. There is one specific instance that makes me unsure though, and that’s when you read off the slides.

I see it time and time again. Someone has to give a presentation and reads line for line off the slides. Some are better than others. They have practiced reading the slides or have the skill of Duke University Improv and can make the words they’re reading sound like their natural speech. The less creative ones read textbook definitions and then go on to further explain them. The end result is the same—the audience is bored and I am left wondering how this is really preparing us for the real world.

There’s also the lull that often appears during discussions. Everyone knows the long silence that appears in a seminar when a professor asks a question. “How do you think this relates to this character’s journey?” the professor will ask. Then we all wait and wait until the silence gets too uncomfortable and the professor or some brave (and/or obnoxious) soul speaks up. Usually I am the latter. Again I am left questioning how a room of qualified individuals fails to have any opinions about anything. Or at least there don’t seem to be any individuals inclined to speak up about their opinions.

There have been plenty of articles written about Ivy League and high profile schools and how they create robots out of people who just end up being burnt out with no creative bone in their body. I always roll my eyes and go, well they don’t go here, but then I sit in class and I think maybe those articles aren’t so wrong. However, I look around and still see such passionate people. So why is it that when it comes to actually taking classes, that passion seems to fade?

Classes, or rather getting good grades in those classes, is something most students have always excelled at. Everyone has different motivations for doing well in their classes, but it seems to me that when classes are “have to take”’s or easy classes instead of “want to”’s, then people decide that the minimum is enough. “Well, I’ll get an A” or “This class doesn’t even matter” are often excuses heard about these types of classes. Academic success on this campus is defined as a good GPA and a hard major, but when grades are calculated by requirements and minimums, how successful is that really?

This semester I am in a biology class and, besides tenth grade, it will be the only biology class I will ever take—I think. The class isn’t too difficult—weekly quizzes on the reading and one presentation and, although I don’t plan to go any farther in the subject, I am learning a lot about how life evolved. When I realized the quizzes were more difficult than I expected, I was frustrated at first. This was supposed to be my easy class! Our professor admitted the quizzes were challenging, but said he did so because he really wanted to make sure we understood the information. I had to stop when he said that, because really what was so bad about being expected to actually understand what I was learning? Didn’t I come to Duke so I could learn?

Learning is something every student should value and I think many of the students here do. Learning takes a backseat though when it comes to grades or even managing time. It’s difficult to be engaged in classes when you don’t have to or when you’re putting time into something else you really care about. However, I think as a community we should challenge ourselves to find learning opportunities in all that we do—including our classes.

This won’t simply happen by the efforts of students. Professors and faculty should work to prioritize learning in their classrooms too. This means asking meaningful questions during discussion and rewarding students for thoughtful answers. Classrooms should be safe places and that means encouraging everyone to feel comfortable to speak in class, even if they’re wrong. Presentations that are safe and follow bullet point requirements to a T can’t be the norm for this university if we really want to consider ourselves an academically rigorous community.