Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

atuttle's picture

Breadth vs. Depth

I definitely agree with Stephanie on the points that this class broadened by view of the behavioral sciences, as well as forcing me to re-examine much of the research that I had taken for granted during the past several years of studying both Psychology and Biology. While I was aware of some of the current controversy involving mental medications, drug policy here in the US, and animal research, the student topics helped to increase my knowledge about the various arguments being made by different social groups.

That being said, I was somewhat disappointed by the lack of structure in both class organization and work expectations. I feel that a course of this nature is a wonderful addition to a liberal arts education, but in terms of serving as a 300-level, culminating course I was expecting something which could cater more to my specific intellectual interests and areas of study. I feel that much of the diversity among topics came from the large and varied student body which comprised the class this past semester. This is good for broadening my understanding about different topics, but I was hoping for something that would be a bit more in-depth. Future courses may benefit from smaller group architecture (i.e., classes within a class) to present different topics each week so that students may explore their areas in greater detail while still working alongside students with different interests.

I will be happy to talk about this more tonight.

~Alex Tuttle

Haverford '08

Reply

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
9 + 1 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.