| verse: i probably can't provide a fair comparison here, since i haven't exactly been through the UK system (but i'll probably spend a semester abroad in UK next year!). but based on what i hear from my friends and from my own very subjective impression, UK universities seem to mirror our JC lecture system a lot more than the US LACs; that is, huge lectures, don't have to participate in class lectures, probably can skip the lectures altogether. more often than not, learning seems to take place independently outside of classroom (i.e. "i can't be bothered with lectures, just read the damn textbook" mentality) than through classroom teaching and discussion. of course, one may choose to do the same thing at an LAC, but the fact that you are one of the few noticeable 20 people in the class compared to being lost in the hundreds of people in a huge lecture hall meant you are less inclined to just let your mind wander off, i think. of coz, i'm not saying that one way of learning is better than the other. some people just study better by themselves.
and i'm not exactly saying the brits are less outspoken than the americans, it's just that under the UK system, there's less incentive or motivation for a brit to speak up in class compared to an american in a LAC setting. that's just my impression. |