Since the beginning of last semester, Mathematics Professor W. Stephen Wilson has taken an interesting approach to teaching the Advanced Algebra class, turning it into an experiment in group learning. Unlike most math classes at Hopkins, students don't meet in a huge lecture hall three times a week to watch a professor write equations on a blackboard for an hour at a time. Instead, they spend class working out problems in groups of three or four students, with Wilson at hand to respond to questions about the material and clarify topics that students are unsure about.
Though I didn't know what to think of the approach at first, I have found that this teaching method is much more effective than the traditional style, which usually resulted only in me getting an extra hour of sleep in the middle of the day rather than learning about mathematics. While lectures might be informative for students of History or Political Science, for example, they seem impractical for math classes; though the theoretical significance of certain abstract topics can be presented in a textbook, the best way to learn how to apply mathematical formulas is to work as many practice problems as possible.
In addition to allowing students more time to work problems, this teaching method has a few other advantages. Students can receive help from the professor in areas that they are unsure of without interrupting the class, and short demonstrations can focus on topics that students seem to be having trouble with rather than exhaustively going over all of the material from the course. Also, group work is an advantage for both those who understand the material well and those who are struggling. Students who have a basic understanding of the topic can help clarify their own intuitions by explaining the material to the others in their group, while those who need help should theoretically have someone in their group that can explain it.
Granted, this approach wouldn't work for all classes taught in the department. I can imagine the mess that would result if the department tried to teach all 300 freshmen taking Calculus by having them split into groups and work problems. But for upper-level math classes that no more than 20 students take at any one time, the group learning strategy should work well and is definitely worth trying on a larger scale than just the Advanced Algebra class.
Given my good experience with the class, I was surprised to learn that the teaching method is looked down upon by some of the Math Department faculty members. Sure, "group learning" may not be the traditional way to teach math, but the willingness to try new approaches is something that Hopkins can benefit from. The department should embrace the teaching style; and, if they do, hopefully other departments will follow suit in exploring interesting new methods for helping students learn.
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