We visited a lecture of the course called Introduction to Psychology on Tuesday, July 22. The topic of the lectures was Types of Psychotherapy. The professor is Tifrah Warner, and she is from Israel.
When she started her lecture, she asked a student to choose a proverb from a small book that she gave to the student. The proverb was this one: “It is not necessary to blow out the other person’s lantern to let yours shine.” (Swahili, East Africa) We thought she did this partly to make people relax, but also to get them ready to think. Professor Warner seemed quite relaxed and friendly, and also concerned about her students. She spoke to them in a very kind way but also seriously about their ideas.
For the first few minutes of the lecture, students came in the lecture hall and put essays on the table in the front of the hall while she was talking. They had to walk right behind her to do that. She didn’t get angry at that; in fact, one student came in, dropped off an essay, and left, and she laughed about it. We wondered if professors should tolerate this kind of disrespect. In some other countries, many of them don't. A lot of students were eating and drinking in the lecture, also. There was a lot of typing noise from students taking notes on their laptops (or looking at facebook). One student was reading a graphic novel. For some students, it looked as if they were at a movie theatre, or watching TV.
Even though we studied the chapter of the textbook assigned for the lecture in our class before going, Professor Warner didn’t talk a lot about what was in the book. Daniel says that in Korea, for some subjects, like psychology and business, the professor will use lecture time to talk about examples in detail, and not go over the textbook material very much. However, in hard science or engineering courses, professors may stay closer to the textbook.
In Korea, students also hear rumors that if you fail a course, you will get a refund – but that is not true.
In China, Shang says, some professors will teach from the textbook, and some won’t, depending on the professor. In addition, some professors will focus on the textbook before the exam (to help students prepare for specific questions), but others won’t even do that.
In Saudi Arabia, Ahmed says, sometimes professors will say to students that they should read the textbook on their own, and the professors will want to lecture on other things. However, three or four weeks later they will find that the students have not done any of the reading, and they will be forced to lecture on the textbook – and therefore to force the students to study it.
In the Saudi system, professors have a lot of freedom to decide what to teach, and even when to teach. They can go to a class at the first meeting and say, “I am not available at this time,” and reschedule the whole class, so that they only have to be on campus a couple of days a week. This can be a big problem for students’ schedules.
Instead of lecturing on the textbook chapter directly, Professor Warner made her lecture and discussion focus on one interesting issue in the chapter: when should psychotherapists prescribe drugs and when shouldn’t they prescribe drugs? Most of the students in the lecture seemed to be against the idea of using drugs too quickly in psychotherapy, but when the professor gave them a list of kinds of cases, most said they would prescribe drugs more quickly than her. She described the way many doctors think: “the medical model.” First, doctors think of psychological illness as being like physical illness. Therefore, they assume there must be a physical cause for a psychological illness. Therefore, this cause should be chemical, and should be fixable by drugs. But she said that just because there are chemical changes in the brain doesn’t mean you need drugs. You can change someone’s brain chemistry by giving them a hug. And she described the work of Milton H. Erickson, a therapist who she admires a lot, to show that you don’t need drugs as often as most people today think.
But when students asked, she had to say that her view is not the majority opinion in psychology today. Today, drugs are being used more and more anyway.
If you want to visit this course, you can find the syllabus online through the York University website, and you can get the textbook at the Reserve Desk in Scott Library. “On reserve” means you can only borrow it for two hours, and you can’t take it out of the library. That means you basically photocopy what you need. The textbook is Psychology: Themes and Variations by Wayne Weiten. The call number is BF 121 W38 2007.
When she started her lecture, she asked a student to choose a proverb from a small book that she gave to the student. The proverb was this one: “It is not necessary to blow out the other person’s lantern to let yours shine.” (Swahili, East Africa) We thought she did this partly to make people relax, but also to get them ready to think. Professor Warner seemed quite relaxed and friendly, and also concerned about her students. She spoke to them in a very kind way but also seriously about their ideas.
For the first few minutes of the lecture, students came in the lecture hall and put essays on the table in the front of the hall while she was talking. They had to walk right behind her to do that. She didn’t get angry at that; in fact, one student came in, dropped off an essay, and left, and she laughed about it. We wondered if professors should tolerate this kind of disrespect. In some other countries, many of them don't. A lot of students were eating and drinking in the lecture, also. There was a lot of typing noise from students taking notes on their laptops (or looking at facebook). One student was reading a graphic novel. For some students, it looked as if they were at a movie theatre, or watching TV.
Even though we studied the chapter of the textbook assigned for the lecture in our class before going, Professor Warner didn’t talk a lot about what was in the book. Daniel says that in Korea, for some subjects, like psychology and business, the professor will use lecture time to talk about examples in detail, and not go over the textbook material very much. However, in hard science or engineering courses, professors may stay closer to the textbook.
In Korea, students also hear rumors that if you fail a course, you will get a refund – but that is not true.
In China, Shang says, some professors will teach from the textbook, and some won’t, depending on the professor. In addition, some professors will focus on the textbook before the exam (to help students prepare for specific questions), but others won’t even do that.
In Saudi Arabia, Ahmed says, sometimes professors will say to students that they should read the textbook on their own, and the professors will want to lecture on other things. However, three or four weeks later they will find that the students have not done any of the reading, and they will be forced to lecture on the textbook – and therefore to force the students to study it.
In the Saudi system, professors have a lot of freedom to decide what to teach, and even when to teach. They can go to a class at the first meeting and say, “I am not available at this time,” and reschedule the whole class, so that they only have to be on campus a couple of days a week. This can be a big problem for students’ schedules.
Instead of lecturing on the textbook chapter directly, Professor Warner made her lecture and discussion focus on one interesting issue in the chapter: when should psychotherapists prescribe drugs and when shouldn’t they prescribe drugs? Most of the students in the lecture seemed to be against the idea of using drugs too quickly in psychotherapy, but when the professor gave them a list of kinds of cases, most said they would prescribe drugs more quickly than her. She described the way many doctors think: “the medical model.” First, doctors think of psychological illness as being like physical illness. Therefore, they assume there must be a physical cause for a psychological illness. Therefore, this cause should be chemical, and should be fixable by drugs. But she said that just because there are chemical changes in the brain doesn’t mean you need drugs. You can change someone’s brain chemistry by giving them a hug. And she described the work of Milton H. Erickson, a therapist who she admires a lot, to show that you don’t need drugs as often as most people today think.
But when students asked, she had to say that her view is not the majority opinion in psychology today. Today, drugs are being used more and more anyway.
If you want to visit this course, you can find the syllabus online through the York University website, and you can get the textbook at the Reserve Desk in Scott Library. “On reserve” means you can only borrow it for two hours, and you can’t take it out of the library. That means you basically photocopy what you need. The textbook is Psychology: Themes and Variations by Wayne Weiten. The call number is BF 121 W38 2007.
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