UWA SPOT/SET Project

155)        the amount of material covered has been reasonable

Davis, Wood & Wilson (Davis, Wood, & Wilson, 1983) advise concerning the amount of material covered that “The critical error made by many faculty members is trying to include too much by a factor of six.”

In the online article “Content Tyranny” (Reis, n.d.)from the Tomorrows-ProfessorSM Listserv Wankat and Oreovicz (1998) are cited identifying five types of information that should be covered in class:

·        key points and general themes

·        especially difficult material

·        material not covered elsewhere

·        examples and illustrations

·        material of high interest to students.

Strategies the suggest to avoid content tyranny suggested include omitting obsolete material or material covered well in the text, evaluating exam results with a view to less material covered more deeply and expecting students to get more from readings and assignments.

Davis, B. G., Wood, L., & Wilson, R. C. (1983). A Berkeley compendium of suggestions for teaching with excellence [World Wide Web]. The University of California. Retrieved 20 October, 2002, from the World Wide Web: http://teaching.berkeley.edu/compendium/sectionlists/sect5.html

Reis, R. (n.d.). Tomorrow*s Professor Msg. #73 CONTENT TYRANNY [World Wide Web]. The Stanford University Learning Laboratory. Retrieved, 2002, from the World Wide Web: http://sll.stanford.edu/projects/tomprof/newtomprof/postings/73.html