And this intensity is vital to learning new material in lecture, Rentschler says.
According to Moravcsik, the intensity of even the best lecture can be shattered when students who leave in the middle of lecture, causing a disturbance to the rest of the class.
"I understand that students very occasionally have to leave or do something else," he says. "It is rude, to be sure, but only truly disruptive when a student who has to leave in the middle of a lecture sits in a prominent place. And students underestimate how prominent they are to us, and their fellow students."
For example, he says, students who sit in the balcony of Lowell lecture hall where A-12 is taught, seem to think they are invisible, but can create a huge disruption to the class.
Higgins Professor of Chemistry Richard H. Holm says that it is essential that students attend lecture in order to preserve the character of the class.
"It is absolutely detrimental to the learning environment when students skip class," he says. "Students will lose a
respect for the class if people don't come every time."
While You Were Out Read more in NewsRecommended Articles
