University

These past 5 weeks in Austria, as I've been sitting in my Erziehungswissenschaft course, I have been observing the overall learning environment. Here are a few things (although they may simply be generalizations) that I have found:

1) Students are actually paying attention. I have seen maybe 1 person text during class, but that is a rarity. If students have computers with them, it's usually to take notes and not to simply socialize on Facebook.

2) The professor asks the students questions and waits a while to give the students a chance to think, rather then giving the students the answer if they don't answer within a few seconds.

3) If the professor doesn't know the answer to a question, he admits it and asks the students if any of them are able to explain something. Thus, he doesn't act like a no-it-all and isn't afraid to admit when something isn't his area of expertise.

4) If the professor does not agree with a student's answer, he says so. In America, the professor would most likely say, "Hmm. That's a good point, but actually I was looking for something else...."

I am not criticizing American universities, I am simply writing down observations, having studied in both countries.