Introduction

Prior to her second class in a semester-long course on Malory's Morte Darthur (assigned reading was Vinaver's one-volume Malory, Works, pp. 3–37), Molly sent in this email journal entry:

Having written this response, Molly came to class thinking of it, and commented further when her response was circulated in class. Others in the eleven-student upper-division class responded in an opening discussion focused on their prior insights into the text – all emailed to the instructor well before class, and three, including Molly’s, reproduced and distributed for class discussion. The class next moved through the instructor's mini-lecture, returned to discussion, turned to another discussion topic, then to another mini-lecture, and so on throughout the class. Educators term this approach variously ‘discussion-based’ or ‘student-centered’, but by rights it is a ‘learning-centered’ approach (or, to Parker Palmer, a ‘subject-centered’ approach, as will appear below).

Unlike the learning-centered class outlined above, most college and university professors present their authors’ works in lectures: 45-minute or 75-minute lectures, concluded with a last five minutes of queries, asking ‘Do you have any questions?’, which seldom receive response. That traditional lecture approach does not reach its goal. If being lectured to once enthralled students, it is no longer the case in this age of text-messaging, email, cell-phones, and web-based course-management tools. Young Americans average eighty text messages a day; many send texts during class.