Although this article does not pertain exactly to my field, I believe it
brings up important questions about the manner in which we teach and what
our expectations of the students can reasonably be. The young professor
used in this article sounds like many bright eyed and bushy tailed
instructors. They have prepared their class according to the latest
teaching manuals and expect their students to have a deep understanding of
the material. The problem is that the students are expecting to only
memorize and not understand the material.

Lord explains three phases of the learning cycle which includes
exploration, application, and comprehension. His approach would most
likely work for those students who are in their first or second year of
college. He focuses on the exploration aspect with the hope of garnering
the student's interest in order to reach this level of understanding. If
anything, this article can be used as a brief and positive example of the
way in which new teaching methods help the student learn on a higher level
than past methods.

Lord, Thomas. "Teach for Understanding Before the Details Get in the Way."
Journal of College Science Teaching May 2007: 70+. Academic Search
Complete. EBSCO. Web. 30 Nov. 2010.