University Insurance Instructor: It is Time to Teach Problem Solving
指出大学保险课程设计过于注重主题选择，而忽视了明确期望的学习成果，建议教师有意识地选择教育目标，从知识再现转向培养创造性和问题解决能力。
In designing the instructional sequence and course-related activities for any college-level course, the first step usually taken by the instructor is the selection and ordering of topics. In part, this selection is done because of the recognized need to have a formal reading list or syllabus available for the first class meeting and not due to any innate educational imperatives felt by the instructor. Nevertheless, careful thought typically precedes such course content decisions. While it is appropriate that care is taken with respect to such decisions, another set of choices should also be expressly and thoughtfully made, the choice of the learning outcomes desired. Should the student be expected to reproduce a series of facts or the essence of an argument, or should the student be able to create a new argument? For a variety of reasons, such decisions are too often made by default. Undoubtedly, one reason is an uncertainty regarding the educational activities available and whether they would serve any useful purpose. As Barry [6, p. 8] has noted, . . very few of us have ever been taught our craft. Our teaching habits have been formed somewhat casually for good or bad over the years, during which we progressed through the primary, secondary, and finally the higher levels of education. ' If luck be with the instructor, this emulation may lead to the appropriate choice of educational activities, but there is little reason to expect that it should. While it is not particularly flattering to suggest that many university instructors do not really know what they wish to accomplish in the classroom, it is not entirely inaccurate. Ohmer Milton [6, p. 3], writing about the importance of instructors clarifying objectives, recalled a colleague's statement that he would try to write them (learning objectives) out after the course was completed. A second factor contributing to this non-decision regarding learning outcomes is the absence of much in the way of creative instructional materials accompanying traditional texts. Text presentations tend toward the exposition of facts, principles, concepts, and the restatement of arguments. This orientation is understandable; texts have a comparative advantage in this phase of instruction. Unfortunately, much of the prepared instructional materials accompanying texts concentrate on this expository material as well, often in spite of explicit statements to the contrary. Instructors relying on such materials for any significant assistance will, likewise, find their choice of learning outcomes concentrated on reproduction.