The following quotes were taken
from evaluations of the WES program conducted by the Learning Through Evaluation,
Adaptation, and Dissemination (LEAD) Center.
"I talk to most of my friends [who are]
in [a traditional] discussion, and they just sit there quiet and the teacher
just does problems on the board all hour. They memorize and copy, that's all
they do. In this class you're actually learning something. ... We get into
groups and we discuss the problems together instead of just memorization and
stuff."
"It's great. We're a family, we're all
in the same boat. That's probably what I like the most about it is the people.
I love the group."
"WES drives you...it makes you want something.
I want good grades, so now I'm going to work for them. It teaches you to want...because
I want all my classes now to turn out like WES."
"Some of the people [in the large lecture]
I've talked to, they've said that there were problems on the test that they
'had never seen before and this was crazy,' but for me these were the sort
of problems that I expected to be on the test."
"I think that group are really important
because, say, he's really good at trigonometry and maybe I'm really good at
basic algebraic skills or something. And maybe someone else is just really
good at remembering stuff. So when you put all those skills together, we work
it together, without leaning on a book or without leaning on a professor,
we get it from each other. And it just makes everybody better... You see yourself
improving... I think you learn best from other people. "
"I really get into [the group work] because
you get different ideas and maybe different ways of doing things that maybe
you're not used to or you don't know."
"...if [our small group] can't agree, the
[TA] will come over and ask, 'Well, what do you think about this?' They're
really good about not telling you too much about anything. They like to let
you figure stuff out and think for yourself."
"And I think that basically everything
that I've done in math, ever since kindergarten, has been working up to what
we're doing right now. I mean we're having problems in books that you can
see being solved in the real world. And actually in my chemistry class, I'm
using this stuff fater than I'm getting it in math. ... I'm just like, if
I can apply something physically, that's the best for me--I just love it.
It's so useful! I'm just like, 'Everyone should be required to take a semester
of calculus.'"
"I remember [computing the derivative of
arcsin(x)] that seemed impossible being made simple. ... It's exciting because
it is like, 'God, I can't do that. It is impossible.' And everybody kept saying,
'You just have to memorize those.' And then the [undergraduate assistant]
came over, and he was like 'those are really simple.' And we're like, 'Cool.'
And he went through and he taught us those and now, now I feel like I can
know them all. If any body said arcsin or arccos or arctan, derive the derivative
of it or prove it, I would have no problem with that. I remember before that,
it just seemed like something foreign. And I like those connections with something
that seemed completely foreign or impossible being made easy."
"I think [group work] is so much more realistic
for the real world. I don't know anybody that sits down and does work completely
and solely by themselves, or works on a project by themselves."
"Working in groups develops communication
skills...it makes you think about what you're doing, and how to clearly explain
what you do."
"I've learned to look at problems, every
kind of problem. I get perspective before I delve into solving a problem.
I look at all the different possibilities and different ways of analyzing
it."
"I have a broader knowledge of math now
than I ever did. I actually have an understanding for it, and it's kind of
scary, but I actually have a desire to learn more math, for absolutely no
apparent reason."
isconsin
merging 
cholars
(WES) 