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The full syllabus contains, in a single document, a detailed description of each of the class sessions, the reading and writing assignments and the class notes. (PDF)

Course Overview

Instructors

Attendance and Participation

Study Groups

The MFA Field Trip

Other Assignments

What is Collaborative Learning?

Planning/Producing End-of-Term Project or Paper

Expectations and Evaluations: Interim and Final Grades

Why study "feelings?"

The following advertisement for this subject appears: "Courses and Degree Programs Issue" of the MIT Bulletin:

Based on your knowledge of the "MIT system" and applicable nomenclature, what do you make of the foregoing description?

And, so we begin.

• "Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?"
• We need to do some initial stock-taking
• Who is here? What are our backgrounds? Where are we coming from?
• What is our present situation?
• Where are we heading or hoping to go? (What are our objectives and destinations?)
• How do we envisage our personal/social (e.g. academic and professional) trajectories?
• What are we hoping/expecting to get out of this class (gradewise and otherwise)?
• What are we ready, willing and able to put into it?

It is our hope and expectation that we will together make 9.68/05 a scientifically credible, pedagogically sound and practically effective collaborative learning system.

Over the years, our efforts to enable and evaluate learning in this context have taught us how important it is for us to communicate as clearly and concisely as possible with each other and with you regarding key substantive and procedural issues. We encourage you to make a comparably "serious" effort to aim for constructiveness, conciseness, coherence and clarity in your exchanges with each other and with us regarding the subject matter before us.

We have been responsible for conducting this class for a long time, learning, little-by-little over the years, what it might be like if we ever succeed in "getting it right." We're committed to doing everything we ethically can to help make 9.68/05 the best possible learning experience for everyone involved. We hope you enjoy the experience.

"Beginnings are important"

It starts with "being there." Full and timely attendance and conscientious participation is expected of all at all regularly scheduled 9.68 activities..

9.68 is advertised as a 3-0-9 subject. However we meet together in this classroom for only two hours weekly. That affords you two additional collaborative contact hours per week to participation in study group meetings with peers. The remaining eight (not 9) additional hours is to be devoted to doing "homework."

We are here asking you to reconsider your "default assumptions" in order to make it possible for you to work together with each other and with us within stipulated time/effort limits toward the attainment of some commonly shared and explicitly stated subject-related objectives. It follows that we need to determine – insofar as possible – what we expect of ourselves and each other in terms of situational demand characteristics. Is this a situation in which everyone will be ready, willing, and able to make the stipulated commitment of time and effort? The importance of asking and answering this question will shortly become more clearly apparent as you find yourselves randomly assigned (why randomly?) to your own self-organizing, self-directing and self-evaluating study group.

It is our intention that the quality of your final (letter) grade be a fair and accurate reflection of the quality of your participation in the 9.68 learning process. Of central importance to our inquiry will be our adoption of a working hypothesis according to which the "quality" in question is one that you cannot help but be in a good position to evaluate from your own particular personal and social point of view. Your participation in the evaluation process is a key to our method of procedure. Ultimately, the quality of your respective and collective performance in this class will be decisive in determining the quality of the learning experiences of everyone involved.

Full text of instructors' writing on philosophy and intention of study groups. (PDF)

We view the process of study group formation as a prototypical instance of the organization and development of myriad human social system. From beginning to end, the system development process goes through a lifecycle whose trajectory comprises a characteristic sequence of more or less fixed and invariant stages or phases (e.g. birth, infancy, childhood, adolescence, maturity, old age, death or entering, forming, norming, storming, performing, exiting). By an hypothesis that is readily confirmed, each stage is marked by the need to resolve certain crises (e.g. Approach/Avoidance Conflict, Basic Trust/Basic Mistrust, Power and Control, Autonomy/Interdependence; competition/collaboration; Generativity or Stagnation).

The workload is not intended to be light weight. The syllabus presumes a readiness, willingness and ability for everyone to devote neither more nor less than the officially stipulated modicum of time and effort to the task of doing-to-completion the assigned work. In order to be successful in this class you must: a) do the assigned readings (and additional reading as assigned or appropriate), and b) regularly make quality time available alone and in study group meetings for serious and sustained reflection/meditation on the subject material and its theoretical and practical implications. Serious students will devote substantial time and effort to achieve high quality in their writing of the assigned "reaction papers."

In addition, you are expected to begin at once keeping your own 9.68/05 Journal. It is up to you to determine what to put into it, but it is also incumbent upon you to make clear to each other and to us the form that your Journal will take and the manner in which you propose to keep track of and evaluate the quality of your 9.68 experience, including (but not necessarily limiting yourself to) and account of the quality and amount of the time and the effort that you will actually be putting into 9.68.

The quality of class and study group discussions will be largely determined by the attitudes and behavior of each and all of the participants. All serious students will understand the importance of carrying their fair share of the task of realizing these desiderata. For our parts, we (the instructors) will constantly be goading you to improve the overall academic quality of your participation, and expect you to be encouraging yourselves and each other to be "serious students" of the subject before us.

Doing weekly assignments in a timely and conscientious fashion means doing them before the applicable study group and/or class meetings. Your study group should discuss and agree on a schedule that ensures timely completion of required tasks.

One of our key learning activities involves going together on a Field Trip to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The Field Trip is an essential 9.68 activity in which all students are expected to participate. In case of any irreconcilable conflicts, the problem must be worked out to the mutual satisfaction of your entire study group and the proposed resolution must be approved by one or both instructors-in-charge at or before the second class meeting.

We will begin as 9.68 classes have been doing for more than two decades: with several weeks of reading (perhaps many of us re-reading) and discussing: Pirsig, Robert M. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. New York, NY: William Morrow and Co., 1974. ISBN: 0688171664. (Notably, ZAAMM is a book whose subtitle identifies it as An Inquiry into Values).

You should acquire your own personal copy of this text to have and to hold (and to mark up as need be).

There are additional readings beyond ZAMM as well as viewing assignments for this course.

Arguably, we don't really know what we think and feel until we hear (or read) what we have to say (or write). If you are about to do some learning in this class, and want to be in a position to formatively and summatively evaluate it, you’d better start keeping track of the experience. In this connection, you are advised to get yourself a hard-bound "composition book" in which to make regular entries. If some would prefer to use a portable computer and electronic work file we will need to have some further discussion before accepting that as a substitute for a hardcopy notebook. Arguably, if you decide to keep part of your journal electronically, it makes a difference whether or not you also maintain a hard copy version.)

Diligent journal-keeping will help you to keep track of your own progress through the 9.68 learning experience. It will also facilitate your progress by enabling you to formulate pertinent comments and/or relevant questions for study group and/or classroom discussions. In this way, the quality of your interventions in the proceedings will be enhanced and likewise the quality of class and group discussions. Use your Journal to jot down ideas and questions that come to mind while you are reading (and at other times). This will also be useful in planning and writing assigned reaction papers. Keep track of your thoughts and feelings about the class, the instructors, your classmates and groupmates, the form and content of the subject matter, the relevance of the collaborative learning process to you.

It is important for all of us to take this most personal aspect of the workload absolutely seriously. We will not normally require you to submit your journal to us for examination. However, as a "serious" student you are expected to keep it handy, to use it consistently, and to have it with you at all 9.68 activities (class and study group meetings, fieldtrips, etc.) Get used to using it on a regular basis.

Our assurance about our intentions regarding the privacy of your journal entries reflects our desire to enable you to be as faithful, creative, truthful and forthright as possible (under the circumstances) in reflecting on the material. Avoid "ad hominem" Journal entries. This is a class. And your study group is supposed to be a study group. Your classmates and groupmates (not to mention the instructors) are at least as bright, highly motivated and hard-working as you are. We expect you to regard and respect them as you would have them regard and respect you. Focus on the task and the group process (see "Working Groups" handout). Our aim is to encourage you to feel safe enough to take some real-world personal risks without fearing unwonted self exposure.

The only foreseeable circumstances under which we would to ask to see the contents of your journal would be in the unlikely event that you end up feeling or believing that our evaluation of the quality of your overall performance (as reflected in the final letter grade) seriously underrates the quality of your actual performance and this becomes a seriously contested issue between us.

Many people find this a difficult discipline to adopt, but our experience tells us that it is very important to keep a timesheet. To help you keep day-to-day, week-to-week, quantitative/qualitative track of the overall time and effort of your 9.68 performance in real time, a printed form is appended. You should make entries no less frequently than three times per week (even if you need to consciously force yourself to do so). Learn to use it conscientiously: make timely and truthful entries and please bring it with you to class and be prepared to make it available for occasional inspection.

These will normally be 1-2 pages in length on topics to be assigned. You are responsible for proofreading and printing your own papers. Insofar as possible, all assignments and reaction papers for 9.68 should be written in the voice of the first person singular and be the product of your own mind and hand (mens et manus). Please do not misunderstand. We are not trying to discourage you from consulting or discussing or quoting from or otherwise relying on the work of others. On the contrary, conscientious reliance on the work of others is both a necessary and a desirable hallmark of all serious scholarship. Insofar as the views of others are relevant in this connection, you should feel free to use their ideas and words as frequently and freely as necessary; just make it a point to acknowledge your sources in each case.

A Caveat: The advent of the internet and the ease of access to information of dubious credibility via the World Wide Web presents us with the problem (to put it crudely) of "distinguishing shit from shinola." Some entries (not to mention whole Web pages) are here today and gone tomorrow. Generally speaking, it is advisable to be extremely cautious in evaluating such information. You will surely get into trouble in this regard if you don't carefully check and cross-check both the credibility of the source and the validity of the information.

Papers are to be carefully composed (conventionally footnoted where necessary) and legibly typed/printed and made available to the instructors in both electronic and hard copy form. Please, submit no handwritten papers unless absolutely necessary and unavoidable (and approved by us).

Unless otherwise arranged in advance, all students will personally submit their own assignments to the instructors by hand, at weekly class meetings. Please, no proxies. The use of group-mates as surrogates to hand in Your hardcopy is not permitted, except by prior arrangement. Ideally, you will write your reaction papers in time to be brought to (and circulated at) study group and class meetings, and used, as appropriate, to advance the ongoing discussions - before handing them in to the instructors. Occasionally, we will ask you to read and comment on each other’s papers.

Except for the final term paper (see below) no letter or number grades will be assigned to the written work that you turn in. However, it is our intention to carefully and completely read all timely submissions and to provide prompt feedback, in writing, on the quality of form and/or content. All papers received on time will be read, commented upon, queried and critiqued as needed, before returning them to you (if possible), at or before the following class session. Tardy submissions will be received and recorded as such and may be returned unread. Without objection, we will occasionally redirect and redistribute all or part of submissions with the intention of facilitating the sharing of perspectives and hence advancing the learning process.

Each element of the curriculum is designed to be approached in a particular way - with everyone encountering each activity in the same sequential order. Insofar as possible, please do the indicated assignments/activities in the order listed.

"Collaborative learning promotes active learning among students. It can take place in a semi-structured or unstructured environment. When implemented properly, it shifts the authority from the teacher to the students. teachers allow the students to master material on their own through active discovery. In the classroom the teacher steps down from center stage and helps to facilitate learning.

Collaborative learning is shared learning process that gives students an opportunity to engage in discussion, take responsibility for their learning which eventually leads them to become critical thinkers. Collaborative learning is group based. Interaction in small groups allows students to talk and think through the material with peers, and to learn how to solve problems, as well as how to interact with other in searching for solutions. Collaborative learning promotes higher cognitive processes - active learning, critical thinking, conceptual understanding, long-term retention of material, and high levels of student satisfaction." (abridged from Toward a New Departure in MIT Undergraduate Education : A 9.06/96 Collaborative Project - End-of-Term Report)

Quality collaborative reaction papers (and term papers/proposals explained below) are welcome; However, don't be tempted to engage in collaborations with expectations conducive to mere dilution (rather than meaningful concentration) of effort all-around. Quite the reverse should be the case.

Several heads are only better than one if there are no freeloaders and all are "operating on all cylinders". To be worthwhile, the process of producing collaborative projects or papers should involve more than merely stitching together a series of separate sentences written by different people. Meaningful collaboration means working together to achieve a high degree of both effectiveness and interdependence. Accordingly, expect it to require significant co-operation between and among authors for papers to exhibit a high level of internal consistency, coherence, and continuity.

Term project/paper proposals are to be submitted for prior approval. Proposals (not to exceed 2 pages in length) are to be turned in via email within 1 week after session 10. Proposals will be reviewed and returned to you with comments regarding acceptability 3 days before lecture 11. With luck, you will thus have almost three weeks to work on your term paper.

The deadline for submission of fully completed term projects/papers is the beginning of the final regularly-scheduled class (i.e. 7 pm - Class Meeting 13). Extensions will be granted only by prior arrangement and only under extreme circumstances.

Final grades will be based on the instructors' evaluation of the quality of individual term-long performance in the subject, including our assessment of the timeliness, conscientiousness and skill with which assignments have been undertaken and completed, our perception of the overall quality of your:

• Written work
• Study group involvement
• Classroom participation (in general)
• Final term paper/project (in particular)

In evaluating your 9.68 performance, we will generally rely on a five point scale (excellent, very good, good, fair, poor or failing). It’s the Amount and Quality of your own personal participation that matters.