Depth or Breadth?

It's the curse of the Survey class. How much material can you cram in their "skulls full of mush?"

When I was an undergraduate, I spent most of my time as a History major. One of my favorite classes was European History from 1815. While we were supposed to cover 1815-present, we barely made it to World War II. Now, the professor could have crammed in the last 50 years, but he didn't. Why?

Probably because he knew that we wouldn't remember all of the material anyway.

And here's the real question: what are you really teaching your students? Are you teaching them just the material in the textbook? Or, are you teaching them something more important: how to analyze, how to think critically, and how to make connections?

Yes, you should plan out your course carefully, and try to cover all of the material as stated in the Common Course Outline, but in the end, it's not the material that you cover, but how you cover the material.

http://www.csupomona.edu/~facultycenter/weekly_teaching_note_march_3_2008.shtml