Review:
I really like Professor Hyatt - he's amiable and understanding. He's accessible outside of class and flexible. But I didn't find him to be very good at teaching a seminar class. Perhaps part of the problem was that the class met fairly early in the morning and half the class was not very talkative, and so people were not particularly eager to participate, but the 2.5-hour weekly lectures were sometimes difficult to sit through, though at other times they were interesting. But the class needed much more structure. He didn't seem to have a lesson plan for each class, or any goals in his mind, and so the conversation sort of meandered, filled with broad generalizations and speculations. I know part of the purpose of a seminar is for the students to discuss and come to their own conclusions, but I feel like I could have learned 10 times as much if he had taken charge and TAUGHT more. I would take another class with him if it were a lecture class as opposed to a seminar, because he is very intelligent and when he does explain things, he does so well.

Workload:
There were on average about 60 pages of reading per week, along with two "discussion questions" which were to be handed in before class began each week and are not graded but are required. The only other work was a 15-20 page research paper, which was accompanied by a brief research proposal early in the semester and a 10 minute presentation the week before the paper is due. The workload was substantial but not overwhelming. The readings were of exceptionally high quality, and I learned much more from them than I did from our discussions.

review a class you took with Raymond Hyatt! | view all reviews for Raymond Hyatt (1)