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This is simply professors acknowledging reality.

If I taught my class to those who "previewed the material" I'd be teaching to 1 or 2 students ... maybe.

In reality, the best students do exactly this.

Fine, but then you are agreeing with me: most instructors do not expect their students to read material ahead of time and do not structure their classes as if that is the expectation.

In fact, in my experience it's not even usually possible to read material before the lecture because students are only given at best a vague idea of what specifically is coming next.

If most instructors are failing at their job, that's a shame. There's no reason save ego for an instructor to assume that students only learn by listening to the instructor speak.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom

> In fact, in my experience it's not even usually possible to read material before the lecture because students are only given at best a vague idea of what specifically is coming next.

Really? That has not been my experience.

Every class I have taught had a detailed syllabus with chapter and page assignments. Generally, they were spot on until the class started getting behind.

For English classes, which book you need to have read is always listed.

Which classes would you be referring to?

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