TEACHING FORMATS
A world-class faculty/student ratio of 1:7 allows ECLA to make use of teaching formats that are particularly effective, but rare in higher education today. Students should expect to spend 12-18 hours in the classroom per week during term. All teaching formats used at ECLA are designed to facilitate ongoing dialogue, in and beyond the classroom.
SEMINARS. Most of the teaching at ECLA takes place in 'seminars', meetings in which a small group of students discuss an issue or a text with each other and their teacher. The normal size of an ECLA seminar is 5-10 students, and the number is never higher than 15. Each seminar is run by a faculty member, but in a manner that relies on active participation from students. The ultimate aim of a seminar is the joint exploration of some common question or text.
TUTORIALS. A 'tutor' is a teacher who gives private instruction to a single student, and 'tutorial' refers to the period of private instruction. Due to its high cost, very few universities in the world offer this form of instruction at the undergraduate level. It is therefore one of the rare privileges of an ECLA education that every course involves tutorials. In a tutorial, the student and teacher discuss, one-to-one, an essay written by the student. Tutorials last at least half an hour, often more. On average, ECLA students write one essay per week, and every essay submitted is discussed in a tutorial. This is a particularly intense and efficient form of teaching, made famous by institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge.
LECTURES. At ECLA the lecture format is used differently and less frequently than it is at most colleges. Lectures are used almost exclusively in co-taught core courses, i.e. courses taught by several ECLA faculty together. The lecture will be given by one faculty member or guest teacher, but other faculty will be present too and participate in the discussion afterwards. ECLA students, accordingly, will often see and hear their teachers in discussion. The frequent exposure to discussion among faculty, who represent different approaches to the study of values and defend very different substantial views, is an integral part of every ECLA programme.