Teaching and Learning: Cross-Cultural Perspectives
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this anthropology course on how teaching and learning vary across countries, disciplines, and subcultures. Lectures and readings compare formal schooling to other modes of knowledge transmission, including apprenticeship, initiation rites, and online formats like MOOCs, testing theories of learning against real classroom activities. Students apply qualitative research methods, such as observation and interviewing, to investigate a teaching or learning setting of their own choosing and produce an original research project. Materials include the syllabus, assignment prompts, and readings list as published by MIT. There is no certificate; the course is meant for self-study using the same materials MIT students receive, and it works well for anyone interested in education, anthropology, or comparative approaches to how knowledge gets passed on in different settings.