January 12th, 2007.
During the Spring, 2007 semester, I will be using and developing the Theme and Variation lectures avaliable for download on this site. Each lecture corresponds to the contents of a book chapter, but, as the name suggests, conveys a theme and provides some variation on a given chapter.
Each lecture begins with a side-by-side comparison of the major sections of the book chapter being covered, on the one hand, and the major topics covered by the lecture, on the other.
The purpose of developing Theme and Variation lectures is to find a middle ground between the Standard Lectures, which are very repetitive in relation to the book, and the overview/focus approach, which some students found to lack continuity. I believe the Theme and Variation approach may draw together the best of both appraoches.
Note that the Theme and Variation lectures are reorganized versions of the other lectures. I developed these newer lectures during the Winter Break, 2006-2007. I will be posting new/revised versions as I test them in the classroom this semester (Spring, 2007).
-- Jack
