[aianus]

I had an excellent math teacher in High School who would intersperse questions in his lectures, turning around and waiting long enough for a few hands to go up and then choosing someone to answer.

I was never able to adjust to the recitation-style math lectures in University and ended up having to, as you say, teach myself by reading the book and posing questions to myself as I went along.

I was and still am angry that quality of education I was receiving in exchange for tens of thousands in tuition was considerably poorer than what I was used to receiving for free in public High School.

[danielweber]

I feel your pain. But part of college is learning how to learn things on your own. It varies a bit by field, but in theory by the time you end your undergraduate work you are almost out of work that other people have done before, and now it's up to you to figure out new things.

Probably one reason (among many) I didn't bother trying for a PhD.

[nmcfarl]

Learning on your own is certainly core to college - but lectures that just where the TA just takes an outline from the book and regurgitates it are a waste of time. I certainly never attended those classes. I imagine they are useful for auditory learners but I’m not one of those.

Even at the college level there are plenty of class formats where either teaching was done, or at the very least was done via discussion.

The "here’s are the course materials read to you by a very bored smart person who has better things to do", isn’t a class format - it’s a series of exams.