I appreciate the spirit of articles like this The burden of proof: What does education research really tell us?. Various discussions are presented on the value of hands-on science education in contrast with lecture-based. It’s difficult to defend lectures in today’s participatory media environment. But I like lectures when they are delivered well with stories, examples, and even a few metaphors. It’s a mistake to conclude that lectures are passive. Carl Bereiter has argued that, based on Popper’s three worlds, interacting with ideas is a form of active learning. I agree. When interacting with ideas, we build, we contrast, we compare, we argue…call it “minds-on learning”. I find as much satisfaction from a good book or lecture as I do from hands-on learning. A steady diet of either, however, and fatigue does set it.
-
‹ Home
Contents
-
Categories
-
Tags
Adoption Articles Blogging Classification/Ontologies Collaboration Community Connectivism Content Content Management Copyright/IP/DRM Design Elearning Evaluation/Assessment/ROI Games/Simulations Information Architecture Innovation Instructional Design Knowledge Management Learning Learning Objects Legal LMS Media Networks Open Source Podcasting Random Thoughts Research Resources ROI Search Semantic Web SNA Social Standards Storytelling Teaching Technology Theories Tools Trends Usability Wiki Wireless/PDAs XML
-
Archives
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- January 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003
- September 2003
- August 2003
- July 2003
- June 2003
- May 2003
- April 2003
- March 2003
- February 2003
- January 2003
- December 2002
- November 2002
- October 2002
- September 2002
- August 2002
- July 2002
- June 2002
Blogroll
-
RSS Feeds
-
Meta
6 Comments
Thanks for the link to my post! I would argue, myself, that the amount that the student is engaged in a lecture that does not require active participation (such as answering questions, sketching, or discussing with neighbors) is generally minimal. An advanced or expert learner (as are most professors or professionals) can engage him or herself, to some degree, by having internal dialogues about the lecture. But those learners are rare, and certainly our typical students are generally not well represented among the people able to engage in “minds on” learning during an entire 50 minute lecture. The key, as you say, is variety. There is a time for all things, including telling and doing.
One side note — lots of research shows that the things we “enjoy” don’t necessarily correlate with the things that help us learn, so enjoyment is, while not an unimportant factor, not the only thing to consider!
Medical Education has been looking at this question quite seriously for the last 10 years. We use large lecture theaters extensively in the undergraduate years and will continue to do so. So we have been trying to find methods of focusing attention at the beginning, middle and end of lectures by actively engaging students in quick activities and pattern making. See http://medicaleducation.wetpaint.com/page/Active+Engagement for examples.
I’m always looking for new ideas.
I agree: we’d be wrong to throw out lectures altogether. We can have bad lecturers, to be sure, but we can also have bad collaborative learning. The opposite is true, too. Rather than looking at the medium–lecture, video, collaboration, etc–we ought to look at the quality of the exchange of ideas, something I’m exploring in my Master’s thesis: http://www.ovenell-carter.com/GLSThesis/
I think Stephanie’s comment about “the things we enjoy don’t necessarily correlate with the things that help us learn” is one I’ve been thinking about a lot lately as I contemplate the differences between teaching and learning. Many of our student evaluations of faculty focus on affective dimensions of presenting or the teachers knowledge base and I wonder how that influences the strategies faculty chose.
Kia ora George!
How refreshing to read you saying it’s a mistake to conclude that lectures are passive. This view, that the lecture is as dead as the page in a book has been around for a while and I’ve never agreed with it. I don’t think the page in the book is dead either.
One reason I believe this is because of the existence a generation of educated people that I grew up with. If one cannot learn from lectures, lessons from the blackboard, reading from books then I haven’t learnt much in the past 60 years and neither have my contemporaries.
Learning tactics and their support is where it’s at as far as I’m concerned. Get engagement (by whatever means works) and you have a learner.
Catchya later
from Middle-earth
Classroom response systems, or “clickers” are another good way to check in to see if students are with you and, more importantly, to get students to engage in what you’ve just told them (or are about to tell them) so it doesn’t just breeze over their heads if they’re getting lost. Derek Bruff has a great blog devoted to them: http://derekbruff.com/teachingwithcrs/.
2 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[...] {March 11, 2009} Excommunicated, passivating lecturing? I was really delighted to read George Siemens’ blog and his thoughts about lecturing and find out that there is also someone else who likes to listen [...]
[...] an aside, George Siemens makes the point that lectures, even recorded, ones, aren’t necessarily passive. However, there are interesting and beneficial changes to the lecture approach that can be [...]
Post a Comment