Today in a class of 200 plus physics students, the textbook was seen as the most useful source of learning for the last term. 60% plus. Lectures were second.
There has been some writing on the topic of lectures recently. Mary Burgan’s December article [Burgan, M. 2006. "In Defense of Lecturing," Change Magazine, November/December] has prompted a flurry of responses.
- On the POD lists: sample link: Nuhfer, E. 2007. “Re: Lectures Defensible–a fractal thought.” 15 Feb 2007
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0702&L=pod&O=A&P=11311>. - On PhysLnr, AERA and a whole bunch of others also, here is a representative post on the Con side: R Hake’s post to the – “AERA Division L: Educational Policy and Politics Forum” Fri 16th Feb.
- Follow up letters in Change Magazine: January-February
Tomorrow’s professor, Apr 17th 2007 has a different perspective.
“In general, students capture only 20-40 percent of a lecture’s main ideas in their notes (Kiewra, 2002, p. 72). Without reviewing the lecture material, students remember less than 10 percent after three weeks (Bligh, 2000, p. 40). All instructors hope that their lectures will be the exception, but these numbers present a clear challenge: How can we guarantee that students learn and remember what we teach? How do we create and deliver lectures that stay with students long past the last few minutes of class? In this newsletter we take up this challenge, by considering how students attend to, make sense of, and absorb new information.”
Do I think my students will remember more than a quarter of the content of a lecture?
I have the evidence, from lecture and then assessment, that they don’t.
So what is a lecture? A chance to guide then into the subject material, so the textbook will make sense? Yes – but more than that, it is a chance to enthuse them about the subject. With stories, more minidramas, and raw passion, and things they will go away and tell other people about.
More recently, I’ve started discussing their learning strategies in the lecture – how will the students get the content from the plate in front of them into a useable package of knowledge.
Might see u at efest Derek.