Colleges Looking Beyond the Lecture

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College Professors Chatboard

Colleges Looking Beyond the Lecture

by pixie

Feb 16, 2012

FYI; This was in today's Washington Post.

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Prof Phil On 2/16/12, pixie wrote: > FYI; This was in today's Washington Post.

Good article, but not much new. Leading educators have been saying this for years.

I have been teaching at the university for over 25 years. I have some classes where I still lecture and some where I have been able to replace lecture with learning activities....See More

Feb 18, 2012

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pixie I think short lecture segments can be interspersed with interactive learning activities that students do in pairs or small groups. Research shows that students learn best in a social contexzt and learn least through lecture.

On 2/18/12, Prof Phil wrote: > On 2/16/12, pixie wrote: >> FYI; This was in today's Washington Post. > &...See More

Feb 21, 2012

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Prof Phil On 2/21/12, pixie wrote: > I think short lecture segments can be interspersed with > interactive learning activities that students do in pairs or > small groups. Research shows that students learn best in a social > contexzt and learn least through lecture. > > > > On 2/18/12, Prof Phil wrote: >> On 2/16/12, pixie wrot...See More

Feb 22, 2012

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pixie Thank you for the book recommendation. I will check it out.

On 2/22/12, Prof Phil wrote: > On 2/21/12, pixie wrote: >> I think short lecture segments can be interspersed with >> interactive learning activities that students do in pairs or >> small groups. Research shows that students learn best in a social >> co...See More

Feb 22, 2012

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Other Options My husband who went into engineering to educate American students for the real engineering world of the 20th and now 21st century in terms of skills sets agrees with you completely. Yet in the schools of engineering it is like the computer has not been invented for teaching - only for research and for social media context.

I think you wou...See MoreMy husband who went into engineering to educate American students for the real engineering world of the 20th and now 21st century in terms of skills sets agrees with you completely. Yet in the schools of engineering it is like the computer has not been invented for teaching - only for research and for social media context.

I think you would agree that there is little incentive for younger faculty to indicate any overt or extra interest in teaching as the pressure is on them to bring in the big buck research grants, publish in inane journals for the most part, and do as little teaching as possible. As you indicated undergraduate classes are getting larger - not just in freshman classes but even in junior and senior years when there should be seminars or smaller classes in major areas. Why because it is the undergrads that help pay the overhead and often graduate programs for students (many, many of whom are foreign).

I would go a step further and point out the real issue impeding change is the entire tenure and rewards system of the university from the top on down. The central administrators are putting the pressure on deans to bring in the bucks for the ever-growing central administrative staff, the dean is pushing the departments to do more with less and increase the money for overhead and the school, faculty are being told to keep up the big research contracts throughout their careers, and there is little thought given to the educational process or support for curriculum innovation - in most schools - in any serious way.

I think the key in the Washington Post article is that universities will be looking for the easiest and cheapest ways to say they are moving off of just the lecture model. It will be interesting to see at what "price point" the general public wakes up and rebels. The students demonstrating today are not wrong, it is just they do not quite know what they should be looking at - such as how many faculty are in a department, how many of that faculty are actually teaching, how many are not teaching on a given semester/year basis, AND what is the size of the class that factuly are teaching (IE are there the "chosen few" who just get to teach a nameless class in their own little research area to their own grad students while others are always carrying the larger loads.

My husband has 32 years in so he will be retiring in a year. But the interesting thing is that at 65, he can do rings around the students in terms of computer use in his field of engineering. The students who do take his courses are well versed and are being hired by top aerospace companies to use their technical skills.... He has not wavered in his goad as an educator of engineers, but we certainly do not like the trends that we see today. Basically the problem of higher education is very much like that of Wall Street and the housing crisis - one of collusion, coercion (for those who do not play the game) and corruptness between vested interests. Unfortunately, it is a very closed group of entities that most outside the hallowed walls of education have very little interest in or knowledge of. I think the tipping point is just about here in terms of the debt that college students or their families are now having to incur.

On 2/18/12, Prof Phil wrote: > On 2/16/12, pixie wrote: >> FYI; This was in today's Washington Post. > > Good article, but not much new. Leading educators have been > saying this for years. > > I have been teaching at the university for over 25 years. I > have some classes where I still lecture and some where I have > been able to replace lecture with learning activities. The > problem I see is that it takes a lot more work to create > significant learning experiences to replace the lecture (ref. > Dee Fink's book : Creating Significant Learning Experiences). > It also can demand more time that most class periods allow. > > As class sizes go up, it seems like workload goes up. This > discourages faculty from leaving the lecture model. > > We are adding a three hour lab to one of my courses so that we > can include the learning activities. Going to be interesting > to see how that works out...I'm excited to try it

Mar 1, 2012

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