Some subscribers to TeamLearnning-L might be interested in Eric
Mazur's <http://mazur-www.harvard.edu/> engaging talk "Confessions
of a Converted Lecturer" at the University of Maryland on 11
November 2009. The abstract reads:
"I thought I was a good teacher until I discovered my students were
just memorizing information rather than learning to understand the
material. Who was to blame? The students? The material? I will
explain how I came to the agonizing conclusion that the culprit was
neither of these. It was my teaching that caused students to fail! I
will show how I have adjusted my approach to teaching and how it has
improved my students' performance significantly."
That talk is now on UTube at
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwslBPj8GgI>; and the abstract,
slides, and references - sometimes obscured in the UTube talk - are
at <http://tinyurl.com/ybc53jw> as a 4 MB pdf.
As of 16 March 2010, Eric's talk had been viewed by some 12,800 UTube fans!
In contrast, serious articles in the education literature, often read
only by the author and a few cloistered academic specialists, usually
create tsunamis in educational practice equivalent to those produced
by a pebble dropped into the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
For other commentary critical of the passive-student lecture - staple
of U.S. higher education - see e.g.:
a. "Scholars at a Lecture" [Hogarth ((1822);
b. "The Lecture System in Teaching Science" [Morrison (1986)] - a
MUST-READ all-time classic!;
c. "Science Lectures: A relic of the past? [Mazur (1996)];
d. "The College Lecture, Long Derided, May Be Fading" [Honan (2002)];
e. "Re: The college lecture may be fading" [Hake (2002)];
f. "Mary Burgan's Defense of Lecturing" [Hake (2007)];
g. "At M.I.T., Large Lectures Are Going the Way of the Blackboard"
[Rimer (2009)];
h. "Farewell, Lecture?" [Mazur (2009)].
Yes, I'm aware of the seemingly lecture-friendly:
1. "A time for telling" [Schwartz & Bransford (1998)];
2. "Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An
Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based,
Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching" [Kirschner, Sweller, &
Clark (2006)].
Regarding Schwartz & Bransford (1998), their abstract ends:". . .the
results indicate that there is a place for lectures and readings in
the classroom IF STUDENTS HAVE SUFFICIENTLY DIFFERENTIATED DOMAIN
KNOWLEDGE TO USE THE EXPOSITORY MATERIALS IN A GENERATIVE MANNER."
[My CAPS.]
In response, I wrote in "Re: Constructivism in the APB classroom"
[Hake (2008)]:
"But judging from the abysmally low pre-to-post test average
normalized gains on tests of conceptual understanding for
traditional high-school and college mechanics courses (Hake
(1998a,b)], it would appear that the traditional learning strategy
given to students by instructors for learning physics . . . . does
NOT supply students with 'sufficiently differentiated domain
knowledge to use the expository materials in a generative manner' [a
loose translation from the psychologize might be: "sufficient
conceptual understanding to benefit from the lecture."
Regarding Kirschner, Sweller, & Clark (2006), as indicated in
"Language Ambiguities in Education Research" [Hake (2008)], their
failure to *operationally* define pedagogical terms hinders any
meaningful interpretation of their paper. Quoting Klahr and Li
(2005) "we suggest that those engaged in discussions about
implications and applications of educational research should focus on
clearly defined instructional methods and procedures, rather than
vague labels and outmoded '-isms.' "
Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands
Honorary Member, ARFU (Academic Reference Freaks United)
<[log in to unmask]>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/>
<http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com/>
<http://iub.academia.edu/RichardHake>,
REFERENCES[Tiny URL's courtesy <http://tinyurl.com/create.php>.]
Hake, R.R. 1998a. "Interactive-engagement vs traditional methods: A
six-thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for introductory
physics courses," Am. J. Phys. 66: 64-74; online at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/ajpv3i.pdf> (84 kB).
Hake, R.R. 1998b. "Interactive-engagement methods in introductory
mechanics courses," online at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/IEM-2b.pdf> (108 kB). A crucial
companion paper to Hake (1998a).
Hake, R.R. 2002. "Re: The college lecture may be fading," online on
the OPEN! POD archives at <http://tinyurl.com/y8kddm6>. Post of 21
Aug 2002 15:34:25-0700 to Chemed-L, EvalTalk, Math-Learn, Math-Teach,
Phys-L, PhysLrnR, and POD.
Hake, R.R. 2007. "Re: Mary Burgan's Defense of Lecturing," online on
the OPEN! POD archives at < http://tinyurl.com/yftrgmt>. Post of 20
Feb 2007 15:45:37-0800 to Chemed-L, PhysLrnR, & POD.
Hake, R.R. 2008a. "Re: Constructivism in the APB classroom," online
on the OPEN! AERA-K archives at <http://tinyurl.com/yj556qd>,
Hake, R.R. 2008b. "Language Ambiguities in Education Research,"
submitted to the "Journal of Learning Sciences" on 21 August 2008 but
mindlessly rejected; online at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/LangAmbigEdResC.pdf> (1.2
MB)
Hogarth, W. 1822. "Scholars at a Lecture," online at
<http://www.artoftheprint.com/artistpages/hogarth_william_scholarsatalecture.htm>.
Honan, W.H. 2002. "The College Lecture, Long Derided, May Be Fading,"
New York Times, August 14, 2002; online at
<http://tinyurl.com/yjsanjf>.
Kirschner, P.A., J. Sweller, & R.E. Clark. 2006. "Why Minimal
Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure
of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and
Inquiry-Based Teaching." Educational Psychologist 41(2): 75-86;
online at <http://tinyurl.com/3xmp2m> (176 kB).
Klahr, D. & J. Li. 2005. "Cognitive Research and Elementary Science
Instruction: From the Laboratory, to the Classroom, and Back,"
Journal of Science Education and Technology 14(2): 217-238; online as
a 536 kB pdf at <http://tinyurl.com/2b62uk> (536 kB).
Mazur, E. 1996. "Science Lectures: A relic of the past? Physics World
9: 13-14; online at
<http://mazur-www.harvard.edu/sentFiles/Mazur_22862.pdf> (1 MB).
Mazur, E. 2009. "Farewell, Lecture?" Science 323 (5919): 50-51, 2
January; online to subscribers at
<http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/323/5910/50>. Free to
all at <http://tinyurl.com/sbys4>.
Morrison, R.T. 1986. "The Lecture System in Teaching Science," in
"Proceedings of the Chicago Conferences on Liberal Education, Number
1, Undergraduate Education in Chemistry and Physics (edited by Marian
R. Rice). The College Center for Curricular Thought: The University
of Chicago, October 18-19, 1989; online at
<http://entropysite.oxy.edu/morrison.html>, thanks to Gutenberg
lecture pioneer Frank Lambert. (The Gutenberg lecture method
recognizes the invention of the printing press!)
Rimer, S. 2009. "At M.I.T., Large Lectures Are Going the Way of the
Blackboard," New York Times, 12 January; online at
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/us/13physics.html?_r=1?> (with 74
comments as of 15 March 2010).
Schwartz, D. L. & J. D. Bransford, 1998. "A time for telling,"
Cognition & Instruction 16(4): 475-522; an abstract is online at
<http://www.jstor.org/pss/3233709>.
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