Don't Lecture Me

Should we still use lectures? This American RadioWorks program suggests not.

Once you get over the irony of an anti-1-hour-lecture radio presentation being 1 hour long and delivered vocally this is a solid and thought provoking documentary.

Part 1 - Do lectures work?

They make the distinction between learning how to solve problems and learning how to understand problems. It seems that lectures are a good means of getting people to learn how to solve problems (a good way to teach techniques) but less effective at getting people to understand ideas.

This was demonstrated by a test measuring conceptual understanding of physics at the start and end of a course. The increase in understanding was not very high in fact the increase in understanding was only around 14%.

Peer instruction has been proposed as an alternative. Here student participation is encouraged in a way similar to tutorials. Students are encouraged to discuss questions posed in class. By engaging with the question and trying to explain it the students become more involved and help each other understand through an imporved understanding of the position of a student - they are more familiar with the challenges that must be overcome in order to learn. It is not teaching by lecturing - it is teaching by questioning. The benefit? The learning benefits tripled.

This is the combination of a few things we know about.
- Working memory is limited
- Active learning is more effective than passive learning
- In fact passive learning doesn't really work

However in order for peer instruction to work students need to come to class with some understanding of what will be discussed. As such they are required to read the material before coming to class. How is this encouraged? Through the creation of online quizzes that are also used to guide the questions that will be used in class. In fact classes are created from the responses to a final question - what did you find the most difficult to understand?

So if lectures don't work why are they still around?
It's the way it has always been
Teaching is not viewed as important by Universities - Your research is important, you just need to able to get by with your teaching
Teaching is not often discussed by Academics - it is seen as an individual exercise

The combination of these factors limits and discourages innovation and improvement.

Part 2 - The college without lectures

University of Minnesota Rochester
An institution focussed on learning. Knowledge and the way it is being transmitted and used is changing so our structures for learning must also change. Students here sign releases on enrolment allowing the university to perform research on them. The research focuses on what works in teaching and all academic research staff are required to research what is and isn't working in their courses.

People learn when they're motivated to learn. A key part of this involves making connections. Connection here takes a number of meanings. In particular classes become connected. They cover similar content from different areas. For example biology, ethics, and writing. In fact teachers from one class can attend the others. This is a movement away from the Las Vegas model of courses - a move away from the idea that what goes on in this course stays in this course only.

Oddly there is a form of self selection bias occurring here in terms of the type of students they are taking on. The unique structure may make the results coming out of UMR harder to compare to other places. These may be a special type of student.