In response to my post on inverting the lecture, a reader alerted me to this NPR story on how physicists at Arizona State are ditching the lecture format:
The test has now been given to tens of thousands of students around the world and the results are virtually the same everywhere. The traditional lecture-based physics course produces little or no change in most students' fundamental understanding of how the physical world works.
"The classes only seem to be really working for about 10 percent of the students," Arizona State's Hestenes says. "And I maintain, I think all the evidence indicates, that these 10 percent are the students that would learn it even without the instructor. They essentially learn it on their own."
He says that listening to someone talk is not an effective way to learn any subject.Lectures are so 1400's! Follow the link to hear the audio, or read the transcript.
Comments
"He says that listening to someone talk is not an effective way to learn any subject... Follow the link to hear the audio..."
:)
But I agree with your posts! Get 'em moving and talking!
Incidentally, for those who would like to learn more, I highly recommend Ed Prather and Gina Brissenden's and Tier 1 Workshops on using Lecture Tutorials and engaging students (also offered by others, all sponsored by CAE:
http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov/workshops/
).
These techniques (related to "inverting the lecture", but different) can work well even in large lecture halls where students stay in their seats! Ed himself teaches in a theater to many hundreds of students at once.