Lectures given in this academic year: 20 so far
Times I’ve been unnerved by the students’ response: 20, I’m afraid!
As I have been employed as a ‘lecturer’ it is a pretty good assumption that lecturing will form a central part of my job. I expected this and despite having little experience previously I plunged into the world of the 50 minute undergraduate lecture with relative ease. From a teaching point of view they can take a while to prepare and are especially challenging if on a subject away from one’s specialism, but it’s from the students’ perspective that I find lectures rather…well, difficult really!
The traditional lecturing format is familiar to almost everyone who has attended an institution of higher education. The lecturer stands at the front and pontificates for just under an hour on an agreed subject, perhaps showing pictures or doing demonstrations. The role of the students is to sit quietly, listen and take notes. Some lecturers do allow interactive tasks, but many offer no participation at all, simply finishing the lecture saying ‘any questions?’ in a tone that almost forbids any student to say anything! When I lecture, I often catch my students’ eyes and it becomes obvious that they are not listening at all and are just staring out of the window! It’s ironic that most academics recognize the pedagogical pitfalls of the lecture (i.e. it’s impossible to tell whether the students have learned anything whatsoever during that hour) but few, including me, have done anything to break its hold on university life.
So perhaps it’s time for us to think about other ways of lecturing, making lectures more exciting, interactive, student friendly, and frankly, useful. This will be harder than it seems for, of course, students like lectures too! They like being required to do nothing other than scribble notes and they like being told what’s what by an authority figure rather than finding things out for themselves. But there’s no harm in addressing alternatives, and even if you are not in a permanent job but searching for one, thinking about this issue could help you stand out from the other candidates. Showing that you have thought seriously about teaching methods will appeal to many institutions and departments, so give it a go, and be as creative as you can! Anyone who has an innovative lecturing method they would like to share…please reply to this blog post!
Hello Catherine,
I have been following your blog with interest and this particular posting caught my attention. Although, I have been more recently involved in management of international development cooperation projects I have had considerable experience in academia. Enough to convince me of the limitations of learning and teaching in higher learning institutes including what you highlight in your posting.
You might be interested to learn about some activities and initiatives that are underway that might be of some help. There is the Learning and Teaching for Transformation (LTT) initiative that is housed at IDS in the University of Sussex. You can check this out at my own blog http://rurality-danh.blogspot.com/2007/09/learning-and-teaching-for.html
I have an interest in exploring new and innovative approaches to learning and teaching in general. This is not confined to formal education but covers a broad range of informal approaches. I have posted on these quite often and they are gathered under this section: http://rurality-danh.blogspot.com/search/label/Learning in my blog. Maybe they will give you some help and guidance.
There are also a number of University-based initiatives underway that might be of interest. The Global University Network for Innovation (GUNI) is one such network. I think there is a posting on GUNI and their upcoming conference on my blog. There are a number of other such networks that explore and share novel appoaches to teaching and learning. If you are interested I can point you in the direction of some of these.
Dear Danny,
Thank you so much for your helpful links and resources, I hope that others who read this blog will also take the time to look at yours. I was especially interested by your post on the ‘third place’ – I often wonder whether the design of our classrooms, seminar rooms and offices inhibits many students from responding creatively to our teaching. Your material on socially responsible teaching methods is excellent too, certainly a lot of food for thought there.
Catherine