The lecture trap

Sometimes university instructors, especially the novices, get into the lecture trap. They somehow assume that lecturing is the “real” teaching, and the rest of the stuff is supplemental. Why do they assume so is easy to explain: First, this is how they were taught in college and even in graduate school, and second, how else do you cover so much material? It feels good to tell something to students. The magic act of telling transfers responsibility from the instructor to the students – I told you, and if you still don’t know, it is no longer my fault. If you have read the same thing, and failed to learn, it feels more like mine. Regardless of the reasoning, such instructors invest enormous amount of time and creativity into designing the right kinds of power point slides, and devote a lot of class time lecturing.

The problem with that – the genre is becoming increasingly difficult. There is a very small minority of instructors who do lectures really well. It comes naturally to them; they are quick, funny, charming, entertaining, can read the audience very well. These people can collect and release attention, they can build an almost magical rhythm, where fascinating problems are interrupted by jokes, and striking visuals. And then there is the rest of us. You have to be good enough to compete with thousands of professionally produced lectures put out there by the hundreds of top universities with huge budgets and professional film production assistance. Just look through the free MOOCs on either Coursera or EdX, or just browse YouTube. Can you beat that? Again, BOTH charisma and resources can make a lecture sing. Let us admit, we are not that well-resourced, and not that entertaining. Students are becoming more and more discerning, because the great lecturers are available to them at a click of a button. They will doze off at your merely adequate lectures, and blame you for it; not entirely without a cause.

It is much easier to engage students with other types of in-class activities. Consider games, simulations, quests, demos, structured discussions, short written exercises, case studies, skits, brainstorming sessions, problem analysis, debates, etc. I know what you are afraid of – that these are high-engagement, but low information-density activities. In other words, you are afraid the kids will get entertained, but learn very little. Well, you are a researcher, so do an experiment – lecture one section, and use methods that are more active in another, and show me material difference in either knowledge or skills. I bet you won’t find much, or your actively engaged students will do better. Of course, you still will have students read, and find a way to engage their readings. In addition, find those great lectures you cannot do yourself online, and ask them to watch those at home. You can even watch them in class together, where you can answer questions, and explain the difficult parts.

Yes, of course, one can screw up all those other methods, too. They all require preparation, and careful tuning from semester to semester. However, they are much harder to screw up and require less or the same prep time as lectures. Think of a semester-long course as a series of activities, where students do something in class every time. Insert mini-lecturers: what is about to happen, and what you all will learn or practice today. Then again, here is what you just learned, and a couple of things you still seem to be unsure about. Those will go a long way in establishing your expert authority – actually more than a long lecture which you are likely to mess up somewhere.

I don’t want to extol the virtues of hands-on instruction. I am just saying it is much less risky, and just as effective, or more effective than lectures. Students will still need you – your expertise and your wisdom, in shorter, more focused doses that is.