For this weeks blog I am going to examine another teaching methodology commonly used in Bangor University: Lectures.
Lecturing is the most popular methodology of teaching adults, used by universities worldwide to transfer knowledge and stimulate student thought (Bligh, 1998). Kowalski (1987, as cited in Bligh 1998) found that 73% of students felt the aim of lectures was primarily to transfer facts – but is this the main aim of education? – Do lectures actually satisfy the aims of education?
Charlton (2006) implies that lectures are an effective method of teaching students, suggesting that learning through direct speech is natural and encourages attention whilst enhancing how memorable the information is. A common argument against lectures is that they are ‘Spoon-feeding’ students, however Charlton (2006) addresses this by suggesting that it does not matter how students acquire knowledge, its more important that they know and understand it.
In relation to early learning theories, lectures could be seen as a product of the behaviourist learning theory. The behavioural theory has significantly impacted education, developing programmes, approaches and methodologies in teaching, such as lectures, which provide information from an expert, through structured guidance, a component of education that Dewey (1938) considers necessary. Although this methodology results in the development of knowledge, methods such as lectures generally do not result in high levels of engagement or in-depth perceptions of information (Austin, Orcutt & Rosso, 2001).
Michaelsen, Knight and Fink (2002) highlighted two major disadvantages that occur as a result of lectures, they suggested that students feel anomalous and are passive in lecture settings. To address this they promote the success of small group work indicating that participation and activities within a group eliminate both the feeling of anonymity and students passive behaviour, whilst ensuring students understand the applications of concepts rather that just knowing them. Carbone (1999) highlights a further disadvantage of lectures, implying that lectures generally have poorer attendance, more distractions and disruptive behaviour than smaller classes, thus indicating issues associated with lectures.
Many theories of learning such as that constructed by Thorndike (1927) describe the necessity of active learning within education, a concept which university lectures often ignore. But is there a way of making lectures more interactive? Huxham (2005) found that when ‘interactive windows’ involving debates, discussion and challenges were introduced into lectures, student evaluations found these to be the most preferred feature within the lecture. Therefore interactions could be added to enhance student involvement within lectures to enhance engagement and inspire critical analysis.
Overall I consider the evidence supporting lectures to be quite weak, as it only focuses on how to increase students knowledge of facts. Rather than endorsing in depth explanations, independent researching and true understanding of concepts, lectures provide students with information which they attempt to recall for exams – this is not learning, this is merely memorising information, and the education system should be based on more than this.
Vast amounts of evidence have suggested that small groups are more successful than lectures (Michaelsen, Knight & Fink, 2002) but despite this universities are still using lectures as a main method of learning. But why are they so stuck in their way? Research conducted by (Lake, 2001) compared 170 students performance and achievement perceptions of both lectures and group based teaching methods. They found that although students actually performed better in active group work condition, they perceived a higher sense of learning from the lecture condition. Thus indicating that students believe lectures to be better, therefore perhaps explaining why university’s still use them; as they are more preoccupied with giving students what they want, to ensure student satisfaction is high, rather than what is actually best for their learning.
Therefore I would conclude that lectures are not necessarily “the best teaching method” as suggested by Charlton (2006) they may be successful in spoon-feeding students but it does not endorse in-depth understanding or learning. Research indicates that small group work is a more successful method of teaching, although it has demonstrated that lectures could be enhanced by adding interaction such as questions or discussions. Perhaps the educational system, in particular universities, should focus on applying the best educational techniques rather than what the students want, find easiest or consider to be best technique merely to ensure satisfaction.
References:
Austin, K., Orcutt, S., & Rosso, J. (2001) How people learn: Introduction to learning theories.
Bligh, D. (1998). Whatas the use of lectures?. Intellect books.
Carbone, E. (1999). Students behaving badly in large classes. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 1999(77), 35-43.
Charlton, B. G. (2006). Lectures are such an effective teaching method because they exploit evolved human psychology to improve learning. Medical hypotheses, 67(6), 1261-1265.
Dewey, J. (1938). The Experience of education. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster
Huxham, M. (2005). Learning in lectures Do ‘interactive windows’ help?. Active learning in higher education, 6(1), 17-31.
Lake, D. A. (2001). Student performance and perceptions of a lecture-based course compared with the same course utilizing group discussion. Physical Therapy, 81(3), 896-902.
Michaelsen, L. K., Knight, A. B., & Fink, L. D. (Eds.). (2002). Team-based learning: A transformative use of small groups. Greenwood Publishing Group.
Thorndike, E. L. (1927). The law of effect. The American Journal of Psychology, 39(1/4), 212-222.
kp1203 
Very Interesting blog indeed, this form of education is really not the best way of learning or teaching. This style of teaching is not even considered to be the best way of teaching by teachers using it. It has been suggest that this form of education does not take into account teaching conceptions. It is systematic and does not allow for the underlying beliefs of the teacher and is considered a one size fits all teaching method (Kember, 1997). Although, it is still the most widely used teaching format with in the higher educational system in the UK and world.
Although the lecture system has changed in recent years, teachers themselves in higher education are more professional in their approach to lecturing. This may be down to as suggested by Laurillard (2001) “universities providing an infrastructure that enables university teachers to be as professional in their teaching as they aspire to be in their research.” The motivation behind teaching has changed lecturing is now not only an opportunity for a professor to teach but also promote and spread the word about their particular area of research.
Reference
Kember, D. (1997). A reconceptualisation of the research into university academics’ conceptions of teaching. Learning and instruction, 7(3)
Laurillard, D. (2002). Rethinking university teaching: A conversational framework for the effective use of learning technologies. Psychology Press.
I don’t think lectures are dead, they are still the best way of giving information over to large numbers of students at once, but I do think a lot depends on the lecturer in question. In my time here I have had lecturers from whom I have learned a great deal (Fay and Jessie to name a couple) and some from which I have learned nothing except that their voice puts me to sleep (mentioning no names here!) as well as the lecturer, the students individual preferences may also play a part, some learn better through lectures and others though more involved learning.
Part of this variation is also affected by the style in which the lecturer gives over the information (Such as the use of humour and anecdotes as discussed by short and Martin 2011), the amount of time spent on interactive learning (such as the use of clickers) and effective PowerPoint slides all make a difference, for example Bartsch & Cobern, (2003) found that students learned best when the slides continued text and images which were related to the information the students needed to learn. One way in which lectures could be updated to make use of modern technology is through v/podcasting; that is recording the lecturers for a student to download and work though in their own time, this has the advantage that if something is misunderstood the lecture can be re-wound and replayed until it becomes clear.
Small group work may be more effective, but one needs to consider how this would be managed within a module, to teach 300 students in small groups, the amount of time the tutor could spend with each group would be very limited, and the trade-off of time may reduce learning to a level lower than would be found in a series of lectures. In many cases the learning outcomes are not significantly different when they are directly compared to lecturers, for example Miller (2003) compared both student satisfaction and performance amongst students on a pharmacology course, half of whom had traditional lectures and half of whom had problem based learning (PBL) curriculum, the group doing PBL preformed slightly better on the midterm and the lecture group on the final exam, but overall both groups preformed in a similar manner.
References:
Bartsch, R. A., & Cobern, K. M. (2003). Effectiveness of PowerPoint presentations in lectures. Computers & Education, 41(1), 77-86.
Evans, C. (2008). The effectiveness of m-learning in the form of podcast revision lectures in higher education. Computers & education, 50(2), 491-498.
Miller, S. K. (2003). A Comparison of Student Outcomes Following Problem‐Based Learning Instruction Versus Traditional Lecture Learning in a Graduate Pharmacology Course. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 15(12), 550-556
Short, F., & Martin, J. (2011). Presentation vs. Performance: Effects of Lecturing Style in Higher Education on Student Preference and Student Learning. Psychology Teaching Review, 17(2), 71-82
I appreciate that the qualities of a lecturer and their powerpoint such as humor, body movement, tone of voice (Burke & James, 2008) may effect the attention of students but I do not feel it is a significant factor in learning. Clarke (2008) suggested that powerpoint presentations were only effective when they stimulated the students engagement, therefore implying the academic content was more important than aesthetic factors such as display features, pictures and fonts.
Research by James, Burke and Hutchins (2006) suggested lecturers considered their powerpoints to be more effective than in their students perspective. They also indicated that both students and staff members consider powerpoints to be effective in enhancing notes, attracting attention and improving recollection of content within exams, therefore indicating lectures with powerpoints aids memory and subsequently exam performance, however does this necessarily ensure learning and indepth understanding?
I agree with Mathew, that despite lectures not being the best method, they are still being used, perhaps for ease and as Caroline points out, because it reaches a large audience. However I feel they should be improved and can be made more interactive to engage the students. Research conducted by Burke and James (2008) suggested that audience participation, such as questioning and small group activities, has a vital role in lectures to motivating and capture attention.
Burke, L. A., & James, K. E. (2008). PowerPoint-based lectures in business education: An empirical investigation of student-perceived novelty and effectiveness. Business Communication Quarterly, 71(3), 277-296.
Clark, J. (2008). Powerpoint and Pedagogy: Maintaining Student Interest in University Lectures. College Teaching, 56(1), 39-44.
James, K. E., Burke, L. A., & Hutchins, H. M. (2006). Powerful or pointless? Faculty versus student perceptions of PowerPoint use in business education. Business Communication Quarterly, 69(4), 374-396.
Interestingly Myers (in Trosberg’s book, 2010) described his experiences when he moved from Texas university to one in Britain, he found a significant difference in university teaching methods. Instead of teaching through a series of question and answers or discussion based learning in reasonably small groups, the change to the UK university tradition of lecturing to hundreds of students who barely ask a question was quite a negative contrast.
The use of discussion groups leads me to the topic of coursework, a popular assessment methods associated with group work as discussion provides an excellent base for essays. Research conducted by Sander, Stevenson, King and Coates (2000) indicated that students preferred both group based discussion activities and coursework assessment methods. Kniveton (1996) also indicated that students perceived coursework as a fairer assessment than examinations, and that coursework was a better predictor of academic achievement.
As research has indicated the negativity associated with both lectures and exams as methods of teaching and assessment, perhaps we should focus on the use of more small groups and coursework instead.
Kniveton, B. H. (1996). Student perceptions of assessment methods. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 21(3), 229-237.
Myers: Trosborg, A. (Ed.). (2000). Analysing professional genres. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Sander, P., Stevenson, K., King, M., & Coates, D. (2000). University students’ expectations of teaching. Studies in Higher Education, 25(3), 309-323.
I agree with your conclusion that lectures are not the best teaching method. So much of what we have learned in this class speaks against the use of traditional lectures in education. One of Chris’ previous blogs (A sum that is greater than its parts) summarizes some contemporary strategies for learning. An essential part of effective learning seems to be student engagement or, in other words, getting the student actively involved in his or her learning experience (e.g. through autonomy support, social learning etc.). The traditional lecture contradicts this notion.
Maybe lectures could still be partly integrated into the educational system but at least in combination with other teaching methods and in an altered way. In his TED talk Donald Clark mentions the teaching method employed by Harvard professor Eric Mazur that departs from the classical lecture. Clark says that Mazur stops his lectures every five minutes asking his students questions in order to get them to “adopt peer learning techniques [or] active learning techniques” for improved learning. Maybe the lecture, if it continues to play a significant role in education, should be made more effective through techniques such as the one used by Eric Mazur.
The argument that the lecture reaches a large audience is not significant anymore because technology enables anyone to reach millions of people easily (in the beginning of 2013 the Khan Academy reached around 6 million students per month).
I also had some brilliant lecturers, for example in statistics, anthropology or psychology as a science, throughout my academic life but they were in a minority. Being a good scientist does not necessarily mean being a good lecturer. What is the social dimension of a lecture in which a professor talks to a hall filled with students for an hour? Even in lectures with smaller audiences active student engagement may be limited.
Caroline said that “some learn better through lectures and others though more involved learning”. I wonder if there is any evidence that supports the idea that students learn better with lectures as compared to other teaching methods. I doubt that.
Furthermore you (Caroline) mentioned the study by Miller (2003) finding that the “group doing PBL performed slightly better on the midterm and the lecture group on the final exam, but overall both groups preformed in a similar manner”. It is important to note that scoring high on a test does not necessarily indicate effective learning (as indicated by the the benefits of mastery goals over performance goals with the latter being present in the educational system, e.g. see Ciani, Middleton, Summers and Sheldon, 2010).And if not for the sake of being able to measure the difference between lecture learning and problem based learning why bother using a test to assess learning progress?
When it comes to the debate on lectures there will always be those who like them and those who would prefer an alternative, because there will always be positive and negative aspects of lectures. As stated by Caroline, lectures are still an effective way of passing on information to large numbers of students at once, but it could be argued that the internet can do exactly the same thing. Within lectures students play a passive rather than active role in their learning and they usually only allows for one way communication. It has been found that students learn significantly more and develop a far better understanding of subjects while being taught in more interactive environment (Knight and Wood, 2005). By increasing the interaction within a lecture, between teachers, students and the lecture content, it results in increased motivation, attention and satisfaction, and promotes active learning (Snell, 1999).
References:
Knight, J. K., & Wood, W. B. (2005). Teaching more by lecturing less. Cell Biology Education, 4(4), 298-310.
Snell, Y. S. L. S. (1999). Interactive lecturing: strategies for increasing participation in large group presentations. Medical Teacher, 21(1), 37-42.
I agree, lectures are not ideal but they are a way of communicating with large audiences effectively. You argue that the internet could be used in the same way but I was wondering how you meant?
Research by Dewhurst, Macleod and Norris (2000) replaced cardiovascular lectures with an alternative computer based learning programme, they found that overall students were positive about using the computer based learning however they found no significant difference between academic success measured through module examinations.Thus indicating that although students are positive about internet based learning it may not necessarily result in higher academic achievements than the current lecture method used in most universities.
You also focus on the demand for interaction within education, Garrison and Cleveland-Innes (2005) indicate that it is also a central concept within online learning. New technology and design features have been introduced which allow online education to flourish in terms of interacting ability however is this enough? Can we learn through virtual interaction alone? Anderson and Garrison (1998) demonstrate that interaction is considered the ability to discuss and critical analyse concepts, therefore for this to be done perhaps we require communication passed the computer level. Can internet or computer based interactions really replace the need for face to face discussion and interaction with peers, tutors and fellow students?
Anderson, T., & Garrison, D. R. (1998). Learning in a networked world: New roles and responsibilities. Distance learners in higher education, 97-112.
Dewhurst, D. G., Macleod, H. A., & Norris, T. A. (2000). Independent student learning aided by computers: an acceptable alternative to lectures?. Computers & Education, 35(3), 223-241.
Garrison, D. R., & Cleveland-Innes, M. (2005). Facilitating cognitive presence in online learning: Interaction is not enough. The American Journal of Distance Education, 19(3), 133-148.
In 1990, Rand Spiro critiqued linear media such as lectures for their inability to teach at higher levels of education. They do not promote cognitive flexibility, the ability to approach a subject in different ways. This skill allows you to understand the breadth of a subject, the many ways in which it can be accessed, and also how it shares similar approaches with other subjects.
Lectures also give very little chance for interaction between the lecturer and the learners, any questions asked of the students never require more than a line or two as an adequate answer. If student’s had better access to their lecturers in order to ask them questions, this would enable a deeper level of understanding and reasoning, which would strengthen the person’s mental perception of the subject. Being asked more in-depth questions by the lecturer, such as hypothetical reasoning questions, would also help gain a deep level of understanding in a subject, as these also reinforce their mental perception of a subject (Craig et al, 2006). This would allow a learner to understand the depth of a subject, enabling them to understand how a subject works both within itself and how it interacts with other subjects.
Craig, S. D., Sullins, J., Witherspoon, A., & Gholson, B. (2006). The deep-level-reasoning-question effect: The role of dialogue and deep-level-reasoning questions during vicarious learning. Cognition and Instruction, 24(4), 565-591.
Nix, D., & Spiro, R. (Eds.). (1990). Cognition, education and multimedia: Exploring ideas in high technology. Routledge.
I believe that it is largely dependent on how the lecturer is delivering the information, what other teaching methods are being used and how well written the presentation slides are. Bloom et al. (1956) states that there are various strengths of using lectures, one of which is that if the lecturer is passionate enough, it gives them a chance to communicate this, and show how enthusiastic they are about the topic. If the lecturer shows intrinsic interest, the students learning are more likely to also show interest in the subject.
I also think that is a big thing to disregard lectures, as it is an extremely good method of summarising lots of information and material in order to the help the students learn about a wide scope of things in a short space of time.
However, lecturing may not always be appropriate for higher levels of learning, as it doesn’t teach comprehension, application, analysis, evaluation (Bloom, 1956) or creativity techniques (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001).
Therefore, delivering the lectures in the right way as well as using alternative teaching methods for learning would be the most effective in education.
References:
Anderson, L.W. and Krathwohl, D. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Longman.
Bloom, B.S., Engelhart, M.D., Furst, E.J., Hill, W.H., and Krathwohl, D.R. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: Handbook I, the cognitive domain. New York: David McKay.
Lectures are not the best way to learn, there is so much evidence supporting the fact that lectures are not efficient, and there is hardly any evidence supporting the fact that they are efficient.
However, research has shown that when lectures are delivered in the correct way they can be quite effective. From my own experience, I remember certain lectures more depending on which lecturer gave the lecture. This is because certain lecturers are amusing and manage to keep you engage just by having a bubbly, enthusiastic personality. Whereas some lecturers just kind of deliver the facts and you get kind of bored and then you drift off and then you forget what you were taught in that particular lecture because the lecturer didn’t engage you as best they could.
Another reason as to why lectures don’t really have the desired effect is because research has shown that discussion is one of the best ways for people to learn. Lectures leave hardly any room for discussion. It is also down to the learner how much attention they want to pay to the lecture that is happening. If they decide to just not listen then they’re not going to take in any of what is being said.
Lectures are not a good way to learn, discussion is much more fruitful and expressive.
This blog seems to have created some debate over whether or not it is best to keep lectures. For this reason it is best to figure out what the purpose of a lecture is, to education or disseminate information to a large number of people? For argument sake let’s say that they are to educate.
The learning pyramid (http://christopherjwwilkins.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/learning_pyramid.jpg) has shown that lectures are an inefficient method of educating students when it comes to the retention of information. So if the purpose of a lecture is to educate; why then does it take the form of a method that is proven to be ineffective?
Discussion has been proven to be a more effective method in terms of information retention. It can take the form of discussion during a lecture with peers (Smith, Wood, Adams, Wieman, Knight, Guild & Su, 2009) or via an online forum (Henri, 1992). Seminars are a more effective system compared to lectures as they can incorporate several methods including active (Prince, 2004), student-centred (Brown-Wring, 2011), collaborative (Slavich & Zimbardo, 2012), experiential (Kolb & Kolb, 2005) and problem-based learning (Slavich & Zimbardo, 2012).
During my first talk in this module I included the following quote:
“Intelligent men do not decide any subject until they have carefully examined both or all sides of it. Fools, cowards, and those too lazy to think, accept blindly, without examination, dogmas and doctrines imposed upon them in childhood by their parents, priests, and teachers, when their minds were immature and they could not reason.”
It is a quote by James Hervey Johnson. I choose this quote as he was a freethinker; he believed that opinions should be based on logic, reason, and empiricism rather than authority, tradition or other dogmas. When taking this viewpoint, lectures, as a method of educating, are ineffective and should be replaced with more efficient methods such as the ones I have highlighted above.
References
Brown-Wright, G. (2011). Student-centered learning in higher education. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 23, 92–97.
Henri, F. (1992). Computer conferencing and content analysis. Collaborative Learning Through Computer Conferencing NATO ASI Series, 90, 117-136.
Kolb, A. Y., & Kolb, D. A. (2005). Learning styles and learning spaces: Enhancing experiential learning in higher education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 4(2), 193-212.
Prince, M. (2004). Does active learning work? A review of the research. Journal of Engineering Education, 93(3), 223-231.
Slavich, G. M., & Zimbardo, P. G. (2012). Transformational teaching: Theoretical underpinnings, basic principles and core methods. Educational Psychology Review, 24(4). 569-608. DOI 10.1007/s10648-012-9199-6.
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