LECTURES

(From Active Learning: Cooperation in the College Classroom, by D. W. Johnson, R. T. Johnson, and K. Smith, Interaction Book Company, 1991, p. 5:1-5:9)

ADVANTAGES

• can communicate large amount of material efficiently
• can be used to supplement or elaborate curriculum
• good if material has to be organized or presented in a particular way
• can provide introduction to unfamiliar area
• very efficient for expert-to-expert transmission
• can be used to present material not available elsewhere or hard to discover because of originality, complexity, or difficulty
• can be used to arouse interest in the subject
• is effective if lectures are skillfully delivered, with clear, enthusiastic, modulated voice, good eye contact, and appropriate gestures
• good mainly for auditory learners

PROBLEMS

• student attention wanders periodically and decays with time, starting at about 10 minutes into the lecture
• tends to promote lower-level learning of factual information.
• makes unwarranted assumption that all students need same information, presented orally at the same pace, impersonally and without dialogue with the presenter; have high memory capacity, have same prior knowledge, good note-taking strategies and skills, and are not susceptible to information-processing overload.
• students tend not to like it
• entertaining and clear lectures can mislead listener about the complexity of material being presented.

ENEMIES OF THE LECTURE

• preoccupation with outside affairs
• emotional moods of listener
• disinterest in material
• failure to understand
• feelings of isolation and alienation from others