Lecture Me. Really

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/opinion/sunday/lecture-me-really.html

by abalashov • 11 years ago

6 1 11 years ago

r-w• 11 years ago

This would work well if all lessons and lectures were so carefully thought out. Unfortunately, a lot of teachers (I can’t speak of college professors from a place of experience) simply rephrase textbook concepts, couching them in knowledgeable-sounding language, and supplement them with diagrams ripped from Google Images (and sometimes even YouTube videos only tangentially related to the lesson, in an effort to retain students’ attention). From what I’ve gleaned by asking teachers critical questions, often they themselves do not understand the concepts they teach. In other cases, the teacher ends up doing the opposite, digesting and bulletizing the notes for the students and thereby severely curtailing the benefit of handwritten note-taking and stopping the critical thinking process before it starts.

In my opinion, the Socratic method wins out in this noisy environment of ideal teaching setups that are not so ideal in practice: when students are given a common goal, a resource for information, and guidance and encouragement, they not only think critically about the material, but also unwittingly develop an intuitive memory thereof. I also believe that having the teacher interface directly with students ensures that they do more than just the bare minimum—that they are enthused about and absorb the subject matter at hand.

Lecture Me. Really

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