Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Constructivist teaching, was quantization



Jerome Epstein <jerepst@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

... Lecture teachers always convince themselves that THEIR students really
do understand, only problem is that the teacher in the next course always
finds little or no residue of understanding. It takes far more time and
far more internal processing than most teaching allows for.

My little experience in teaching without lecturing shows that this mode
of operation puts more demands on me. In a lecture mode I could prepare
presentations and follow my plans, more or less. In the student-centered
mode, on the other hand, I am a gambler. The success of an activity depends
on students, not on me. And I have no luxury of being ignorant of their
lack of understanding. It is so depressing to discover the naked truth
about ignorance of some university students. And I must learn to control
myself ...

The lecture mode evolved naturally to protect teachers and keep the level
of learning as high as possible. Students who could not make it were
expected to drop out. But today we are expected to offer a degree to
nearly all students, at least to those who make an effort to learn.

In my case teaching without lecturing was about as effective (in terms of
what students learn) as traditional teaching, maybe slightly more. Good
students liked it, poor students didn't (because they could not hide).