Re: L5-To lecture or not to lecture?

[Peter Schoch <pschoch@NAC.NET>]

AMEN to that!

The new methodology everyone is pushing, less lecture and more
everything else ignores many of these "real world" constraints.

I can't do more labs with a crazy quilt scedule, no lab assistant, and
only a $900 budget for suppiles.  I can't use a Socratic method if I
can't depend upon the students having enough time to be prepared.  Our
Community College is all commuters, and most (90+%) work to afford to
come here.  They have already let me know, during several different
attempts at the Socratic method, that they neither have the time or
desire to learn this way.

My most recent attempt at this resulted in a complaint to the Dean that
I wasn't teaching.  So, I have lectured ever since.

Peter Schoch

Ludwik Kowalski wrote:
> Jim Green (see below) was promoting a Socratic Method of
> teaching two days ago. After doing something similar for
> three years I am considering "going back" to lecturing. I wish
> I had time to compose a sequence of observations extracted
> from the essays my students submit last night. The topic was
> was "How are we doing?" It is a calculus based University
> Physics night class and about 2/3 of students are serious and
> are doing reasonably well. It started with 24 students but
> now I have only 18. For several of them English is not the
> first language. The registration figure for the next semester
> do not look good, only 6 and 8, for two sections I was
> expected to teach. Is this "voting with their legs"?
>
> Students recognized good aspects of self learning but
> also brought same valuable criticism. It can be summarized
> like this. "I do not learn much from somebody mumbling
> and struggling in front of the class. I do not want to embarrass
> that person by asking questions. The method would work if
> we had time to study the textbook at home as much as
> necessary to come really prepared. We work full time, we
> have families, we have other courses. You are asking the
> impossible." Many asked me to change the method. I can
> not ignore this.
>
> Jim Green wrote (in two messages)
>
> > I use a Socratic Method of teaching... ...by the third or fourth
> > week the students see that the only way to get a grade in the
> > class is to come prepared and to join the discussion -- they must
> > show _me_ how to solve a problem, they must explain the
> > material to _me_ by answering _my_ questions -- phrased as
> > a student might ask them.
> >
> > For those first few weeks many of the students clearly hate the
> > process --they are not used to it.  But later we have good report
> > and we all become friends and enjoy the learning. ...
> >
> > Again I strongly recommend that physics teachers move away
> > from straight lectures.  Students come to class with a blank mind
> > and sit in standard student position and copy everything from
> > the board to paper -- with their minds still blank -- all the while
> > carrying the ridiculous idea that they can cram this stuff in the
> > night before the tests.  Students should come to class with
> > questions and get them answered in class.