Re: Homework (Was Measure of student understanding)

[Brian McInnes <bmcinnes@PNC.COM.AU>]

on 30/4/02 12:46 PM, Rick Tarara at rbtarara@SPRYNET.COM wrote:

> Whether lecture works or not , I am amused  that it continues to be the
> format used to communicate amongst professionals of almost all disciplines,
> and I believe is even used in the PER community at meetings.  ;-)

Yes, Rick, that's a quite pertinent point.  The key words may well be
"communications" and "professionals".  So we have a group of people with
similar interests and backgrounds and a shared ensemble of conceptual;
understandings.

 So if the guy who is holding the floor builds on this, there will be a flow
of information and an increase in knowledge and/or understanding among the
audience. If not, then we can observe, as we do from time to time, the heads
nodding in the audience, not in agreement with the speaker, but in sleep.

Often we hear, after a colloquium,  comments that the speaker pitched
his/her words of wisdom at the right level (and, occasionally, we hear the
opposite).  So the success of the lecture, as becomes clear in the
question/answer session (after the lecturer hands over control), lies in  an
interaction between the speaker and the members of the audience.

This really has little to do with "teaching" by lecture so common at
undergraduate or school level.

Brian McInnes