Re: Lecture (was Homework, was.....)

[Rick Tarara <rtarara@SAINTMARYS.EDU>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian McInnes" <bmcinnes@PNC.COM.AU>
> 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.

I'll agree with the last.  In my experience I see very few instructors use
the 'professional meeting' lecture as the instructional technique.  I do see
(and do have) instructor centered classrooms, but most often the
presentation of material includes plenty of questions directed to the
students, frequent questions from the students, the use of very small,
quick,  but pointed demonstrations, the use of animations and simulations,
etc.  The 'lecture' is much more of a multimedia, audience participation
'show'.  I, for one, still expect that the material presented in class needs
to be gone over, thought about, additional questions formed and asked.  For
science students, there is considerable work to be done on problem solving
as well, although this is not done in a vacuum.  I have extensive office
hours and I work with most of the students individually on their weekly
problem sets.  Feedback happens during these sessions and in our recitation
session when the homeworks are due.

The point here is that what I and many others do is not 'traditional' in
many ways, yet IS classified as such by Hake and others.  There is really a
huge variety in instructional formats and really no fully satisfactory way
to compare their results.  While people try with instruments such as the
FCI, there are just too many variables here, not the least of which are the
actual goals of the course--which may or may not have the knowledge and
skills involved in good FCI scores as a priority.  While on one hand I hear
most of the PER folks decry the use of standardized tests as a way to judge
performance in the public schools (because they don't like the tests), these
same people turn around and want to use their standardized test to judge the
effectiveness of various teaching techniques (they do like their tests).
;-)

rambling off the point, I know....

Rick

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Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
rtarara@saintmarys.edu

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