Out of consideration for Phys-L's self-appointed style czar Brian
Whatcott, I shall omit my usual plea to forgo hitting the reply
button and thereby needlessly resending this already archived 19 kB
message to all list subscribers.
John "Texas" Clement (2007), in his Phys-L post of 17 Feb 2007 titled
"Re: Mary Burgan's Defense of Lecturing," wrote [my inserts at ". . .
. [insert]. . . ."]
"Since Burgan is not in science, perhaps the best response to her
editorial was published by her peers. . . . .[Weimer (2007), Calder
(2007), Dowell (2007)]. . . . . Thanks to someone who posted this on
another list. . . .[Karim Diff (2007) on PhysLrnR]. . . . Hake hardly
needed to rebut the editorial."
It's not clear to me why John regards letters-to-the-editor composers:
1. Weimer [a professor of Teaching and Learning], Calder [chair of a
History Department], and Dowell [a professor of Psychology] as more
the peers of English professor Burgan, than physicist Hake.
2. as having made superfluous my own response "Mary Burgan's Defense
of Lecturing" [Hake (2007)].
John evidently neglects or is unaware of the fact that Burgan (2007),
although an English professor, has much to say about science and math
education. Here are 12 examples [each rebutted in Hake (2007)]:
1. "Although I am concerned about the seemingly universal reliance on
massive and impersonal lectures for introductory science classes, I
would note that equipping science classrooms is very expensive.
Spaces for learning high-tech subjects may also require demonstration
equipment that cannot be replicated in a series of smaller rooms or
in poorly produced visual displays."
2. "And the dependence on lecture classes by the sciences may serve
cognitive as well as logistical ends."
3. "Although most science-reform programs call for faculty to find
ways to apply principles so that students can see their relevance,
many scientists continue to worry about whether the foundational
knowledge in the 'hard' sciences can be learned effectively through
group discussion."
4. "Indeed, cognitive scientists like Steven Pinker have argued that
basic knowledge, not only in math but in many fields of science,
cannot really be learned without a substantial amount of direct
exposition."
5. "Pinker (1997), in 'How the Mind Works' criticizes the
constructivists whose philosophy he describes as 'a mixture of
Piaget's psychology with counterculture and postmodernist ideology.' "
6. "In the constructivist model, [Pinker] says: 'Children must
actively construct mathematical knowledge for themselves in a social
enterprise driven by disagreements about the meanings of concepts.
The teacher provides the materials and the social milieu but does not
lecture or guide the discussion. Drill and practice, the routes to
automaticity, are called 'mechanistic' and seen as detrimental to
understanding' [Pinker (1997, p. 341-342)]. Pinker, on the other
hand, believes that concepts have to be laid out, explained, and
expounded."
7. "Somewhere along the way, as a colleague who has worked in math
education has commented to me, students 'must learn the arithmetic.'
And they must also have its relevance explained in demonstrations of
problems and theorems. In short, although both learning and teaching
are social transactions, many who consider the ways in which science
can be mastered believe that mastery cannot always be achieved
through intimate social transactions."
8. "No faculty member can 'guide' an ordinary student into
familiarity with the periodic table."
9. "It takes an extraordinary mind like that of Primo Levi or Oliver
Sacks to be spontaneously fascinated by the drama of chemicals and
the poetry of their symbols. Some theoretical physicists, like
Richard Feynman, are born with an instinct for mathematics, but the
mastery achieved by most students comes from the mental labor of
learning foundational information. And even lectures by experts
cannot make that easy."
10. "As a matter of fact, Feynman's three-volume set of lectures. . .
. .[[Feynman (2005), Feynman et al. (2005)]]. . . . ., drawn from his
introductory classes, became indispensable for those eager to learn
about quantum mechanics, even though some of his undergraduate
students at Cal Tech are said to have given up their seats when his
lecture hall began to fill with graduate students and his scientific
colleagues. Recordings of Feynman's lectures are still available; he
delivers complicated ideas in a brash Queens accent, punctuated by
jokes, ingenious analogies, and a friendly eagerness to accommodate
undergraduate limitations."
11. "Finally, then, lecturing should be defended because a narrow
view of learning as mainly self-generated misses the fact that the
vitality of the educational exchange in college often derives from
the engagement of the student with a professor who is himself
involved in a lifetime of discovery."
12. "In an eloquent essay on the teaching/learning nexus, Robert
Scholes. . . .[[2004, p. 124)]]. . . ., former president of the
Modern Language Association, makes this point. We 'teach in order to
learn,' he says. 'Organizing a course, preparing a lesson, we become
acutely aware of what we need to know to do that job properly-and of
the gap between that blessed state of perfect knowledge and our
actual situations. Teaching drives us to learning - and to the
learned who can help us join their company'. I suspect that
Scholes's definition of college teaching best matches the
understanding that drives many teachers in American higher education
- whether they lecture or conduct discussions. They believe that it
takes a knowledgeable, trained, passionate professional who has
committed to a career in real classrooms to instigate and direct what
'students do there. ' "
In my rebuttal to "10" above. i.e., Burgan's statement that
"Feynman's three-volume set of lectures drawn from his introductory
classes, became indispensable for those eager to learn about quantum
mechanics" I wrote:
. . .[[[But in the introduction to the 1963 edition, Feynman wrote:
"The question, if course, is how well this experiment has succeeded.
My own point of view - which, however, does not seem to be shared
with most of the people who worked with the students - is
pessimistic. I don't think I did very well by the students. When I
look at the way the majority of students handled the problems on the
examinations, I think the system is a failure."]]]. . .
On the other hand, John Hubisz (2007) wrote: "I have heard this story
many times . . .[that the Feynman lectures were failures for the
education of freshmen]. . ., but have also heard a contrary view
from some of those who actually took the course. I suggest reading
Matthew Sands' comments in . . . .["Feynman's Tips on Physics
[Feynman et al. (2005c)]. . where he suggests otherwise having
attended most of the lectures."
BTW:
1. Mary Burgan is not the first AAUP leader to express reservations
regarding non-traditional forms of university education - see "Why
'Active Learning' Can Be Perilous to the Profession: Faculty and
administrators are paying new attention to student learning,
sometimes for the wrong reasons" [Mattson (2005)] and the rebuttal by
Hake (2005b). Mattson was, at the time the president of the Ohio
University AAUP chapter.
2. In the January/February issue of Change there's a valuable
article "Counting and Recounting: Assessment and the Quest for
Accountability" by Lee Shulman (2007). His last paragraph is:
"The current quest for accountability creates a precious opportunity
for educators to tell the full range of stories about learning and
teaching. Counting and recounting can only be pursued together.
Counting without narrative is meaningless. Narrative without counting
is suspicious. We now have an opportunity to employ the many
indicators of learning that we can count for the most important
stories we have to tell."
In my opinion, the essays by Burgan (2007) and Mattson (205) essay
are long on narrative but woefully short on counting.
"Education is the acquisition of the art of the utilization of
knowledge. This is an art very difficult to impart. We must beware of
what I will call 'inert ideas' that is to say, ideas that are merely
received into the mind without being utilized or tested or thrown
into fresh combinations."
Alfred North Whitehead (1967) in "The Aims of Education."
REFERENCES
Burgan, M. 2006. "In Defense of Lecturing," Change Magazine,
November/December; online at
<http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/change/sub.asp?key=98&subkey=2105>.
Mary Burgan is former general secretary of the American Association
of University Professors (AAUP) and a former English professor at
Indiana University.
Calder, L. 2007. "Do Lectures Really Need Defenders?" Change Forum,
Letters to the Editor, Change Magazine, January/February, online at
<http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/change/index.asp?key=992>. Calder
is the Chair, History Department, Augustana College, Rock Island, IL.
Diff, K. 2007. "Re: Mary Burgan's Defense of Lecturing," PhysLrnR
post of 17 Feb 2007 21:28:37-0700; online at
<http://tinyurl.com/3ywqnj>/
Dowell, D.A. 2007. . "Do Lectures Really Need Defenders?" Change
Forum, Letters to the Editor, Change Magazine, January/February,
online at
<http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/change/index.asp?key=992>. Dowell
is Vice Provost, Director of Strategic Planning and Professor of
Psychology, _California State University Long Beach, _Long Beach, CA.
Feynman, R.P, 2005a. "The Very Best of the Feynman Lectures," Audio
CD, New York: Basic Books, Oct. 3, 2005. See also Feynman et al.
(2005b,c) and the Feynman Lectures website at
<http://www.feynmanlectures.info/>.
Feynman, R.P., R.B. Leighton, M. Sands. 2005b. "The Feynman Lectures
on Physics: The Definitive and Extended Edition" Addison Wesley; 2
edition; Amazon.com information at <http://tinyurl.com/2kekrl>.
Feynman, R.P., M.A. Gottlieb, & R.B. Leighton. 2005c. "Feynman's
Tips on Physics: A Problem-Solving Supplement to the Feynman Lectures
on Physics." Addison Wesley. Amazon.com information at
<http://tinyurl.com/25bv2l>.
Hake, R.R. 2005a. "In Defense of Cross Posting," online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0507&L=pod&P=R13219&I=-3>.
Post of 24 Jul 2005 21:54:34-0700 to AERA-C, AERA-D, AERA-G,
AERA-GSL, AERA-H, AERA-I, AERA-J, AERA-K, AERA-L, ASSESS, BioLab,
Biopi-L, EvalTalk, Math-Learn, PhysLrnR, POD, STLHE-L,
TeachingEdPsych, & TIPS.
Hake, R.R. 2005b. "Questions Active Learning," online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0501&L=pod&O=D&P=27821>.
Post of 29 Jan 2005 16:05:11-0800 to AERA-C, AERA-D, AERA-J, AERA-K,
AERA-L, ASSESS, EvalTalk, Math-Learn, PhysL, & PhysLrnR.
Hake, R.R. 2007. "Mary Burgan's Defense of Lecturing," AERA-L post
of 16 Feb 2007 22:05:16-0800; online at <http://tinyurl.com/36rkjt>;
the abstract only was unapologetically [Hake (2005a)] cross-posted to
AERA-A,B,C,D,G,H,I,J,K; ASSESS, AP-Physics, DrEd, EdResMeth,
EvalTalk, IFETS, Math-Learn, Math-Talk, Math-Teach, Phys-L, Physhare,
PhysLrnR, PsychTeacher (rejected), RUME, STLHE-L, TeachingEdPsych,
and TIPS. ABSTRACT: Excerpts from Mary Burgan's Change article "In
Defense of Lecturing" suggest that her essay would have been more
appropriately titled "In Defense of the Sage on the Stage," since she
extols lecturing sages rather than lecturers per se. Aside from my
own criticisms that I triple bracket [[[. . . .]]] within the
excerpts, the most incisive criticism of Burgan's lecturing sage, in
my opinion, is that of Russ Hunt, who asks why the lecturing sage
doesn't stop lecturing and simply defer to the sage behind Bound
Optimally Organized Knowledge (BOOK). The use of BOOK rather than
sages lecturing to intellectually passive students was recommended 44
years ago by chemist Frank Lambert, who called this radical departure
from traditional university practice the Gutenberg method because it
recognizes the invention of the printing press.
Hubisz, J. 2007. "Re: Mary Burgan's. (sic) and Feynman." PhysLrnR
post of 18 Feb 2007 23:16:31-0500; online at
<http://tinyurl.com/38pv6v>.
Mattson, K. 2005. "Why 'Active Learning' Can Be Perilous to the
Profession: Faculty and administrators are paying new attention to
student learning, sometimes for the wrong reasons," Academe 91(1),
January-February; online at
<http://www.aaup.org/publications/Academe/2005/05jf/05jfmatt.htm>.
For a rebuttal see Hake (2005).
Pinker, S., 1999. "How the Mind Works," Norton, Amazon.com
information at <http://tinyurl.com/yoouts>.
Scholes, R. 2004. "Learning and Teaching," in "Profession 2004," pp.
118-127. Modern Language Association; for information on "Profession
2004" see <http://www.mla.org/store/CID72/PID298>.
Weimer, M. 2007. "Do Lectures Really Need Defenders?" Change Forum,
Letters to the Editor, Change Magazine, January/February, online at
<http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/change/index.asp?key=992>.
MaryellenWeimer is a Professor of Teaching and Learning at
_Pennsylvania State University at Berks, _Reading, PA; author of
"Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice" [Weimer
(2002); and editor of "The Teaching Professor"
<http://www.teachingprofessor.com/>.