tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post3304537496277891469..comments2024-03-15T01:11:32.832-07:00Comments on Bardiac: Meetings and More MeetingsBardiachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-22405168096394646452008-08-27T14:24:00.000-07:002008-08-27T14:24:00.000-07:00K8, I liked lectures pretty well, too. But I reco...K8, I liked lectures pretty well, too. But I recognize that academics are self-selected people who really liked the ways they learned stuff and wanted to learn more. I didn't self-select to become a long-distance runner.<BR/><BR/>Inside, Yep, we have to recognize that there are limits to what can be done in specific physical spaces. And we have some not-great physical spaces.<BR/><BR/>MSILF, I liked lectures fine, but learned more in discussion classes, and really prefer teaching discussion classes. But that's why we have some variety, eh?<BR/><BR/>Fifi, Yes, a good lecture is wonderful! And bad ones, oh so bad. But despite going to a large public university in the dark ages, AND studying mostly science, I found most of the lectures pretty cool and interesting. But then, I self-selected to become an academic.<BR/><BR/>New Kid, I totally agree with you on the good lecture vs bad discussion issue. It's amazing that you could do a discussion with large classes. Good job! Building in pauses is good, too. <BR/><BR/>Thanks for commenting, all!Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-12817602875255717542008-08-27T05:55:00.000-07:002008-08-27T05:55:00.000-07:00I'm in the semi-anti-lecture camp, which is to say...I'm in the semi-anti-lecture camp, which is to say that I'm pro-small classes and, yes, active learning, which to me basically means making the students talk more than I do (on average, not every time), partly because I DO believe students can teach each other a lot (with guidance, duh).<BR/><BR/>But I'd *way* rather sit through a good lecture than a bad discussion (where there is no guidance, where people drone on about their personal experiences when it's not relevant to class, that kind of thing). And size is a huge factor - when I have taught near 85 students? I lectured.<BR/><BR/>(FWIW: I did designate some days as discussion days, and I did run those days as heavily moderated discussions - basically, me asking questions and them answering; not a lot of them talking to each other, but at least their voices as well as mine. It's possible with 70 students, which is the most I've had, though it's not ideal, and it doesn't always work - I find that a lot depends on the structure of the room. If we're relatively close together and I can walk around the room it helps, and the students have to be able to see/hear each other - there's nothing more deadly than trying to run discussion when no one in the room can hear what the student is saying. I suspect it wouldn't take too many more students to get unworkable - you really need to make sure students can hear and see each other, and that you can see all the students relatively easily, so you can kind of drag them into the conversation. I suspect once you start hitting 100+ you run into the problem of people not seeing/hearing each other, and checking out.)<BR/><BR/>I have seen people talk about using more active techniques in big big lectures - think/pair/share, that kind of thing; a lot of it seems to entail building in pauses for students to think, evaluate what they've heard, and comment on it in some way. I've never managed to do that very successfully, though.<BR/><BR/>In my ideal world, all classes would be small enough to have lots of discussion, and no one would lecture ALL the time, but certainly, there's nothing wrong with lecture as one component of a course. (And again, good lectures are way better than bad discussion.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-41554269233739904702008-08-27T05:50:00.000-07:002008-08-27T05:50:00.000-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Anna D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/04452737868036013419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-48245600952758963952008-08-27T05:37:00.000-07:002008-08-27T05:37:00.000-07:00I had a 200-person class last term and I found tha...I had a 200-person class last term and I found that there is lecturing and there is lecturing. Students seemed to really like it when I made good use of Powerpoint (to put up lengthy quotes I was discussing), included video clips of the plays we covered being performed and used lots of visual images. Surprisingly few complaints on the evals about the lack of interactivity (perhaps because they understood that we are limited in that way in a large classroom). Many also commented that they want a balance between the lecture and the Ppt slides - I posted the slides on Blackboard after and they found them helpful, but they liked that they had to come to class to fully understand the slides so that it didn't become the kind of class you could easily skip. Just a few thoughts on my experience. If anyone has great ideas on how to engage 200 people in fixed seating at 9 am, I'd love to know about them!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-55562321869691169912008-08-26T22:10:00.000-07:002008-08-26T22:10:00.000-07:00I'm not at all impressed with the 'active learning...I'm not at all impressed with the 'active learning' and 'learning styles' folks... especially when the administration pays them to preach this stuff -- but then doesn't want to take the financial hit of breaking up large classes to make it possible.Inside the Philosophy Factoryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12255753259090709877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-17959938492222281412008-08-26T20:26:00.000-07:002008-08-26T20:26:00.000-07:00I don't have any large class strategies - I've onl...I don't have any large class strategies - I've only taught different levels of comp. Well, I TA'd for a couple lit. lectures, but I'm not counting those since I didn't do the lecturing. <BR/><BR/>But, I just have to say that I've enjoyed many lecture courses throughout my education. I am one of those people who really do learn from lectures. I'm all for varied instruction when it is feasible and makes sense, but too often I hear a lot of disrespect for lectures when people are talking about teaching methods. I don't like it. When people in education say things like "students can't be expected to sit through a long lecture," I think that they might as well be saying that students can't be expected to read a book. <BR/><BR/>btw, I wonder if that person has ever taught in one of those classrooms with nailed down desks and chairs?k8https://www.blogger.com/profile/07547334819703279971noreply@blogger.com