Lectures Aren't Just Boring, They're Ineffective, Too, Study Finds 166
sciencehabit (1205606) writes "Are your lectures droning on? Change it up every 10 minutes with more active teaching techniques and more students will succeed, researchers say. A new study finds that undergraduate students in classes with traditional stand-and-deliver lectures are 1.5 times more likely to fail than students in classes that use more stimulating, so-called active learning methods."
Re:I've heard slashdot is behind the times... (Score:4, Informative)
But studies have been finding this for the past two decades.
My thoughts exactly. This is apparently a new study, however. It's not clear to me what is new about it other than, perhaps, translating the results into letter-grade equivalents. I like the quote: "it’s almost unethical to be lecturing if you have this data."
And yet, as you point out, this kind of data has been around for decades at least. I think they knew in the 80's if not earlier that knowledge retention is terrible for students listening to lectures compared to other methods (reading, group activities, teaching, etc). But how many professors took that data to heart? Is it a matter of couching it in different terms like letter grades? Probably not because those professors who lecture today either don't know or don't care. In either case they are immune to new studies like this.
Re:Easiest for the instructor (Score:3, Informative)
Also, as much as college students SAY they want more activities and less lecture, a large percentage of them grumble and resist any and all activities. Only through dogged persistence can a class (and only if it is small) get used to learning through activities. Once that happens, then their learning really blossoms. But getting them to that point is not easy. I have had students roll their eyes and flat out refuse to briefly discuss a topic with the person sitting next to them - much less engage in a truly creative activity. I teach at a private university. These are students from good backgrounds with parents spending the big bucks. And they sit there and glare if I dare to ask them to do anything other than be passive sponges. So, there's also lots of positive reinforcement from students for professors to lecture.
Re:study finds dumbasses who can't pay attention.. (Score:2, Informative)
If the moment something bores you, you can't deal with it, yes, you're a useless dumbass.
Not everything in life is a party and you'll have to deal with it on a regular basis. May as well start in school.