Don’t lecture me!
Donald Clark
Institutional inertia
Cathy Ellis
(Lecturer English Univ Huddersfield)
“Default” or “Normative discourse”
“This is evident in our job titles, our institutional
architecture, our workload models, our quality
assurance strategies, our timetabling software and
countless other systems and principles that define
and demarcate our working lives.”
http://tinyurl.com/6xgle43
“Now, I cannot see that
lectures can do so much
as reading the books from
which the lectures are
taken.”
“I know nothing that can
be best taught by lectures”
Samuel Johnson
Double standards
Little changed: dominant
use
Plural of anecdote is not data!
1. Tyranny of location
• Costs too high
• Need maintenance
• Mostly empty
2. Tyranny of time
• Babylonian hour
• Travel time to & from
• Padded out
3. Attention problems
•
•
•
•
Student attention falls
Lecturer performance falls
Heart rates fall
Take less notes
(Johnstone 1976,, Trenaman 1968 etc)
(Bligh 2000)
(Scorba 1992)
• <25 mins
• 20-30 mins
(Cowan 1981)
(Bligh 2000)
• Breaks beneficial
(Weaver 1985, Ruhl 1995)
(Lloyd 1992)
4. Do lectures inspire & motivate?
Bligh: 15 studies lectures less effective
than other methods, only 1 the reverse
Hale Report: 7 teaching methods
‘lectures’ ranked 7th for efficiency,
5th for enjoyment, 1st for frequency
McLeish reported distaste for lectures in
students from 10 Colleges of Education &
several Universities
5. Do lectures aid critical thinking?
Bligh: 21 studies lecturing less effective than:
discussion, reading, individual work etc.
Not find a single study shows it was more effective.
Bloom: during lectures students solve problems,
synthesise or inter-relate information only 1% of the
time, mostly "passive or irrelevant thoughts about
subject“
Arum & Roksa CLA longitudinal study on 2,322
students for 4 years from 2005-09 across broad
range of 24 U.S. colleges and universities
6. Do lectures teach values/attitudes?
Bligh: Dozens of studies show - lectures
less effective than other teaching methods
Kochan (2003), Dobbin (2006), and Kalev
(2011) show that diversity training made
no measurable difference, sometimes a
backlash
7. Do lectures teach knowledge?
Bligh: ‘no significant difference’
OK - go for cheaper options!
Bloom: The 2 sigma problem:
Group 1: Lecture
Group 2: Formative feedback
Group 3: One to one
8. Is student attendance a problem?
www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/italics/vol5iss2/burd-att-italics-06-final.doc
Recording lectures
Recording lectures
5 Diploma courses
Advantages noted by students :
1. Lecture went too fast
2. Review lecture
3. Revision for exams
4. Clarified difficult handwriting
5. English was student’s second language
6. Avoid writing notes (focus on lecture)
7. See lecture after missing it through illness
Watched 13 hours a week on average
Completely revolutionising the traditional teaching & learning model
"One year of ICTP diploma courses on-line using the automated EyA recording system" Computers & Education 53 (2009) 183-188. http://sdu.ictp.it/eya/about.html
University of Eindhoven
Usage data
Students surveys
Student interviews
Most students watch at home/multiple times
Rarely watch more than 75% of lecture
Attainment rose
Recording can IMPROVE a bad
lecture
Virtual classrooms
University of Leeds
Adobe Connect
Anyone with laptop, iPad, iPhone,
Android device could participate
Camtasia
Web CT
Illuminate
Blackboard
Preparation, preparation, preparation
YouTube EDU
“The plural of anecdote is NOT data”
7 compelling arguments for peer learning:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Powerful theoretical underpinning
Massively scalable
Teaching a powerful way to learn
Encourages critical thinking
Group bonding a side effect
Dramatic drops in drop-out rates
Higher attainment
Peerwise (Q&A), Aropa (Open S.), Peermark (turnitin)
VLEs
Open source
Blackboard etc. powerful
Moodle 2.2 start Dec – but buggy
Moodle 3 = Google free
Cloud
E-portfolios
Graham Gibbs (1981)
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsd/2_learntch/20reasons.html
Do lectures give students a
a rich and rewarding
educational experience?
NO
Gibbs 7 ‘real’ reasons for lecturing
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Attitudes stop change: lectures a coping strategy
Ignorant of evidence on effectiveness of lectures
Ignorant of alternatives to lectures
Perception of more work
Institutionalised in way teaching hours counted
Course validation & external forces
We don't know how to design courses
Great Divide
Change management
Kotter’s 8 steps:
1.
Urgency
2.
Guiding team
3.
Vision
4.
Communicate
5.
Empower
6.
Short-term wins
7.
Build momentum
8.
Nurture new culture
Fruit flies and turtles
Fruit flies or turtles?
>800m
>200m
>120m/hour
80 billion
>130m
5th on web
2 billion views
24 hours per min
Open University
Technology led
Now - ‘e’ led
Open admissions
Reached new learners
Open courseware
Martin Bean
Transformation research
Carol Twigg
$8.8 million Pew grant
30 community colleges, colleges and universities
Is it cost-effective?
YES
Are we seeing better learning? YES
Can drop-out rates be reduced? YES
Transformational success:
1. Large enrollment courses
2. Improvements apply to many types of courses
3. Move students from passive, "note-taking" role
to an active-learning orientation
4. Move from an entirely lecture-based to a student
engagement approach
5. Don’t fiddle, redesign the whole course
6. Don’t bolt on new technologies to existing system
THEORY
POLIC
•
Email
donald.clark@hotmail.co.uk
Blog
http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/
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