lecture

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A lecture on linear algebra at the Helsinki University of Technology

A lecture is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical information, history, background, theories and equations. A politician's speech, a minister's sermon, or even a businessman's sales presentation may be similar in form to a lecture. Usually the lecturer will stand at the front of the room and recite information relevant to the lecture's content.

Though lectures are much criticised as a pedagogical method, universities have not yet found practical alternative teaching methods for the large majority of their courses. Critics point out that lecturing is mainly a one-way method of communication that does not involve significant audience participation. Therefore, lecturing is often contrasted to active learning. This passive mode of lecture although still common in education can easily be transformed into a more active learning process. Lectures delivered by talented speakers can be highly stimulating; at the very least, lectures have survived in academia as a quick, cheap and efficient way of introducing large numbers of students to a particular field of study.

Lectures have a significant role outside the classroom, as well. Academic and scientific awards routinely include a lecture as part of the honor, and academic conferences often center around "keynote addresses", i.e., lectures. The public lecture has a long history in the sciences and in social movements. Union halls, for instance, historically have hosted numerous free and public lectures on a wide variety of matters. Similarly, churches, community centers, libraries, museums, and other organizations have hosted lectures in furtherance of their missions or their constituents' interests.

Etymology

The noun "lecture" dates from 14th century, meaning "action of reading, that which is read," from the Latin lectus, pp. of legere "to read." Its subsequent meaning as "a discourse on a given subject before an audience for purposes of instruction" is from the 16th century. The verb "to lecture" is attested from 1590. The noun "lectern" refers to the reading desk used by lecturers. In British English and several other languages the noun "lecture" must grammatically be the object of the verb "to read."

History

A lecture at a medieval university (1350s) showing the lecturer reading a text from the lectern to students.

The practice in the medieval university was for the instructor to read from an original source to a class of students who took notes on the lecture. The reading from original sources evolved into the reading of glosses on an original and then more generally to lecture notes. Throughout much of history, the diffusion of knowledge via handwritten lecture notes was an essential element of academic life.

Rembrandt's The Anatomy Lecture of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp

Even in the twentieth century the lecture notes taken by students, or prepared by a scholar for a lecture, have sometimes achieved wide circulation (see, for example, the genesis of Ferdinand de Saussure's Cours de linguistique générale). Many lecturers were, and still are, accustomed to simply reading their own notes from the lectern for exactly that purpose. Nevertheless, modern lectures generally incorporate additional activities, e.g. writing on a chalk-board, exercises, class questions and discussions, or student presentations.

The use of multimedia presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint has changed the form of lectures, e.g. video, graphics, websites, or prepared exercises may be included. Most commonly, however, only outlines composed of "bullet points" are presented. Critics such as Edward Tufte [1] contend that this style of lecture bombards the audience with unnecessary and possibly distracting or confusing graphics.

Research

William Hogarth's 1736 engraving, Scholars at a Lecture

Bligh, in What's the Use of Lectures? argues that lectures "represent a conception of education in which teachers who know give knowledge to students who do not and are therefore supposed to have nothing worth contributing." Based on his review of numerous studies, he concludes that lecturing is as effective, but not more effective, as any other teaching method in transmitting information. Nevertheless, lecturing is not the most effective method for promoting student thought, changing attitudes, or teaching behavioral skills. Bligh summarises research on memory to show the significance of the meaningfulness of material on retention (Marks and Miller 1964) and the importance of immediate rehearsal of information (Bassey 1968). He relates his own research on arousal during lectures to suggest a decrement in attention during the first 25 minutes. Lloyd (1968) and Scerbo et al (1992) showed that students take fewer and fewer notes as lectures proceed. Bligh shows that after a short break filled by buzz group discussion, attention will recover somewhat. The largest section of Bligh's book is devoted to lecturing technique, particularly the organisation of lectures, how to make a point, the effectiveness of taking notes, the use of handouts and ways of obtaining feedback. Early editions of the book contained a reply paid evaluation card. This research showed that the section on alternative teaching methods within lectures was the most highly praised.

Other forms

Many university courses relying on lectures supplement them with smaller discussion sections, tutorials, or laboratory experiment sessions as a means of further actively involving students. Often these supplemental sections are led by graduate students, tutors, Teaching Assistants or Teaching Fellows rather than senior faculty. Those other forms of academic teaching include discussion (recitation if conducted by a Teaching Assistant ), seminars, workshops, observation, practical application, case examples/case study, experiential learning/active learning, computer-based instruction and tutorials.

In schools the prevalent mode of student-teacher interaction is lessons.

The term "parlor lecture" gained currency throughout the British Commonwealth of Nations and the United States of America during the mid-19th Century. It referred to the custom of inviting noted speakers to deliver private lectures, which were typically hosted in the parlors of wealthy and socially influential families.[2]

Keeping students actively engaged and learning in the lecture

It is important to keep students actively engaged in the Lecture. One of the main issues with the use of lectures is that students often become quickly disinterested with lecture and therefore stop learning the information being provided. Here are a few different ways to keep students actively learning from the lecture.

1. The use of various forms of media and presentation materials. When students are presented with several different points of interest and variety in the lecture they are more likely to pay attention because they are constantly waiting to see what the lecturer will teach them next. In adding variety to the lecture through various other forms of media and presentation you will also need to have variety with the examples or media you use. To elaborate, no single example can represent a concept fully. You need to have a number of examples available to you, should you choose to use them. Concept formation research suggests using a variety of examples when teaching. This will not only keep the student engaged but enhance learning.
2. Periodically restate main points. To keep students up to speed (note takers will thank you) is to restate or summarize periodically the main points of the lecture. A quick summary during the lecture will help the student recognize the transition of ideas in their note and in their minds.
3. Look for nonverbal cues. Addressing lack of attention or looks of confusion will provide you, as lecturer, an opportunity to raise questions to the class to assess student understanding or restate an idea. If students are drowsy or fidgety, ask them to stand and stretch.
4. The use of quiz's and tests. Students will be a lot more willing to learn from the lecture if they know that not doing so will negatively effect their grade.
5. Class participation. When students are allowed and encouraged to participate in the class discussion or lecture they will be more likely to stay involved and therefore learn the material being presented. Give students points toward their grade for participation. Allow for class times when the students give all or part of the presentation or lecture themselves. However this type of class participation should not be confused with learning by teaching where the student is able to choose their content. Another idea for class participation is to link lectures to student interests.

Another suggestion is to help students think actively about lectures: Rather than resorting to endless PowerPoint presentations, which can serve a good practical purpose of presenting a list of information to a large class, one may be able to engage students in a discussion topic on the lecture material itself. Challenge the students to research the topic before class and come to class prepared to teach the subject themselves, or at the minimum share what they did find about the subject. When given a chance to teach others, students learn much more effectively, and are actively thinking about the lecture material. At times this method is only employable in a smaller classroom setting. But many educators still rely on the lecture, PowerPoint format for even the smallest of classes. Another method that may be used by an educator would be to only act as a mediator, and let the class run the discussion.

See also

• Public lecture

Look up lecture in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikiversity has learning materials about Lecture

References

• Michael Bassey Learning methods in tertiary education. Internal paper Nottingham Regional College of Technology 1968.
• Donald A. Bligh: What's the Use of Lectures? (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000). ISBN 0-7879-5162-5
• Konrad Paul Liessmann: Über den Nutzen und Nachteil des Vorlesens. Eine Vorlesung über die Vorlesung (Vienna: Picus, 1994) ISBN 3-85452-324-6 [3].
• Jane Mackworth Vigilance and habituation. Penguin 1970
• Marks L.E. and Miller G.A. The role of sematic and syntactic contraints in memorisation of English sentences. Journal of verbal learning and verbal behaviour 1964 3(1)
• Scerbo W.M. Warm J.S. Dember W.N. and Grasha A.E. The role of time and cueing in a college lecture. Contemporary Educational Psychology 1992 17(4) pp312-328
• Edward R. Tufte: The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within (Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphics Press, 2006, 2nd edition). ISBN 0-9613921-5-0 The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint

External links

• Moorpark College Anatomy Lecture
• lecturefox.com: free university lectures (videos, podcasts, notes)
• platformed.org: A New York based organization advocating public lecture attendance.
• Short and sweet: Technology shrinks the lecture (The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 20, 2008)
• videolectures.net: free academic lectures, especially on Computer Science
• World Lecture Project (wlp°): free academic lectures from around the globe, covering all faculties
• yovisto: free academic video search engine with lecture recordings from all over the world