Lectures and Prior Knowledge: Helping Students Make Sense of New Material

lecture-assessing-prior-knowledge
Most teachers still lecture a lot despite evidence showing that straight lecture is less effective than teaching approaches that more actively engage and involve students. I don’t think that conclusion rules out didactic instruction. Sometimes it makes sense to just “tell” students about the content. Should we lecture less? For most of us, the answer is yes. But here’s a new response and it moves our thinking in a different direction. In a recent “teacher-ready research review” (one of an ongoing series in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology about which I cannot say enough good things), William Cerbin proposes “a focus on the processes of learning, how and why students learn or do not learn from lectures. If students learn less or do not learn from lectures, we should try to identify the underlying causes and then work on improving the method.” (p. 152)

To continue reading, you must be a Teaching Professor Subscriber. Please log in or sign up for full access.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Articles

I have two loves: teaching and learning. Although I love them for different reasons, I’ve been passionate about...
How should we respond when students complain about their professors—aka our colleagues?...
Facilitating experiential learning is central to my teaching philosophy. As an instructor of application-based coursework, I continually seek...
Errors are an inevitable part of learning. But many students perceive mistakes as threats to their self-esteem, associating...
Have you noticed what students do when they’re curious about something? A few years ago, a common response...
Few roles in higher education have transformed as dramatically as that of the academic advisor. Historically, advisors were...
Higher education has always looked for ways to bridge theory and practice through applied learning practices, such as...

Create a free account, or log in.

Gain access to limited free articles, news alerts, and select newsletters

Login here

Get unlimited access to The Teaching Professor

Stay informed. Subscribe Now.

WELCOME OFFER

$19.00 $14.00/month

for your first 6 months. Use coupon code TP6MO.

$19.00 thereafter. Cancel anytime.

Enjoy unlimited access to all of The Teaching Professor

You only have  free article views remaining.

WELCOME OFFER

$19.00 $14.00/month

for your first 6 months. Use coupon code TP6MO.

$19.00 a month thereafter. Cancel anytime.