Re: learning from lectures Re: Stone article

Dewey Dykstra, Jr. (dykstrad who-is-at varney.idbsu.edu)
Wed, 8 May 1996 13:40:05 -0700

>Dewey writes:
>>Instead, we need to make it impossible for someone to sit all class long in
>>an environment in which no interaction, no meaning-making/negotiation, is
>>going on.
>>
>>So for me an interactive classroom session is one in which students are
>>free and safe to engage in the making/negotiation of what is for them new
>>meaning and in which some (hopefully, many or most, if not all) actually do
>>engage by 'speaking' to each other in class. ('speaking' could also be
>
> Dewey, I agree with you here! The process of engaging students in
>meaning-making is what it's all about, and that process is not
>isomorphic with a given instructional format (e.g., lecture vs.
>seminar). I wonder, however, if certain formats are more conducive
>to this process than other formats--or can we really make no
>such general statements? I've always felt that a seminar format
>is more conducive to student engagement than a lecture format;
>of course, engagement or nonengagement can occur in either setting,
>but is it more likely to occur in a seminar than in a lecture--or
>are all such attempts to generalize specious?
>
> Robin

Meaning _negotiation_ is slowed and made more difficult if only one person
speaks (the instructor) or has exclusive control of any of the other tools
involved in the discussion. These tools include the chalk or marker if
there is a board on which to draw, the keyboard if a computer is in use,
etc. It has long been quipped in physics circles that to make your point
in discussions with colleagues in the lab you must have a piece of chalk, a
pencil, etc. Michael Roth of Simon Fraser Univ. has been doing interesting
studies with children in science lessons in which these notions seem to be
strongly supported.

I have only small experience with small discussion classes because of the
physics community's excessive reliance on lecturing to large numbers of
students at the same time. (If you can tell one person you can tell
hundreds.) Having had experience with large classes (100 - 150 students)
in which I am intended to lecture but in which instead I try to get
discussion going and having had some experience with some smaller classes
(10 -15 students) it is clear to me that in the large group many can avoid
interaction who do not believe that such is what they are there for. My
sense is that fewer of these folks actually engage in the issues of the
subject when the class is very large than when it is small.

These students can not show up and not be missed specifically unless rather
strong measures are taken to keep track of individual attendance. They can
attend and refuse to engage or participate. They can attend and openly
challenge what is being attempted. I suppose that all of these can happen
in the smaller seminar type class, but my experience is that a much greater
percentage do this in the large classes than in the small ones.

Dewey

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr. Phone: (208)385-3105
Professor of Physics Dept: (208)385-3775
Department of Physics/SN318 Fax: (208)385-4330
Boise State University dykstrad who-is-at varney.idbsu.edu
1910 University Drive Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570 novice piper
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++