Re: learning from lectures Re: Stone article

Dewey Dykstra, Jr. (dykstrad who-is-at varney.idbsu.edu)
Wed, 1 May 1996 08:17:54 -0700

>Eva reflects: yes, I think most of us tended to agree, but then (as good
>researchers) we got very busy looking for counterexamples -- examples
>indicating that it may be very hard indeed to tell from immediate behavior
>whether an apparently one-sided interaction is not experienced as
>engagingly interactive.

It seems to me that there is a world of difference between what is
'available' for a student who does not happen to say anything during a
lecture as opposed to a student who does not happen to say anything during
a discussion between people holding differing views. I agree that it is
not possible to say that nothing ever happens to people's ideas as a result
of lecture. It's just that so little happens for so few in a positive way
about the actual content of the lecture and so much happens for so many,
affectively in a negative way, concerning their view's of themselves and
their relationship to the subject, that it is hard to justify the practice.
This is certainly true in the case of lectures in science, physics in
particular. I suspect that similar things could be said of lectures in
other disciplines.

Dewey

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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
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Boise, ID 83725-1570 novice piper
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