Lecture and Understanding

This week, I would like to share an article on "The More I Lecture, The Less I Know If They Understand” by Grant Wiggins (from our Wiggins & McTighe Backward Course Design Studio).

Grant asks, “What is the best use of time in class and out of class, given our goals and given the availability of modern educational resources beyond the words of the lecturer?” To answer this, we should ask ourselves “What are the learning outcomes, which we would like our students to be able to know, do and value?” Once we have clearly identify this, we could ask, “What is the best use of limited class time, in a world of easily-accessible information?” If lecture is indeed the best tool to accomplish the outcomes, then Grant recommends it. However, he also encourages us to have an objective feedback system to be confident in our decision.

Perhaps, judiciously, integrating low threshold active learning approaches (from the list of 228 that the Center can provide) to lectures and gathering usability data on the effectiveness could address some of the challenges of lecture.

Alternatively, I have heard faculty define their lecture as “a series of short lectures broken up by different activities I’ve designed to get students thinking, talking and doing. So yes, I’m lecturing. But that doesn’t mean I’m talking throughout the entire class.” This would appear to align with Grant’s “best use of time” and attending to “learning outcomes.”