The dominant model of education is in turmoil. Students
demand fewer courses, less reading and writing assignments. Employers say
graduates are not work ready. Parents are staggered by the rising cost of education.
Grave
concerns on the quality of college graduates abound. Employers are unanimous in
their condescending view of recent graduates. In their opinion graduates can’t
apply knowledge, lack critical thinking and communication skills. Recent studies show that even after four
years in college nearly 40 per cent of students in the US failed to improve
test scores in critical thinking.
Indignation
about higher education derives from the perception that the model of delivery –
the classroom and the lecture – is antiquated. The popular view is that
disruption in education is overdue. The cry everywhere is abolish lectures, abolish
classrooms. Learning must not be constrained by professorial enclaves called
subjects or disciplines that inhabit kingdoms called departments.
Scholars
in higher education reform believe the combination lectures and classrooms
stifles understanding and fails to spark creativity; the two essential
ingredients for deep and enduring learning. This band of education innovators
argue that technology now enables novel approaches like the flipped classroom
where students can through the internet learn in the quiet of their homes and
engage in more active learning by doing in the classroom.
The
ranks of professors who believe that university teaching needs fundamental
reform are growing. Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman of Stanford recently issued a
plea to educators to stop lecturing. Meta analysis of over 200 studies reveals
that lecturing increased failure rates by 55 per cent. Conversely, interactive
or active learning methods resulted in a 36 per cent drop in failure rates.
But
is the lecture model and the traditional classroom really the problem? The
problem in my view is not the lecture. The lecturer is the problem. Most
academics are horrible teachers, movingly inarticulate. Moreover, the reckless
proliferation of universities, public and private, has unleashed an unrelenting
gust of intellectually mediocre professors upon college students. They are
super depressing to listen to or chat with even if the subject is the weather
or Nairobi’s incessant traffic gridlock.
I
remember as a young undergraduate saying to a professor during a lecture that I
was waiting for him to lay out an argument of his own. This professor
understood a lecture as event during which dictated his notes to students. As
you can imagine, I paid dearly for my indiscretion.
Professors
must be good teachers and public speakers period. The good news is that oratory
can be learned. A combination of academic rigor, eloquence and passionate
delivery endows a lecture with inalienable and remarkable power. A lecture
delivered with wit motivates active learning and critical listening while
modeling the sublime art of reasoned argument.
Both flipped classroom and active learning
in small groups are not novel. Novelty will come through incentives for
scholarship in teaching. And yes, excellent lectures can engage and inspire
learners to think critically and to innovate.
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