The College Lecture Today

Is the lecture still an effective pedagogical technique to teach college students in this age of online education, “flipping the classrooms,” and “student-centered education”?

Having been the traditional mode of conveying critical information, history, and theories to students, the lecture is valued by some because it can disseminate information to a large classroom, present material that engages students and elucidates the course material, and provide greater faculty control of the classroom.[1] Donald Blight’s classic book, What’s the Use of the Lecture?, asserts that the lecture is effective at teaching information when compared to other methods of instruction (although less effective in promoting thought about a subject or changing attitudes or behaviors).[2] The popularity of TED talks and Skype presentations also supports those who favor the lecture as an effective method to convey and communicate information to audiences.[3]

However, others have criticized the lecture for a variety of reasons: it promotes passive learning, requires faculty to possess effective speaking skills, and is an antiquated way of conveying information to students raised in the digital age.[4] A recent study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences compares the lecture with more active forms of instruction and reveal that students taught by active learning scored six percent better on examination than their counterparts in lecture-only classrooms.[5] The invention and adoption of media technologies like the radio, television, and Internet have also transformed the lecture from one of instruction to performance where entertainment is as important as delivering information to audiences.[6] With the growing pressures of quantifiable assessments for student learning and the growing acceptance of active learning pedagogy, the lecture is increasingly seen as an ineffective and outdated method of instruction.[7]

This book, The College Lecture Today, both acknowledges and pushes back against the criticism of the lecture. We believe the lecture still is an effective pedagogical method to instruct students but must be adapted to the new realities of the contemporary university, whether it is the type of student who enrolls at college, the ubiquity of technology in our lives, and recent changes in our understanding of disciplinary knowledge. The need for such a book is especially critical for today, as there has been no new scholarship about the lecture since Blight’s book except for those being critical of it.[8]

The College Lecture Today combines both theoretical knowledge and practical suggestions about the lecture in the disciplines of art, English, foreign languages, history, media studies, political science, political philosophy, music, religious studies, and sociology. These chapters are written in an accessible yet scholarly manner that is devoid of academic jargon, so readers can learn about the lecture in a variety of disciplines. The book affirms the value of the lecture while, at the same time, adapting it to the new educational landscape of technology and student-centered learning.

 

We open our book with a chapter that examines the evidence about the lecture and its relationship to student retention. In “Observed Trends in Lecturing and the Relationship to Student Retention,” Westler and French show there is no significant correlation between those professors who lecture and student retention, although there is a significant relationship between those who teach in an autocratic manner and student withdrawals. Westler and French conclude that professors should be more self-consciously of how they teach and consider incorporating methods of active learning in their lectures. The rest of the chapters in this book are in response to Westler and French to show how the lecture still can be a relevant and effective way of teaching students.

The first response comes from the disciplines of art history. In “A Voice in the Dark: The Art History Lecture,” Emily Kelley argues that the lecture is still a valuable format for introductory art history courses, particularly when elements of student interaction are part of the delivery. It is through the lecture that the images gain vibrancy where students learn to analyze the objects and apply their knowledge. Kelley concludes with some strategies to engage students during portions of the lecture through reviews, questions, and small group activities.

Our two contributors for English examine how to lecture in composition and theory courses. In “Teaching Writing in Literature Lecture Courses,” Taryn Okuma suggests two strategies for improving student writing in lectures. First, the practice of scaffolding writing assignments, and second, the development of a teaching ethos informed by tutoring practice in writing centers. Combined, these strategies can help teach students how to approach writing assignments and build stronger connections to their instructor. With regards to literary theory courses, Elizabeth Rich in her chapter explores in the ways in which faculty have imagined the lecture from its decentered role in mid-century American industrialism to its current phenomenological interpretation. Rich considers techniques for building partnerships between students and faculty that is vital in a world where the value of literature increasingly diminishes.

For foreign language courses, Monika Dix presents insight into the research on teaching culture and language through effective pedagogical practices in the lecture. In her chapter, Dix advocates the 3Ps (Products, Practices, Perspectives), a theoretical approach combining inquiry-based teaching with instructional technology. This technique, along with others, shed light on how to enhance the traditional lecture and create a rich and meaningful environment in which students interact with original material in the target language and develop their own understanding of a foreign culture’s products, practices, and perspectives.

The next two chapters look at the lecture in the discipline of history. Hyrum Lewis, “The Continuing Value of Lecture in History Education,” argues that, while the lecture is not appropriate for every field, it is highly effective for teaching history. Recent findings in cognitive psychology show that lecture has two major advantages over other methods of teaching history for students: it instills enthusiasm and intrinsic motivation for the subject and it promotes the acquisition of integrated knowledge. But there are conditions that limit when lecture is effective: it must fit the expertise of the instructor and it must be broken up by intermittent exercises that require students to grapple with the material ex ante (generation) and summarize what they learn ex post (retrieval).

In “What Lectures Do Well, History Lectures as an Intermediate Pedagogy,” Caroline R. Sherman explores the lecture as an intermediate pedagogy, placing it in the middle of the development of the discipline. The young and those without any historical background cannot listen to lectures for long without interrupting with necessary questions—questions that they cannot put aside because the lack of an answer will prevent them from following the narrative. The intermediate learner, however, should have developed the skill of listening to a lecture while also maintaining a running internal commentary on it. Still, the intermediate learner cannot proceed to advanced studies by lectures alone: reading, writing, and discussing are more vital for this, which is why many of the most advanced undergraduate courses and almost all graduate courses are seminars.

From history we move to media studies with contributions from Karen. P Burke and Mike Mosher. In “Lecturing and Media Studies in the 21^st-Century,” Burke explains how integrating project-based curriculum design with the lecture not only improves the lecture but is key to student and faculty success. Finding new ways to ensure and assess learning by designing curriculum based on timely, real-world problems makes the lecture still relevant in media studies. Mike Mosher in “Campfire, Curator, Deejay: Lectures & ‘Lectronic Enhancement” examines how the lecture, combined with electronic media, can be effective in student learning. Specifically, he looks at how the lecture can be used with online platforms like Blackboard, digital and video imagery, graphic design, and student work projects. The lecture remains central to the process but wrapped in the electronic enhancements to make it more effective.

In political science, John Craig explores the value of the lecture in “The Lecture in Political Science Education: Unpacking a Paradox.” As a form of teaching, the lecture has not been without its critics, with both leading political scientists and educationalists highlighting its limitations. Despite this, evidence suggests that it remains the most commonly used form of teaching in the discipline. Craig looks at this paradox by considering the key characteristics of the lecture and identifying its value as a form of teaching in the context of a liberal education. He then examines how the use of the lecture has developed in recent decades, through the adoption of new technologies and its integration with other forms of teaching, and concludes by making the case for value of the lecture as one tool among many.

In “The Lecture in Political Science,” I examine the lecture in political science courses and some of the unique challenges each subfield of the discipline poses for it. For each subfield, the lecture needs to be modified to the content being taught. Finally, I end with some practical suggestions of how to lecture in a political philosophy course.

For music, Jamie Fiste argues for the application of gestalt principles to teaching music history and theory. The faculty use of gestalt–the presentation of the larger picture or context of what the student is learning–is critical for students to retain and make sense of what they have learned. Students benefit greatly from faculty who are able to draw connections in inspiring ways in the lecture, reaffirming the value of teacher-centered learning.

The next two chapters look at religious studies. According to Paul Krause in his chapter, because religion touches upon every aspect of culture, the nature of the religious lecture straddles multiple lines: historical criticism in the hope of retrieving information of a past culture, critical scrutiny and engagement with religious stories to recover textual authenticity, and teaching in a value-neutral manner the tenets and concepts found in religious traditions and particular theologies. For Krause, the lecture is ideal for teaching students in the various mediums to which religious studies belong.

“In Creating a Socratic Lecture Space in Religious Studies,” Paul Corey examines the gap between a student’s spiritual goal and one’s professional research interests. The lecture environment can help bridge this divide with a Socratic approach playing a key role. Given the current structure of the university, the lecture hall is still the most viable setting for such dialogue to occur, but it is a setting that must be dramatically reimagined. It must be designed to generate dialogue both with and between students rather than just professorial monologue.

Our final chapter, “Curious Lectures and Engaged Students: Teaching in a Context of Bureaucracy and Consumerism,” is Warren Fincher’s analysis of the lecture in the discipline of sociology. To the sociologist, the lecture is a social event, an interaction between a lecturer and a receiving audience for educational purposes shaped by its bureaucratic, professional, cultural and social structural context. However, the lecturer shares his or her authority in the classroom with an increasing number of external demands: professional accrediting standards, budgeting concerns, and programmatic oversight, while the student has become firmly consumeristic. Thus, as a point of social interaction, the twenty-first century lecture must attend to three tasks: fulfill bureaucratic dictates, provide a valuable consumer product, and foster disciplinary proficiency in the student.

 

From these chapters, we see the lecture has not only has changed and adapted to new circumstances but the definition of the lecture itself has changed. For some, the lecture is the traditional method of the faculty orally conveying and communicating information to a large group of students; for others, the lecture can be captured in electronic format (e.g., video, online streaming) and enhanced with different types of media (e.g., images, sounds). Some conceive of the lecture as one part among many ways to deliever information to students, while others seek to transform the lecture as a type of Socratic dialogue with students. Regardless of how one defines the lecture, we can see that it is a method of teaching that is far from finished.

Drawing from the humanities and social sciences and from a range of different types of schools, The College Lecture Today provides a broad perspective of the lecture in toady’s university. Although there are some disciplines absent from this book, The College Lecture Today provides essays that are written for non-specialists and present practical advice of how to lecture in a discipline without sacrificing theoretical knowledge. Neither entrenched in past practices nor discarding the old for the new, The College Lecture Today affirms the value of the lecture while, at the same time, seeking to adapt it to the new opportunities and challenges of the twenty-first century higher education. We hope that this book is not only useful to our readers but also begins a larger conversation about the nature and purpose of teaching college students today.

Notes

[1] J.A. Bowen, “Teaching Naked: Why Removing Technology from your Classroom will Improve Student Learning,” The National Teaching and Learning Forum 16/1 (2006): 1-5; Mark Lawrence Schrad, “In Defense of the Populist Lecture,” PS: Political Science and Politics 43/4 (2010): 759-65.

[2] Donald Blight, What’s the Use of the Lecture? (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972).

[3] Simon Sinek, How to Deliver a TED Talk: Secrets of the World’s Most Inspiring Presentations (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013); also see Ronald J. Glogovsky, “A Comparison of Graphic Arts Processes Practiced by Contemporary Industry with Those Taught in Industrial Arts Teacher Education.” Master Thesis (Greely, CO: Northern Colorado University, 1970).

[4] Charles L. Bane, The Lecture in College Teaching (Boston: Gorham Press, 1930), M.A. Albanese, “The Validity of Lecturer Ratings by Students and Trained Observers,” Academic Medicine 68 (1991): 52-81; Diana Laurillard, Rethinking University Teaching: A Conversational Framework for the Effective Use of Learning Technologies (New York: Routledge, 1993); A. O’Donnell and D.F. Dansereau, “Learning from Lecture: Effects of Cooperative Review,” Journal of Experimental Education 6/2 (1993): 116-25; D. Bruff, “Clickers: A Classroom Innovation,” Thriving in Academe 25/1 (2007): 5-8; Juan Carlos Huerta, “Getting Active in the Large Lecture,” Journal of Political Science Education 3/3 (2007): 237-49; W. Berry, “Surviving Lecture: A Pedagogical Alternative,” College Teaching 56/2 (2008): 102-6; Heather K. Evans and Victoria Cordova, “Lecture Videos in Online Courses: A Follow-Up,” Journal of Political Science Education 11/4 (2015): 472-82; Daniel J. Mallinson and Zachary D. Baumann, “Lights, Camera, Learn: Understanding the Role of Lecture Capture in Undergraduate Education,” PS: Political Science & Politics 48/3 (2015): 478-82; James C. Roberts, “Evaluating the Effectiveness of Lecture Capture: Lessons Learned from an Undergraduate Political Science Research Class,” Journal of Political Science Education 11/1 (2015): 45-60.

[5] Scott Freeman, Sarah L. Eddy, Miles McDonough, Michelle K. Smith, Nnadozie Okoroafor, Hannah Jordt, and Mary Pat Wenderoth, “Active Learning Increases Student Performance in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics,” The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 12, 2014. Available at https://www.pnas.org/content/111/23/8410.

[6] Norm Friedsen, The Textbook & the Lecture (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2017), 127-38; also see Donelson R. Forsyth, The Professor’s Guide to Teaching: Psychological Principles and Practices (Washington D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2002).

[7] Martin J. Finkelstein, Valerie Martin Conley, Jack H. Schuster. The Faculty Factor: Reassessing the American Academy in a Turbulent Era. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2016), 7, 12-18, 245. For more about active learning, see the fourth endnote as well as Elizabeth F. Barkley, Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009); Ken Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004); and Magna Publications, Incorporated. Active Learning: A Practical Guide for College Faculty (Madison: Magna Publications, Incorporated, 2017).

[8] Books about higher education pedagogy will devote a single chapter on the lecture, if at all, and are only practical in description. For example, Barbara Gross David, Tools for Teaching (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009) and Linda B. Nilson, Teaching at its Best (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010).  Friedsen’s The Textbook and the Lecture spends most of the analysis on the textbook rather than the lecture and, when on the lecture, writes about it from a purely theoretical and historical perspective rather than a practical one.

 

This excerpt is from The College Lecture Today: An Interdisciplinary Defense of the Contemporary University (Lexington Books, 2019).