people learn best when they make knowledge with others John Dewey argued that experience was a key ingredient in learning Paolo Freire used the metaphor of banking to critique lecture/test school knowledge was a currency, limited value, students did not actively construct it for themselves, limited value in the actual world where the knowledge had to be put to use discussions simulations investigations writing to learn research reports-difficult to carry out with 15 year olds ironically Dewey gave long lectures that weren't super engaging sometimes resort to lecture when students don't understand the reading of the text brainstorm phenomena people learn best when they can experience many different ways of making meaning and when they grapple with ideas and with texts Why Teachers Lecture NOT to be in control to feel powerful to "plow through content" Reasons teachers think students learn through lectures lectures are economical? lectures a...
Time is every teacher's enemy: there is always more to teach than time to teach it We're not only expected to cover our content but also to ensure that students meet the demands of rigorous state and national standards Teaching is incredibly complex, and we take our job very seriously Lecturing can make covering unrealistic amounts of content conceivable, but do we have evidence that students have really learned when this is our main method of instruction? Observation 1 (Social Studies Class) If a question is getting little participation, attention isn't good. When there is more to teach than time to teach it, taking over is faster than letting students construct meaning on their own Lectures can share information, ideas, points of view under the right circumstances some people learn from it The problem is that when our only instructional method is lecture, we can't tell which students are constructing meaning and which ones are tuning out fire hose: ...