The Problem with Lecturing. Back in the late 1970s a colleague came to David Hestenes with a problem.
The two of them were physics professors at Arizona State University. Hestenes was teaching mostly graduate students, but his colleague was teaching introductory physics, and the students in his classes were not doing well. Rethinking the Way College Students Are Taught. It's a typical scene: a few minutes before 11:00 on a Tuesday morning and about 200 sleepy-looking college students are taking their seats in a large lecture hall - chatting, laughing, calling out to each other across the aisles.
Class begins with a big "shhhh" from the instructor. This is an introductory chemistry class at a state university. For the next hour and 15 minutes, the instructor will lecture and the students will take notes. By the end of class, the three large blackboards at the front of the room will be covered with equations and formulas. American RadioWorks. By Emily Hanford College students spend a lot of time listening to lectures.
But research shows there are better ways to learn.