Summary
In the article Should Colleges Really Eliminate the College Lecture? by Christine Gross-Loh, Loh discusses the relevance of traditional college lectures and how it could become obsolete in the near future. She explains how a “flipped classroom” could be more beneficial in terms of academics and show improvements in students learning abilities. Loh explains that not every college professor is properly taught how to give a lecture, making it difficult for students to get the correct education from a professor who isn’t trained to explain the material. Various colleges and universities are starting to stray away from the traditional lecture and begin a more hands on approach to teaching a college course, while professors are looking to get rid of the college lecture completely. A research study showed classes that had an interactive approach as opposed to the traditional style resulted in better academic grades and a “36 percent drop in class failures.” Many educators prefer
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Having been in college for almost two years now, all of my courses have had the more typical college lecture, where the professor is in front of the class and teaches. These types of classes are usually deemed as dull or boring, but if you are a good listener and have interest in the material then it shouldn’t be a problem. I’m the kind of student who prefers to have a more hands approach in order to learn better and excel in my work. While I do believe students would have more interest in the course if the teacher did a flipped classroom and had a more interactive approach. Many professors already lecture in their courses with a passion in what they teach. Those types of professors keep their students interested instead of bored by telling stories, cracking jokes related to material, or involve participation from the
Edmundson was considered one of the “interesting” teachers because of the fact he would tell jokes in order to keep the students interested, since it was the one way he figured worked; however, he did not “teach to amuse…or for that matter, to be merely interesting” (Edmundson, Greene-Lidinsky 390). College students get to pick their professors and they have to ability to find out if the professor is to their liking, or else they can just drop the class and/or find a better-suited professor. Edmundson felt as though the student’s “passion seems to be spent,” and that “university culture” is becoming more and more “devoted to consumption and entertainment” (Edmundson, Greene-Lidinsky 391). Furthermore, colleges make it even worse due to the fact that they make the campuses beautiful in order to attract students to apply, so students attend those campuses imagining that the classes will be just as
In her article, “Lecture Me. Really”, Molly Worthen addresses the issue college students know all too well: how to lecture properly. Published in the New York Times, Worthen writes a passionate article about lecturing but from the perspective of a professor. Worthen presents the idea that lecturing, although some may think ineffective in the classroom, is a way to truly challenge and engage students into critically thinking. Worth dictates this idea with an excellent build up logical argument but lacks the proper evidence to support her claims creating a faulty argument.
Linda Lee, the author of “The Case against college”, uses rhetorical devices to sway the readers opinions. Most people can agree college is very important, while others have different opinions. Lee believes not everyone needs a higher education. She is forgetting the reason college is so important and why so many people receive a college education. Everyone should attend college, college graduates make more money, have more job opportunities, become more independent, and have more stability.
Effectively communicating an idea or opinion requires several language techniques. In his study of rhetoric, Aristotle found that persuasion was established through three fundamental tools. One is logos, which is used to support an argument through hard data and statistics. Another is ethos, which is the credibility of an author or speaker that allows an audience to conclude from background information and language selection a sense of knowledge and expertise of the person presenting the argument. The impact of pathos, however, is the most effective tool in persuasion due to the link between emotions and decisions. Although each of these tools can be effective individually, a combination of rhetorical devices when used appropriately has the ability to sway an audience toward the writer’s point of view.
Because universities are extending the number of applicants they are accepting, a lot of people question whether community colleges still matter. Personally, I share Liz Addison, for¬¬¬mer Southern Maine Community College student and graduate of Royal Veterinary College in London, opinion that appears in her essay “Two Years Are Better than Four” published in 2007. In her essay, even though Addison rebuts Rick Perlstein’s perspective that community colleges no longer matter as they once did, explains the philosophy of community college, and recounts her college experience, she mostly focus on proving her opinion, stated in the last paragraph of the essay, that “college does still matter”(258). In other words, Adison thinks that college still
The right and privilege to higher education in today’s society teeters like the scales of justice. In reading Andrew Delbanco’s, “College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be, it is apparent that Delbanco believes that the main role of college is to accommodate that needs of all students in providing opportunities to discover individual passions and dreams while furthering and enhancing the economic strength of the nation. Additionally, Delbanco also views college as more than just a time to prepare for a job in the future but a way in which students and young adults can prepare for their future lives so they are meaningful and purposeful. Even more important is the role that college will play in helping and guiding students to learn how to accept alternate point of views and the importance that differing views play in a democratic society. With that said, the issue is not the importance that higher education plays in society, but exactly who should pay the costly price tag of higher education is a raging debate in all social classes, cultures, socioeconomic groups and races.
Elective classes can help with life skills. Cooking classes or home-ec are classes that can teach students life skills to use later.. They are skills that can be valuable to some career choices. Also, students can learn what they would want to become for their careers. If a student takes a class like Law and Justice, they can learn whether it is something that interests them or not. With more elective classes it would give more of these opportunities to introduce different career clusters to students. They would know their passions. Many time students go to college thinking they know their career, but more classes could expose students to more job opportunities. It wasttes money when students change their career in college because they have to take additional classes and some of the classes they took wont be helpful in their new decision to change careers. Evidently, more classes prepares students for life and their future career
As students in college classrooms sit and listen to their teacher’s requirements and lectures, students often asked themselves why am I here? Why am I taking this class? Is it relevant to my major, my life or career choice? College-level institutions of learning have a hard time figuring out what is the best way to teach students and what works for the student’s best. According to John Dewey “how students are taught is as important as what they are taught” (415). College level students should be taught the skills and abilities that are needed to survive in the work force as well as in society as a whole. Students will face challenges after a college education leading to a different path in life rather than the one they were chasing or hoping
When I first read the title of the article “The Problem with Lecturing” I was immediately drawn to the subject at hand. Being a student who has struggled in the past with the teaching method of lecture classes, I was curious as of what aspect Emily Hanford was going to write about. I was curious to see what appeal she would use to make her point. Would she use ethos, logos, pathos or a combination of all three? And at what point would her kairos moments appear. To my delight, Emily touched base on may different aspect of the problem with lecturing including, but not limited to, testing understanding once lectured (ethos), professors taking the matter to heart of its lack of effectiveness (pathos) , and the importance of professors changing the way they teach/lecture in a classroom setting(logos). Hanford also remarked that Professors have long been aware of the problem with lecturing student, but most are not sure of how to make the needed change. While others feel there is no need make changes to what is, as they believe is “working well”. This last statement however was not clear as what she was trying to convey in her article, which may leave the readers confused of what her actual point is. For example is she looking for a change or is she just expressing an issue that exists.
The idea of a flipped classroom originally came about in the 1980s when Eric Mazur developed a computer-based instruction to guide students through the lessons outside of his class. He did this because he felt his students needed him most during the class time (Schultz, 2014). Through time the idea of the flipped classroom has continued to be expanded on. In 2000, Lage, Platt, and Treglia published a study titled “Inverting the Classroom: A Gateway to Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment.” This study stated that different learning styles are no longer limited by time constraints or the possible loss of content. According to Lage, Platt, and Treglia, “Inverting the classroom means that events that have traditionally taken place inside the classroom now take place outside the classroom” (Lage, Platt, & Treglia, 2000, p. 32). Lage, Platt, and Treglia wanted to reach students with different learning styles by providing options for the students to use in learning outside of class and to increase their interaction with the students and teacher inside of class
If colleges are going provide education at a hefty price, the quality of teaching shouldn’t be based upon a book rather their own teaching methods. Allie Bidwell, staff writer of usnews.com states, “in a survey of more than 2,000 college students in 33 s...
In this book Terry Doyle addresses the issue of improving undergraduate education by creating a learner-centered environment. The primary focus of the book is to reach the college and university faculty. The book is intended to give them guidance in how to get students to learn more and to learn it better. Part of the process to reach the faculty involves persuading the students that this learner-centered environment that gives them responsibility for their own learning is the best approach for success. The book provides the tools needed to understand the learner-centered classroom, and how to implement it with the students.
Are large lecture hall numbers in colleges pushing incoming freshman away? It does for me and many other people I talk to about college. In colleges adds, they mainly advertise if they have small class numbers. They tell us that we will be on a first name basis with out professors if we attend that college. Never have I seen the University of Iowa brag about their 300 people lecture halls. There is a reason to that, and it is quite simple. Students do not learn as well in large class sizes. According to the article “Does Class Size Matter” in the New York Times, students were asked to comment their thoughts on the question. Out of the 220 comments left by students all around the world, 99 percent of the comments that I read said that they liked being in smaller classes for a few simple reasons. One, they can pay attention to what the teacher is teaching better. Two, there are less distractions; this is beneficial to both the teacher and students. And three, the communication with the teacher is much better in a classroom with fewer students. There is more to just the students learning that gets affected by class sizes. We must step back and look at the rock of the classroom, the teacher. It does affect how students learn if the teacher is using certain methods. There are a multitude of ways to teach and sometimes it just doesn’t click with a student the way the teacher is teaching. If we had smaller classes, educators would be able to identify the students who are struggling and figure out a way to help them
Yet, the damage doesn’t stop there, in classrooms where the students haven’t fallen asleep the students usually develop a dispirited, and less engaging nature towards learning. The students are convinced that the suitable mode of learning is through the utterances of a teacher which, undoubtedly, leads to an excessive reliance on professors. Reliance on professors is not necessarily a detriment, but when it prevents students from seeking knowledge independently it transforms them into superficial learners who lack depth of understanding.
Breslow and Clay (2006) said that most students reported they try to attend lectures, and usually do, missing them from time to time as the result of academic, extracurricular, or personal conflicts. The most important factor in deciding whether to attend lectures is the lectures’ quality and clarity, followed by conflicting deadlines for other classes, the professor’s use of relevant examples, and the professor’s ability to engage and entertain the students. If students do not expect to learn from lectures, they are less likely to attend, they don’t find the material challenging or if they are doing well in the class, they may decide to allot time they would otherwise spend on the class – including attending lectures – to classes they find more challenging, especially at the busiest and most pressure-filled times of the semester, students felt that the lectures should be aligned with what appears in the homework and on tests, and some students are more likely to attend classes they find interesting.