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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Bruce Charlton
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Lectures are probably the best teaching method for many students in many circumstances; especially for communicating conceptual knowledge, and where there is a significant knowledge gap between lecturer and audience. However, the lack of a convincing rationale has been a factor in under-estimating the importance of lectures, and there are many who advocate their replacement with written communications or electronic media. I suggest that lectures are so effective because they exploit the spontaneous human aptitude for learning from spoken (rather than written) information. Literacy is a recent cultural artefact, and for most of their evolutionary history humans communicated by direct speech. By contrast with speech, all communication technologies - whether reading a book or a computer monitor - are artificial and unnatural. Furthermore, learning is easier during formal, quiet, real-time social events. The structure of a lecture artificially manipulates human psychology to increase vigilance, focus attention, and generate authority for the lecturer - all of which make communications more memorable for the student. Instead of trying to phase-out lectures, we should strive to make them better by understanding that lectures are essentially formal, spoken, social events. © 2006.
Author(s): Charlton BG
Publication type: Editorial
Publication status: Published
Journal: Medical Hypotheses
Year: 2006
Volume: 67
Issue: 6
Pages: 1261-1265
ISSN (print): 0306-9877
ISSN (electronic): 1532-2777
Publisher: Churchill Livingstone
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2006.08.0011016
DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2006.08.001
