WORLD OF LEARNING: LEARNING DOES NOT EQUAL LISTENING TO A LECTURE PART 1

"Confessions of a Converted Lecturer: Eric Mazur" YouTube 11/12/09

What could I, who suffers from an out-of-control fear of science instruction, learn about teaching from a Harvard physicist? A lot. A very inspiring, and entertaining, way to spend an hour and a half. Mazur's primary conclusion is that you learn new ideas much better from a fellow novice than from an "expert."

"The better you know something," Mazur remarks, "the more difficult it becomes to teach, because you’re no longer aware of the conceptual difficulties of the beginning learner." He gives his students many opportunities to test their understanding on each other, rather than just testing them on how much they remember of what he said.

This is subversive in the amphitheater classes used for college survey courses, and his lecture halls are raucous and filled with students twisting and turning in their seats. But Mazur has the data to show that it works, and that, "It’s not about remembering the information; it’s about using the information."

As he points out, "The lecture method is a process whereby the lecture notes of the instructor get transferred to the notebooks of the students without passing through the brains of either."