Does fun = learning?
Over Christmas Break, an interesting link was posted to the AP Biology teachers’ listserve. It was a blog entry written by a college student entitled “Why Learning from PowerPoint Lectures is Frustrating.”
As I read the musings of this obviously exasperated student and the comments that followed, I began to think about a lot of things. The initial posts brings up some valid points, but the thing that stuck out for me was the comment, “In a good class, I have fun and learn a lot; in a bad class, I don’t have a good time and don’t learn very much.” Does this mean that I am ready to throw all of my power point presentations out the window? Absolutely not! Sometimes lecture is important and I dare say, vital, to understanding.
On the other hand, I have to be honest and admit that I “get” what this student is saying about having a good time and learning a lot. I was like that as a student. Heck, I’m like that now.
I just left Anatomy & Physiology, where my students are finishing up the case study they started before Christmas. Some of them seemed really into it. As I observed the various groups, a couple were having some really valuable discussions and going down paths that were leading them to learning. I saw true collaboration, and I want to believe that I saw learning as it was occurring. On the other hand, there were some other groups that were just too quiet. I did not sense that there was true collaboration in progress or that they were really trying to understand what they were doing. I got the feeling they were just trying to get the job done. So then I started to wonder, “Is this a good case? Was it too simple? Are they enjoying what they’re doing? Are they really learning something new?”
So, do I need to make it more fun? And what exactly is “fun” anyway? More hands on? High levels of inquiry? And if I make it more fun, what exactly will they learn? Will they leave my class with a greater appreciation of the human body and how it works? Will they leave with better problem solving skills and the ability to work in groups? Or will they learn that if they don’t have fun then they won’t learn at all?
Thanks for the thoughtful response to my blog entry. I’ve gotta say, you’re the only person so far to pick up on this aspect of it.
For me, there are two things that make a fun class. The first is how interested I am in the subject matter, which is subjective for everyone. When I’m interested in the subject matter of the class, I find myself thinking more, “Whoa, this is a cool thing I just learned,” and less, “What time can I get out of here?” The second the professor’s attitude toward the class. My point was that professors who sit down and read slides off are boring. I learn best from a professor who is excited about his or her class and has a great attitude. I just finished a fantastic Cognitive Science class. The reason it was awesome was because the professor was passionate, witty, knowledgeable, and charismatic. He cracked jokes in class and told us how he builds swimming robots in tupperware.
You mentioned, “Sometimes lecture is important and I dare say, vital, to understanding,” which I agree with. I just wanted to make it clear that I never meant to say that lecturing is a bad way to teach. By all means, lecture. I just meant that some of your students might learn better if you did it without slides behind you.
Thanks for clearing that up for me. What you say makes sense, and I am working to be less of a lecturer, though I like to think I’ve gotten pretty good at lecturing without being too terribly boring. Some of the comments on your original blog were from professors who had been rated poorly by students for not having powerpoints. I felt their pain as well. I also remember learning from transparencies in high school, as some of the commenters did. I guess somewhere there has to be a happy medium, but I think you hit the nail on the head when you wrote about the passion of the teacher for his/her subject. I think that’s what makes the biggest difference in a student’s response to a course. Thanks for replying to my post!
I love the series of questions at the end of your entry. I believe this is what inquiry is really about. I’ve been trying to add more visuals to my lectures and it’s very challenging. Yet we live in an age when visuals are so easy to provide.
Mo
As for passion, I’m still asking how to inspire it in my students. Modeling is one way to do that. Sometimes they pick up on my passion, but other times I feel like a circus clown performing for a really tough audience where my antics fall flat. Interestingly, one of the subjects I teach I am most passionate about is grammar and almost everyone ends up liking the class. When I reflect on why I teach grammar the way I do, I have to admit I mimic my 10th grade teacher. So I guess modeling passion does pay off, huh?
Interesting post!!! As a newer teacher, I find that there is a thin line between a fun/interesting classroom and a chaotic classroom, that doesn’t get much done. I feel like some lecture/note time is critical to our learning environment, so with that said, my class is boring on those days! Not sure how to change it around to make note-taking more exciting; however, I do know that my students do better when they enjoy class. I am working on it and so far with my AR project, Socratic seminar, they are enjoying it.