Moving on beyond a diet of lecture-notetaking-quiz

OK, as much as the lecture is a really good instructional tool, it remains the default teaching-learning process which we are captive to.

This is what people have said about the lecture:

In most college classrooms, the professor lectures and the students listen and take notes. The professor is the central figure, the "sage on the stage," the one who has the knowledge and transmits that knowledge to the students, who simply memorize the information and later reproduce it on an exam--often without even thinking about it. This model of the teaching-learning process, called the transmittal model, assumes that the student's brain is like an empty container into which the professor pours knowledge. In this view of teaching and learning, students are passive learners rather than active ones. Such a view is outdated and will not be effective for the twenty-first century, when individuals will be expected to think for themselves, pose and solve complex problems, and generally produce knowledge rather than reproduce it. (Karen King, "From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side" College Teaching Winter 93, Vol. 41, Issue 1

Consider the lecture - that venerable relic of the information-starved middle ages. If students back then could have photocopied or electronically transmitted information with the ease with which we can do so today, I doubt whether the lecture would even have survived as an educational medium. Yet it is one of the most emulated models in modern distance learning programs. (Raymond Albrektson “Mentored Onliine Seminar: A model for graduate-level Distance Learning” in On the Web, Oct 1995, pp 102)

After a few decades of taking and giving lecture courses, most teachers internalize one basic ground rule: teachers do the work. In the lecture mode, the students participate actively after they leave the teacher's presence, when they study, do research, and write papers. Lecture classes provide more exercise for student's finger muscles than their brains. -Abby J. Hanson "Establishing a Teaching/Learning Contract" in Education for Judgment , p.125

Here is an article which suggests active learning strageties and more engaging teaching-learning processes by intentionally changing your primary role as the "sage on the stage" to "guide by the side." The article, "From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side" was written by Karen King in 1993. You hear the phrase used alot but many don't know who or where it originated from. YOU DO NOW!!!

Another great article, which applies more to our younger people is Knowlton and Schaeffer's "Shifting toward a constructivist philosophy for teaching Biblical principles in K-12 Christian schools" Christian Education Journal Series 3, vol 1 2004, pp. 116-129

These articles transition us from the more traditional, default, standard educational offering to a range of alternative teaching-learning processes. Hope they will help increase your repertoire of creative teaching-learning processes which you can apply to teaching in seminary, Sunday School, training situations, church camps, etc.