介绍:
20160718ou 一中两外锵锵三人行
今日话题： 课究竟该怎么上？
最新报道指出：只有老师一人在前面讲，不见得是最好的方式
LW: There’s been a report that came out in the Atlantic, and it says that maybe lectures isn’t the best way. Places like MIT, in their introductory physics classes, and we’re talking here about very difficult things, these are quite high-level classes that we’re operating on here, they are also starting to do away with lectures, saying they are ineffective, they are time-consuming, and they’re not necessarily the best way to convey information.
WY: I think it varies from the lecture’s subject, and also it varies from the professor himself.
NL: Yeah, I’d agree with that, I think it very much depends on the style of the lecture and the personal style of the actual lecturer.
LW: Oratory used to be a thing, used to be a thing that was taught a lot, I feel, I did a bit of research looking back at this, and from about the early 40s, 1940s, it used to be a very, a very important thing, but then, kind of, as science kept advancing, there was a weird moment where there was a kind of a backlash against it, you know, the ability how to speak well, but the ability to actually convey emotion and stir emotion in other people is something that, in academia at least, seems to have kind of fallen towards the background. And something that I noticed in China that I hadn’t actually noticed elsewhere, I don’t know if it was just, kind of, the technology has advanced a little bit quicker, is a lot of people don’t actually take notes. You kind of, you have your, you have your iPad, or your tablet, you have it up, and that’s where you take your notes. From my perspective, at least, that’s a lot of opportunity for distraction!
WY: I mean computers in classes enables people to share everything instantly, so that is one advantage for it. But what about the disadvantages? If people are sitting there quietly, just simply reading the article out of their computer instead of the teacher giving a lecture, you can just read it from your computer at your home, so you don’t need to even apply for a university. When we’re talking about maybe less lectures from the professor and then students are all forming different groups, different little teams, within their teams they are giving lectures by themselves, and also studying with the help of the computers or iPads, do you think in that case it’s just shifting the person who is giving the lecture from the teacher to the students, so the lectures still exists but the only thing that has changed is who is giving the lecture?
LW: That sounds like a great idea. And the only problem I would have is not all students arrive at the classroom or at the lecture venue, kind of, with the same amount of resources, so we have students, maybe, who don’t, you know, they, they don’t have access to a lot of technology, as it were, or a lot of free time, which would probably be more important nowadays, and that could be a little bit difficult because now you’re placing the student at a, at a disadvantage, where maybe they didn’t sign up for that. Quickly before we go, Nick, what was your worst lecture or lecturer?
NL: I had one, it was on a Friday afternoon, he had such a pleasant, soothing voice that you were just sliding off into sleep. It was nice to listen to, but I learnt nothing from it.
LW: What was the subject?
NL: It was French history.
LW: Fantastic, that sounds fantastic.
WY: How romantic!
LW: What about you, Yoyo?
WY: Linguistics.
LW: Linguistics, that was the worst one?
WY: It can be the worst, and it can be the best. Because maybe the lecture is a little bit boring, but the teacher is so handsome.
LW: Okay, well there you go!
