ATS Blog

A biology professor pointed me to some articles in Cell Biology Education. One article, Teaching More by Lecturing Less, particularly caught my eye.

Knight, J. K., & Wood, W. B. (2005, Winter). Teaching More by Lecturing Less. Cell Biology Education, 4, 298-310.

The authors looked at the same biology class taught 3 times using different teaching styles. They compared the amount of knowledge learned from the "traditional lecture class" to a more interactive class using cooperative learning techniques and audience response technologies. The authors state: "Our results indicated significatnly higher learning gains and better conceptual understanding in the more interactive course." I found the article and conclusions very interesting., The discussion section of the paper particularly caught my eye. They brought up two potential concerns that are important considerations:

...the physical facilities provided by most universities do not favor this kind of teaching. Interaction between teaching staff and students...and other in-class group activities was greatly hampered by the theatre-style design that is unforunately standard for large university classrooms. ...the unfamiliar demands of an active-engagement course may take them out of their comfort zone, resulting in lower student ratings for the instructor.

These points bring up interesting questions about Learning Space Design and the way we assess our faculty. One solution to the assessment problem is provided by the authors. "We believe an antidote to this concern is more emphasis on student learning gains as part of the faculty teaching evaluation." A wise idea, indeed!