Are most of your classes lecture or discussion?

Question

If you are in high school or college, please think about the classes you are taking. Is the majority of the time spent in lecture (by the teacher), in classroom discussion, or group activities?

If you were the teacher what approach do you think would work best?

Answer 1

all the lecturers in my college give only lectures and they never discuss with us ... the reason for that i think is there wont be much time for them to discuss in the college....

Answer 2

If I were a teacher, I believe having a lecture and then discussion. In lecture you fill the emply glass of mind with useful knowledge, and in discussion you can see how cold or warm it has become, wheather they have understood it or not.

Answer 3

When I was in high school and college, the first half of my classes were "lecture", then the second half we would discuss what was lectured to us in order to ensure that we understood.

In elementary and middle school, I think the majority of your classes are lecture because you're really young and the teacher is still trying to set up a foundation for you.

Answer 4

I teach composition at a community college, and I very rarely lecture. It simply doesn't work. People who think that lecturing is the only way usually think that because that's what they're used to. In my classes, we read, write, have discussions, ask questions, and sometimes do group activities.

Answer 5

I teach middle school during the regular school year and I always begin with instruction/lecture.  I present the lesson to the students, advising them of the objective we are trying to reach and then how we are going to go about reaching it. I plan an activity so they can 'relate'.  I show them 'how' to do it, then allow them to 'do it' as a whole group and then individually.  I have small groups and whole group learning.  I also try to incorporate my students' learning styles into the lesson.  I often have 'hands on', written work,  and oral responses.  During the summer, I teach high school and the lecture and discussion are both used.  "Best" depends upon the students you teach and the classroom size as well as the students learning styles.  My goal is to get the optimum participation and response.  In other words, I want the 'light' to go on and know that my students have the information that was set as the objective that day.

Answer 6

I mostly use lecture, because it is practical, time effective, and you control the direction.  However, I know that other activities are far more valuable to students.  As a result, I don't stick to pure lecture, but try to keep students involved through asking questions and encouraging their questions.  

One difficulty with discussion is that if you give students too much control, you may end up on tangents that don't address what you meant to address.  It requires a good teacher to keep the discussion within reasonable boundaries, and this can be done mostly be being aware of what your objectives are for the lesson.

For a summer school class this summer, I tried an approach where I gave students directed activities and had them figure them out before the lecture.  They mostly did these on a geometry computer program.  They were usually able to come to the correct conclusions (sometimes needed some extra help) even before the "lecture".  The "lecture" then what just focusing what they'd just learned on their own.  The students had more fun this way and I believe the retained it better because they understood how it was put together.

Answer 7

When I was in high school, everything but English class and sometimes social studies was lecture; English had lots and lots of discussion.

In university, I had some classes of over 400 students--they were not discussion classes, as you can imagine. Math was not discussion. A lot of my smaller classes were discussion.

As a teacher or prof, the format I would choose would really depend on the material being taught and the size of the class.

Answer 8

Different students like different teaching strategies so as a teacher I tend to do it all.  As a student, I prefer lecture as long as I can ask questions.  I hate group work.