Blog post: Cap'n Refsmmat: Shut up and listen to your students

Are conventional lectures the best method of teaching scientific concepts?

After all, we've been using the same lecture model for hundreds of years -- since before books were invented. We have professors concoct their own explanations of scientific concepts, deliver them by lecture, create their own diagrams on the chalkboard, and answer student questions. Surely there must be some merit to this method, if we've used it for centuries.

Note that I say "scientific concepts". I want to talk about lectures used to teach introductory physics or chemistry or mathematics, not lectures used to make people remember some facts.

The answer, of course, is "no". Stop lecturing. Shut up and listen to your students.

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