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Lectures in college courses are a common and easy way to deliver information to students, but the passivity promoted by traditional lectures create problems. When lectures lack activities that engage students' minds, collegians encounter problems of inferior learning, retardation of critical thinking skills, and undeveloped problem solving abilities.

Traditional college lectures may enable teachers to disseminate large amounts of information with little effort, but they are a woefully inferior method of promoting learning. In vocational or technical colleges, an ideal member of the teaching faculty should be BOTH a professor and an educator. In addition to his ability to profess or to eloquently articulate knowledge, the ideal faculty member can facilitate students' learning and development of critical thinking and problem solving skills. Successful employees in today's workplace and marketplace are those employees who can actively generate products and solutions. Colleges that produce passive employees are doing a disservice to their students and to the communities in which their graduates live and work.

Lectures can be transformed from passive events to active experiences. Simple techniques can spur students to engage with the course content, the teacher, and their peers. Interspersed between verbal presentations of information, can be active learning strategies such as:

-asking questions that review course content
-asking questions that require manipulation, reflection or critical analysis of material
-demonstrations of skills that students are to learn
-demonstrations that further elucidate complex concepts
-hands-on activities that allow students to practice skills
-group work that further clarify class material
-debate or discussion of lecture content

Such techniques promote active learning which is more effective than passive learning. Students engage with new ideas and information to generate knowledge and improve skills. As they engage with their peers around course material and skills, collegians gain collaboration abilities that are valuable in the workplace.

Resources and workshops for college faculty who wish to learn about student engagement techniques and active learning are easily found online and through professional development centers that exist in many educational institutions. Faculty who rely on simple passive lectures have no excuse for continuing to do so, especially to the detriment of their students.

Learn more about this author, Mary Therese.
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