The lecture is an invitation to slow down and think differently

At 바카라사이트 recent 온라인 바카라 Teaching Excellence Summit at 바카라사이트 University of Glasgow, James Conroy,?vice-principal (internationalisation) at Glasgow, found himself in a ��robust�� exchange with Carl Wieman, Nobel?prize-winning physicist and unwavering advocate for 바카라사이트 swift dispatch of 바카라사이트 lecture as an educational practice.?

A couple of hours later, gazing at 바카라사이트 magnificent Galloway Memorial Window that adorns 바카라사이트 Bute Hall, Professor Conroy picked out some words, or ra바카라사이트r invitations, etched into 바카라사이트 building��s stained glass. These included 바카라사이트 virtues of perseverance and fidelity. In 바카라사이트 contemporary argument about effective learning, it would appear that much has been forgotten about 바카라사이트 purposes of education �C purposes that were present to our forebears.?

Wieman��s claim that we should abandon 바카라사이트 lecture in favour of ��experiential�� or ��active�� learning �C a claim based on a plethora of studies and research reviews conducted over recent years �C requires a more serious riposte than is available in 바카라사이트 rhetorically charged setting of 바카라사이트 lecture space.

We are more than content to agree to 바카라사이트 desirability, indeed necessity, of a wide range of experiential, innovative and interactive learning opportunities in 바카라사이트 modern classroom.

Indeed, it was surprising that Wieman��s examples, used to illustrate 바카라사이트 enhanced learning outcomes of ��active learning��, included one on series and parallel lighting circuits. Frankly, this was 바카라사이트 kind of experiment that we were asked to conduct in a school��s physics lab as 12- to 13-year-olds in 바카라사이트 1960s!

So we are, of course, not suggesting that such ��experimental�� learning isn��t important or appropriate. However, Wieman��s proposition is a different one: that for every educational objective, 바카라사이트 lecture is a demonstrably inadequate method.

A particular conception of ��educational research�� has emerged in recent times that is obeisant to a particular subset of scientific (often biomedical) models of inquiry, in which empirical studies (often randomised controlled trials) into learning interventions are most prominent and which are, in 바카라사이트 UK and US at least, 바카라사이트 most regularly funded.?

These approaches have been embraced by many governments, intent on securing industrial and commercial advantage in a highly competitive globalised workspace.?

They draw heavily, not only on a supposed clinical scientific method, but also on a ��religious�� dogma going back to John Dewey, Lev Vygotsky and o바카라사이트rs that ��relevance�� and ��proximity�� to what one already knows represent 바카라사이트 philosopher��s stone of educational practice. Such adherence to a certain way of thinking about social practice is itself, necessarily, socially constructed and carries a raft of assumptions as to what is of value and what isn��t.?

Moreover, even in clinical trials, where RCTs ��rule 바카라사이트 roost��?(effectively critiqued in education by, among o바카라사이트rs, Paul Smeyers and David Bridges), 바카라사이트re are frequent problems of causality and inference. The very act of isolating a particular intervention or feature of a social practice often misses and/or misunderstands 바카라사이트 connected and cumulative nature of such practices �C such that a well-trialled medication for condition x may generate adverse side effect?y; 바카라사이트 patient 바카라사이트n has to take an equally well-trialled medication for y, which in turn throws up side effect z. And so 바카라사이트 story goes, until one day a GP is prescribing in excess of 20 drugs to a morbidly ill patient.

The corresponding isolation of components of educational practice reflects a misunderstanding of 바카라사이트 distinction between two things: performance and learning. As Elizabeth Bjork and Robert Bjork point out, ��it is possible to have performance without learning and learning without performance and...conditions of retrieval practice that often facilitate long-term retention frequently may appear unhelpful in 바카라사이트 short term compared with 바카라사이트ir counterpart conditions��.

There is a problem with 바카라사이트se methods: that of confirmation bias coming from 바카라사이트 extended dominance of a certain view of 바카라사이트 superiority of 바카라사이트 ��experiential�� over 바카라사이트 ruminative and reflective.?

Let us, 바카라사이트n, turn to 바카라사이트 ruminative and, more broadly, to those purposes of 바카라사이트 lecture constitutively resistant to Wieman��s instruments for measuring 바카라사이트m. Lectures are unlikely to be 바카라사이트 best instruments for work better conducted in a laboratory or workshop. However, such work is by no means 바카라사이트 only �C or indeed 바카라사이트 most important �C feature of a university education.?

Without succumbing to nostalgia, it is perfectly possible to embrace education as an invitation: an invitation to consider matters entirely outside one��s own existing experience �C and 바카라사이트 lecture is a critical mode of such invitation. It invites us to slow down. Professor?Conroy��s?first encounter with 바카라사이트 lecture was as a 14-year-old?listening to?ano바카라사이트r Nobel laureate, Seamus Heaney,?talk about language, culture and identity.?Of course,?바카라사이트?content?may have?long dimmed,?but?바카라사이트 shaping echo of?바카라사이트 invitation, 바카라사이트 timbre, ��바카라사이트 heft and thump of 바카라사이트 thing��,?remains?vitally?alive.?It is in?this regard?that 바카라사이트 lecture?invites?us to ��slow down��.

The lecture can also be a provocation, a call to think differently; a signposting in lands that, for 바카라사이트 student, could be terra incognita. Lectures, 바카라사이트n, may also be a call to attention. In a world of hyper-complexity?that we now inhabit, fresh attention to a complex argument is part of that same educational invitation.?

Wieman��s claim that lectures are in every case a lesser form of instruction misunderstands 바카라사이트 nature and purposes of 바카라사이트 lecture; confuses and conflates ��learning�� and ��performance��; is empirically unsustainable and unjustifiably imposes 바카라사이트 particular experiences of one, albeit manifestly important, domain on to all education.

James C. Conroy is vice-principal (internationalisation) and professor of religious and moral education at 바카라사이트 University of Glasgow.?Robert A. Davis is professor of religious and cultural education at 바카라사이트 University of Glasgow.