Lecture's a Double-Faced

Lecture’s a Double-Faced

According to David Daniels, the American colleges and universities are under

strong attack from many sectors. The instructors, with the responsibility of nurturing

the next generation, are not doing well on their position and students are not doing his

efforts on their studies as well. This turned out to be a huge stepping stone for

American business field quoted by David for suffering from those unenterprising and

un prepared employees. Therefore, he straightly pointed out the problem the

American education has, the lecture system. In David Daniel’s opinion, it is less

effective in a lecture course than in a small discussion class. In fact, as a college

student, I felt in the same way and it truly influenced me a lot while learning. Below,

there are reasons why I think it’s better to take small discussion courses.

First of all, lecture courses are held in a technical way. The reason why students

feel so unintentional is that the bigger the class is the less intention the professor has

on his students. For example, I have taken the lecture course last semester with a

purpose of broadening our knowledgement in each field and there were more than

2000 students in the course. Taking the course in a hall, I found great distance with

the speech giver and hard to have eye-contacts. Therefore, it’s hard to swallow down

those small pieces of words on the screen unless we have discussion in class which is

impossible in lecture course.

Secondly, taking notes tend to be the ONLY job in lecture course. Students

swiftly note down the words they just heard like a machine in a lecture class. Finding

this stupid and meaningless, I myself don’t agree with this strategy in class. In fact, I

always learn by listening because I can’t conduct two things at the same time. It’s

important to digest those bubbling senses or knowledge in class not wait until you

check your notes after class. It’s hard for me to concentrate in class while taking notes

at the same time but taking a few keywords are important and acceptable.

At last, learning is always a mutual thing among no matter students or students

and professors. I strongly believe that by sending out a mission of discussion among

small groups may clash out great ideas. In a small-sized class, it’s more possible to

hold small discussion in class which is impossible for lecture courses. By discussion

in a small group though not many members, I can learn from everyone else within the

group conducted by an explicit talking and exchanging of ideas. Furthermore, it’s

more likely to have chances to raise up a question in a small class and even to discuss

with the professor.

To sum up, we are well-informed by the thesis of David Daniels that it’s less

effective in learning while holding a lecture course. I myself agree on that with

reasons above. The importance of learning in a mutual way not in a technical way

cannot be over-stated. Though it seems to be a routine work going day by day, it

somehow influences the students indirectly. We might discover those bad

consequences not until we get into the society which is away too late to do any

amendments.