Educational Theory

Lectures are a highly effective method of transferring information from the notes of the lecturer to the notes of the students (though not as effective as photocopiers and textbooks). A large body of educational research, however, has shown that very little of this information is lodged in the minds of the students en route (eg. Ramsden 1992). This is obvious to anyone marking undergraduate exam scripts.

Surveys of students, particularly in large first-year physics introductory courses, reveal an extremely bleak picture (eg. Loss & Zadnik 1994). The mental state of students in a typical lecture is very passive: information washes over them, without penetrating. Students complain that classes are anti-social: astronomy and physics are seen as individual activities, rather than the social enterprises they are.

The generally accepted solution is to get the students to learn collaboratively; in groups. An enormous body of quantitative research testifies to the power and effectiveness of these methods (eg. Matthews 1996), which are widely used in many disciplines world-wide. In physics, the book by Mazur (1997) makes the case for such exercises very strongly, and provides an excellent collection of group exercises, ready to use. An extremely useful and practical guide to designing and trouble-shooting group-learning activities is the article by Michaelson, Fink and Black (1996). A more general guide is Errington (1997).

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