Chapter 15 Informative Speaking 443THINK
ABOUT
THIS❶ How and why did the
lecture become the de
facto form of classroom
instruction? Why is in-
class instruction less com-
mon in university settings?
❷ Why might instructors
be hesitant to present
lectures online? Is it
simple resistance to
change, or might other
factors be involved?
❸ Does the fact that
lectures are widely
available online, from
noted scholars, for free,
make them less valuable?
Does Mazur’s approach
make class time more or
less valuable?
❹ If students are engaged
in peer learning during
class, what is the instruc-
tor’s role? Is he or she
considered a facilitator or
an instructor still engaged
in public speaking in this
format?Talk Amongst Yourselves
There is little doubt that technology is changing the nature of classroom
lectures. Many instructors embrace new technologies to enhance their
lectures—they might incorporate slideware presentations, offer audio or
video clips, or use a computer to run a statistical analysis during class. But
one professor suggests that the best use of technology might be to eliminate
classroom lectures—that is, to provide lectures online in order to free up
class time for other kinds of teaching.
Eric Mazur, a Harvard physics professor, believes that the old lecture
format, in which teachers speak and students listen and take notes, is not
the most effective method for teaching or the most efficient use of class-
room time. After research by a colleague showed that thousands of students
who had completed the introductory physics course at universities around
the country still did not have an accurate understanding of the nature of
force (a fundamental concept for the discipline), Mazur was astounded. He
administrated the test to his own students and found that they were no dif-
ferent. He began to try different methods for teaching the concept, shook
up his lectures, trying different methods for teaching. Then, he explains, “I
did something I had never done in my teaching career.... I said, ‘Why don’t
you discuss it with each other?’” He was shocked when, after a scant three
minutes of classroom chaos, all the students had figured it out. Those who
understood the concept were quickly able to defend their explanations of the
concept, while those who had it wrong could not and, thus, students taught
each other. Why were students so much more effective at conveying a con-
cept that he understood so much more thoroughly? Mazur hypothesizes that
it’s precisely because they were not experts. “You’re a student and you’ve
only recently learned this,” he says, “so you still know where you got hung
up, because it’s not that long ago that you were hung up on that very same
thing” (Mazur, quoted in Lambert, 2012, para. 7).
Seeing the value in this kind of peer instruction, Mazur began to rethink
the need for classroom lectures. Now he presents his lectures online, before
class, and saves his valuable class time for working with students. He has
them submit their questions online and then addresses them in class. He also
has them work together in class—completing problems, discussing ques-
tions, and explaining concepts to one another—to clarify what they learned
from the lectures. “Think of education as a whole—what is it? Is it just the
transfer of information?” Mazur doesn’t think so. “Ultimately, learning is a
social experience. Harvard is Harvard not because of the buildings, not
because of the professors, but because of the students interacting with one
another” (Mazur, quoted in Lambert, 2012, para. 28).WIREDFORCOMMUNICATION
four-course gourmet dinner in her tiny apartment with just a toaster oven, a
microwave, and a hot plate (Annino, 2007). Sound impossible? But what if
she showed you? Rachael Ray (and Peggy Paul) caught on to an important
truth: often the best way to explain how something works is to demonstrate it.