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The Enhanced Lecture: an Effective Classroom Model Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel Volume 15 Number 2 Article 8 6-2014 The Enhanced Lecture: An Effective Classroom Model Ray L. Huntington Shon D. Hopkin Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/re BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Huntington, Ray L. and Hopkin, Shon D. "The Enhanced Lecture: An Effective Classroom Model." Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel 15, no. 2 (2014): 114-131. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/re/vol15/iss2/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. The Enhanced Lecture: An Effective Classroom Model ray l. huntington and shon d. hopkin Ray L. Huntington ([email protected]) is a professor of ancient scripture at BYU. Shon D. Hopkin ([email protected]) is an assistant professor of ancient scripture at BYU. earning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in class listening to teachers, memorizing prepackaged assignments, and spit- Lting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves.1 “The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.”2 Leading students to discover, evaluate, reflect, and act on new information and knowledge is one of the challenges and rewards of teaching, whether teach- ing at a university, in the seminary or institute classroom, or in Sunday classes. Teaching is especially rewarding when teachers sense they are assisting and guiding students in the learning process. Despite the joy of teaching, however, there are (as every teacher recognizes) challenges and frustrations. Cody Bell, © Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Cody Bell, © Intellectual Reserve, Active learning assists the learner to engage the course materials through reading, writing, talking, listening, and reflecting. 115 116 Religious Educator · VOL. 15 NO. 2 · 2014 The Enhanced Lecture: An Effective Classroom Model 117 Learning and Student Passivity fifty-minute (or longer) teacher-centered lecture may find it challenging to One of the frustrations for some teachers is the lack of student engagement remain attentive and involved. For instance, one study showed that students 7 and motivation in the learning process. Another word to describe this chal- in a lecture-based classroom were not attentive about 40 percent of the time, lenge is “passivity.” Passive learning occurs when “students take on the role while another study found that students retain 70 percent of the material in 8 of receptacles of knowledge; that is, they do not directly participate in the the first ten minutes of the lecture, but only 20 percent in the last ten minutes. learning process.”3 Granted, there are students who appear disengaged, but Similar research found that students readily attended to the lecture material are, in fact, carefully attending to the material presented in class. Even so, being presented during the first five minutes. However, within ten to twenty there are too many students struggling to maintain focused attention during minutes into the lecture students experienced boredom and found it difficult traditional classroom lecturing. to remain attentive. This state continued until the end of the lecture when stu- 9 Passivity among students is not surprising, given the number of teachers dents were reenergized with the knowledge that the lecture would soon end. who rely on the classic “sage on the stage”4 lecture method for most, if not all As stated earlier, while lecturing may give the instructor more control over the of the class. For example, researchers surveying faculty at twenty-four colleges depth and breadth of what is taught, research has demonstrated that lecturing found that 83 percent of the teachers used lecturing as their primary method may also lead to student passivity and limited retention and recall of knowl- 10 of instruction. Further, an extensive survey of university professors in the US edge. Perhaps the greatest weakness to lecturing is the possibility that students found that 89 percent of the physical scientists, 81 percent of social scientists, will hear the presentation without giving much thought or reflection to what and 61 percent of the humanities faculty used the lecture method as their is presented. primary method of teaching. Despite the lower percentage in the humanities, In relation to teaching scripture, lecturing may increase the student view- 81 percent of the art historians and 90 percent of the philosophy teachers point that religious education is simply the acquisition of data—the who, still lectured for the majority of class time.5 In short, lecturing continues to where, and what of the scriptures—without any relevance to the student’s be widely used among college professors and probably at other educational life. This type of learning may become meaningless, since it does not engage levels as well, and for good reasons. the student in an affirmation of the scriptural principles. Among highly moti- vated students, lecturing may produce gospel learners who can fluidly recite Strengths and Weaknesses of Lecturing scriptural facts and trivia, but it may also produce students who lack emo- tional or spiritual connection to those facts. Lecturing can be effective, especially in the hands of a well-prepared, enthusias- Consider Leon Solomon and Gertrude Stein’s late-twentieth-century tic instructor. An organized and thoughtful lecture allows teachers to control research, in which they concluded that both reading and writing could be the amount of information students receive and to deliver large amounts of done automatically, with little thought on the part of the learner. That is, information in short spans of time, deciding in advance which information is subjects were able to write English words while otherwise engaged in read- most pertinent to student learning. Lecturing also allows teachers to present ing an interesting story. With practice, these subjects were also able to take information in a manner not readily available to students that presents little, notes automatically while reading. Afterward, they were unable to recall what if any, emotional risks to students and appeals to those who learn by listen- they had written, even though they were sure they had written something.11 ing.6 If gospel teachers are prepared, lecturing helps assure that students will Similarly, some students may become “learning automatons” as they listen to be introduced to new ideas and correct doctrines from someone who under- their instructor, take notes, or read from a text (such as the scriptures), but stands the implications of the concepts and can carefully guide students into they are giving little thought to any of it, and in the end, cannot remember— more nuanced views of the scriptures. or worse, even care about—much of what was presented. While lecturing has its upsides, there are weaknesses to this time-honored What is needed then, to assist students in giving more “cognitive invest- approach. The most obvious downside to lecturing is the risk of student dis- ment”12 or physical and psychological energy13 to the material presented to engagement during the lecture period. Students who quietly sit through a 118 Religious Educator · VOL. 15 NO. 2 · 2014 The Enhanced Lecture: An Effective Classroom Model 119 students? What will help them to create that emotional or spiritual connec- effectiveness of increased student participation. There are numerous lecture- tion to the material presented to them in a gospel setting? enhancing strategies available to teachers who are willing to implement them. A recommended solution would be to insert several short, active learning exercises into the lecture to “promote self-reflection, leading to more inte- The Benefits of Active Learning 14 grated, personally meaningful learning.” While active learning is not a new Using a few of these “enhanced lecture activities” during a fifty-minute class methodology, for some educators it remains a catchphrase lacking concrete, will not consume a great deal of time; it may, however, reduce the pace and applicable ways to employ it in the classroom, or it is viewed as a chaotic class- amount of information normally covered during a teacher-centered lecture. room full of student novices sharing meaningless comments, with the teacher On the upside, giving students an opportunity to reflect and think about the acting as an upbeat educational cheerleader. material through writing a short one- to two-minute response paper, review- For those teaching gospel principles professionally or in a volunteer ing a concept in small groups, or quizzing a person seated next to them about capacity, Church leaders have discussed the importance of students becom- information discussed in class will likely enhance their understanding and 15 ing faithful “agents” in the learning process, with Seminaries and Institutes retention of the material in ways an additional five to ten minutes of lecturing as well as the Come, Follow Me Sunday School curriculum encouraging the cannot. The act of reflecting alone or in small discussion groups encourages 16 use of
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