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Recently, more research has challenged the "sage on a stage" approach to teaching, especially for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses, arguing that engaging students with questions or group activities is more effective compared to passively listening to someone speak for hours.
This does not imply that the traditional mode of stand-and-deliver is being demonstrated is less effective at promoting student learning and preparing future teachers as there are still times when lectures will be needed to explain topics and learn from the expertise of a professor.
The issue mainly has to do with the teaching format and forms of technologies used in lectures and classrooms to support learning.
Effectiveness
Most lectures tend to be 2-3 hours long. It's highly unlikely that all students will be able to (i) take down accurate notes in time (ii) remember every single word taught and will most likely end up resorting back to the Powerpoint Slides to refresh their memory. For some students, they even choose to skip the lecture as they believe self studying is more effective and efficient.
In short, the issue is for education to be effective and efficient, it needs to (i) do things right and (ii) teach the right concepts. While I'm confident that content wise most institutes are doing a fantastic job, it's the approach that needs to be reconsidered.
Question for Thought: If all the lecture materials and PPT slides are made available online afterwards, what would be the motivating factor to attend the lecture?
Catering to Different Learning Styles
Currently most traditional classrooms are still structure in a singular learning style which does not accommodate learners of different needs, preferences and styles. For example, some students might find it harder to concentrate on pure text and prefers to learn through visual images where as some like to be practical and engage with hands on sessions to learn.
Holograms can help support the three main learning styles as listed below:
Visual learning, often called “book” learning, has long been the prevailing method, compelling students to read, remember, and recite the information on a page in reports, tests, and quizzes. This method is most frequently used by teachers during early childhood for school-aged children, where information is traditionally taught using picture books, flashcards, and later, textbooks.
Auditory learning, most easily observed in the lecture formats of certain college courses, relies upon the student to take in an instructor’s information through listening to them live, or via a pre-recorded session, requiring students to take notes accordingly throughout the process. This form of learning may or may not encourage discussion, depending on the preferences of a given professor.
Kinesthetic learning is the third and most intriguing of the learning styles, mingling elements of both visual and auditory learning and compelling full participation from the student. Named after kinesiology, the study of human movement, it’s most commonly referred to as “hands-on” learning. This blended learning technique is one of the key drivers in trade school learning, as it allows students to become comfortable and familiar with the hands-on processes and skills of what will hopefully become their careers, rather than simply watching or reading about them.
Question for Thought: Do you think current classrooms are too imbalanced towards a particular learning style? What if there was a way to combine all three into one?
Limited Classroom Environment to Learn
Social learning theory is a learning process which involves observing, modeling, and imitating the behaviors, attitudes, and reactions of others. Social learning theory considers how both environmental and cognitive factors interact to influence human learning and behavior (Bandura 1977).
Motivation is defined as an internal state that directs and sustains goal-oriented behavior (Bandura 2012) which includes factors such as self-determination, efficacy and extrinsic factors which influences social learning. For example both self-determination (i.e. the level of control a student has over their learning) and self-efficacy (i.e. the confidence that a student has for achieving high outcomes) can be enhanced by socially engaging with peers to discuss course material and questions.
As there is a limited amount of external stimulus within the classroom, including the use of holograms can help students learn through observation, interaction and won't need to purely rely on their imagination to visualize vague concepts or ideas which they find it difficult to relate to. Furthermore, social learning can also create a “student community” which helps maintain motivation by providing students with a network they could reach out to (eg: UBC MET Facebook Group) (Kizilcec and Schneider 2015).
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