Active Listeners
This last Friday and Saturday, we had an amazing Conference organized by ASPECT Department. Listening to so many different and interesting ideas made me realize how much I like to listen. After the presentations, I was not only inspired, but also exhausted. This indicates that listening, at least in this case, was not a passive activity. I was not there only listening to words while they echoed and vanished in the air. I was trying hard to put a lot of thoughts together at the same speed they were thrown at me.
There are a lot of factors that make a good or bad lecture, but I started to rethink the value of lectures once I realized how important they have been for the constitution of my own thoughts. The voice of the professor, or of some professors…
Some people still believe that there are different ways to learn. Some students understand better by listening, others by seeing and others by doing. This is the basic notion behind arguments that there must be a ‘mix’ of them for effectiveness. In this video, the argument is that learning styles does not really influence our understanding.
I think the argument makes sense, but it oversimplifies the process. For me, not only memorization, but also the understanding of meanings is facilitated by one form or another of teaching. I still think it is fascinating how some professors play nicely with words, transforming the driest texts into the most pleasant songs.
It is interesting that it does not support the idea of different learning styles work for different people. I am interested to know that what the professor meant by good teaching at the end.