Looking at Lectures: Nicely baled, but still straw -- no gold yet

Harold is Assistant Professor Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology. Dawn is Laboratory Instructor Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology; Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology. Sheryl is Associate Director, Academic Programs & Interprofessional Education USask Health Sciences.

Estimated Reading Time: will vary with eye strength, sense of humor, tendency to follow links, to read footnotes, etc.

Overview: In our previous post in this series, ‘Bailing’ on Straw: Distinguishing Information from Knowledge – The “Why To”, we explored the difference between “information” and “knowledge”. We concluded that creating knowledge from information requires work—and skills. Continuing with the analogy of spinning gold from straw—knowledge from information—spinning is a skill set that requires practice through action, involvement, and engagement. In this post, we explore the (dearth of?) skill development opportunities in the traditional academic environment.

Knowledge can not be transferred

Instructors can transfer information through well-constructed lectures, selected readings, tasteful videos, and up-to-date textbooks. Although it may be gold to the instructor, no matter how beautifully the straw is baled, it is still straw to the learner. As we mentioned in the previous post, this misalignment is integral to the tension experienced by both instructors and learners in the traditional academic environment.

When we[1] talked about our individual undergraduate experiences, it seemed that an undergraduate university education, for us, consisted of lectures (the odd[2] lab), exams, and grades. Instructors taught, students did assignments and exams, and instructors gave grades in exchange for these inputs.

Even today, students, after ‘stacking up’ the required number of courses (bales of straw?), with acceptable grades, can exchange these for entry into other programs, graduate studies, or the workplace. The most common commodity exchanged for grades and marks, passes and parchments is still information—the stuff provided by instructors—even when we all have access to “the Google”.

If information recollection meets your program goals, then heck, the system works for you! Inconveniently however, learning outcomes often speak eloquently of the multitude of skills our learners will have mastered on completion of our highly competitive programs.[3] Let’s (lettuce) PAWS[4] for a moment and reflect on the skills developed in the traditional lecture/exam model of academia.[5]

1. listening skills! (…note, earbuds are a dead giveaway, buddy!)
2. sitting
3. sitting still for a long period of time (i.e. a skill useful for long flights)
4. holding ones’ liquids (also useful on those same long flights)
5. discretely disguising “multitasking” while looking engaged, but not making eye contact with the instructor (see #13 below)
6. “resting” with eyes open
7. looking thoughtful … with eyes closed
8. highlighting key words on provided slides/handouts
9. adapting to changes in the ‘static’ slide deck 😳
10. making it look like you did the homework/assigned readings … even when you may not have
11. being a polite zombie (see “long flights” above)
12. looking puzzled when questions are asked, but not making eye contact with the instructor (see #13 below)
13. avoiding being called upon to answer said question (a learned skill for certain)
14. deferring to the experts
15. passively[6] accepting information
16. compartmentalizing accepted information
17. interpreting ambiguously written exam questions
18. managing one’s time
19. memorizing
20. recalling
21. developing speed and agility (filling in scantron/opscan sheets accurately and without cramping)
22. mastering pen(cil?) management
23. developing the ability to ‘math on the fly’ to determine how many more correctly answered MCQs are needed to pass/get scholarships/gather sufficient tokens etc.

In comparison, here are skills we think instructors might develop in the traditional lecture/exam model:

1. gathering of information (paraphrasing, finding that fine line between paraphrasing and plagiarizing the textbook, finding articles, synthesizing research, etc.)
2. organizing ideas and materials
3. gaining insights
4. making connections
5. summarizing key ideas and principles
6. creating attractive (or not…🙄) slides
7. communicating effectively
8. speaking in public

These are skills we often hope that our learners develop! Unfortunately, being at the receiving end of a lecture does not provide opportunities to develop these skills. When we reviewed feedback from learners in our CURE courses, they told us that they developed a host of skills. We’ve summarized these skills learners acquired and practiced within the CURE course environment in our Post 5 of this series, Consolidating the Case: Career Readiness Competencies.

Final summary statement: In the traditional lecture/exam academic model, it seems that instructors develop their transferable skills while turning information into knowledge for themselves. Just as you can not transfer knowledge, you also can not transfer a skill set.[7] Skills strengthen with repeated practice over time. It behooves us as instructors to shift our energies from bundling straw to creating opportunities for learners to develop and practice their transferrable skills.[8]

Find the Previous Post in the series.

Find all the posts in this series.

Like podcasts? This blog series has also done two podcasts in our Tales and Trials of Research series. 

[1] “We” the authors…🙄

[2] Yes, multiple meanings intended.

[3] ‘that the world needs’

[4] If you are unaware of the PAWS acronym – use “the google” to look up University of Saskatchewan!

[5] Note – this entire list is ‘off the cuff’ by us the authors as we could not find ANY sources listing the skills learned or practiced by listening to a lecture (other than the skill of listening).

[6] Does this mean that a lecture is a good pacifier?🤔

[7] You can watch someone else hammering all day long and it won’t help you miss your thumb 🔨👎😖

[8] Yes, it is not lost on us that this post is just another finely bundled pile of straw—for you the reader. But for us we have developed oh so many skills! Please be in touch if you would like to join us in blog-post writing!