ABSTRACT
Lecturing is a predominant form of instruction in U.S. classrooms from middle school through college. A sample of 120 7th-and 10th-grade teachers reported spending about 50% of their class periods lecturing, with slight increases in the amount of time spent lecturing from 7th to 10th grade (Putnam, Deshler, & Schumaker, 1993). In college, lecturing is an even more pervasive instructional method. Anderson and Armbruster (1986) claimed that college students typically spend at least 10 hours per week attending lectures. Given that a normal course load for undergraduates is 15 credit hours, 10 hours per week amounts to approximately 80% of class time spent listening to lectures. Lecturing may have “recently come into disrepute as a method of teaching” (deWinstanley & Bjork, 2002, p. 19) because of a current emphasis on active learning and cooperative learning. Nonetheless, lecturing remains a common and often indispensable instructional method for college students. According to a 2001 report from the National Center for Education Statistics,
Lecturing remains the primary instructional method in postsecondary education. In fall 1998, 83% of faculty and staff with instructional responsibilities at the undergraduate, graduate, or professional level reported using this format as their primary instructional method in at least one class taught for credit. (Wirt et al., 2001, p. 77)
Therefore, little has changed since Carrier, Williams, and Dalgaard (1988) observed, “The lecture method remains a ‘sacred cow’ among most college and university instructors” (p. 223).
