ABSTRACT
Let’s revisit some of the characters we introduced at the start of our book, and look at what they have to say about their expectations of what their students should be doing in their lectures. In fact, it often isn’t clear what lecturers expect students to do in lectures; perhaps this is because lecturers tend to be more concerned with what they are teaching than with the experiences of the students during their lectures.
the lecturers…
Arthur
It’s ok for the ones in the front two rows, they can see what I’m showing them. They seem to be the keen ones anyway. It’s when I look up to those further back—their faces are blank, they’ve glazed over. And the ones who aren’t interested seem to always sit at the back—and they chatter.
Dr D
I find it very annoying that some of them don’t seem to know what they should be doing in my lectures. Some of them sit there vacantly and others wait until I get to the end of a complex worked example and then say, ‘Which bits of that were we supposed to write down, then?’
Anya Wilenska
I ask them questions—and they answer. But they drive me insane with their stupid questions to me, they interrupt me all the time and haven’t got the courtesy to wait until I have finished my presentation. Is it the students? In my country, you wouldn’t look up and see them nodding off! You wouldn’t see the ones at the back texting with their mobiles. Can’t they see that the slides are just the main points on which I elaborate? It’s what I say that they need to be thinking about—but they don’t think. Why don’t they make notes, these students?
Professor Oakwood
As far as I’m concerned they come to my lectures to get a grip on the subject—or that’s what they should be doing. But they expect to be entertained rather than taught and they seem to have very short attention spans. …If I give them all my overheads as they request, they sit there in class doing nothing, so I think it better that they make their own notes.
Dr Arbuthnott
What should my students be doing? Well, as long as they’re interested it’s enough for me. I adjust what I do using their facial expressions and body language as my barometer. If they don’t follow up what was in a lecture and get a grip on it for themselves, there’s not a lot I can do about that. The high-fliers don’t seem to have a problem with this.
