ABSTRACT
The authors explore the answers to the questions, beginning with traditional teaching methods and moving to more recent techniques. Some teachers rely on lectures for the wrong reasons, such as that it is the only way they know how to teach or that it is the easiest way to teach. One survey of 744 teachers found that they believed the two most effective ways to teach were hands-on activities and practical exercises, yet when asked to say which teaching technique they had used during their past ten teaching sessions, 90 percent of them reported that they had lectured for about half of their class sessions and 50 percent said they had lectured during all class sessions. Teaching is helping students do the hard work of learning, which includes doing assigned readings and actively listening during lectures. Hundreds of articles and books provide suggestions for how teachers can use active learning methods.
