4 ms·

I think I agree with the synopsis. I don't follow the broad research for the debate, but have a pretty good understanding of the way I learn now that I'm in my

I think I agree with the synopsis. I don't follow the broad research for the debate, but have a pretty good understanding of the way I learn now that I'm in my 30s. I can't listen to lectures at all. Like I just fall asleep. I also have trouble staying awake in meetings where I have to sit still and listen to others talk without being able to engage much. College lectures were torture. It's really hard to grok certain engineering classes and listen when you're spending a ton of energy also taking notes and the professor is moving too fast. I have no idea why they don't just print them ahead of time and pass them out. Who cares if students then don't show up if they can learn the material better? I've found out my best way to learn is to just read the textbook chapters on my own time (no lectures) and then do the homework answering questions or writing papers with the professor available to chat if we need anything (how my master's program works). That works best for me. Audio is just not a good medium for me. I prefer podcast transcripts instead of having to listen to the hosts talk which takes a lot longer. I'm sure others are different.

totallywrong 3y ago
It's crazy that the prevalent teaching method is sitting for long periods while listening to someone else's, constant-pitch voice. That's literally the best way to fall asleep, as shown in sleep meditation videos and the like. I was a terrible student, could not keep my eyes open in any class, lost interest, never made it to colleague. Then a few years later I did self-paced distant learning and got my degree in no time while working.
- bluGill 3y ago
  Some people make that monotone work. I have avidly listened to one smooth monotone speaker talk for 45 minutes, while falling asleep in minutes for a different speaker at the same time of day (different day) who seamingly was much more energetic. I have no idea what the difference was, but i've observed it.
- bee_rider 3y ago
  I’m sure most instructors would, if they had a choice, cut lectures and just have discussion sections/labs. But this would require that everybody read the book and come to the discussion sections ready to engage. Lectures seem more like a failure-mode that has somehow become the standard. Assume the students won’t read, and have a human take the book’s job. Humans are… not great books. It is weird that video-lectures+in person discussion sections didn’t become the standard by, like, 2010 or so.
  - randomdata 3y ago
    The lecture style appears to come from a time before the printing press when access to information was poor, enabling students to be essentially human photocopiers to copy the material to bring back to the home for the rest of the family to learn from. Seems we still do it because we have a love of tradition.
    - Nullabillity 3y ago
      YMMV, which is kind of the entire point here. Personally I found lectures to be a great way to learn, given the right teacher. A big key for me was to stop taking notes so that I could actually focus on what was being said instead. Another was, for lack of a better word… humanity. Video lectures just don't capture me the same way at all.
      - 7thaccount 3y ago
        This wouldn't work well in my engineering classes unfortunately. Sure you might follow along better, but then you'd have no example problems to study and would be screwed when it came time to study for the test.
      - pbhjpbhj 3y ago
        I always had to take notes, still do, if I want to be able to focus on the speaker. Something about how I process speech. I'm very skeptical about the "there are no learning styles" results.
- zeroonetwothree 3y ago
  Good lecturers are far better than books. Then engage with the class, ask questions, adapt the content to what the students want to know or have trouble with, etc
- Detrytus 3y ago
  I think lectures as a form of teaching were invented in the middle ages, before the printing press was available. The whole university might have owned only one copy of each book, so learning by reading it wasn't an option for most students. So the professor, who had read the book before, would lecture them on its contents.
- BeetleB 3y ago
  Most professors I knew would much prefer people read, and the class be used for summary, discussion and problem solving. The problem is they could never get the students to read prior to the lecture.
tayo42 3y ago
Well run classes have the textbook chapters your suppsed to read for the upcoming lecture. So your ready and can interact and ask questions. Learning isn't supposed to happen there. Then it's reinforced with hw. The lazy thing to do is sit down and have someone talk to you. So this doesn't happen in practice.
thayne 3y ago
As a student I was similar to you, I learned best by reading a textbook and working through problems. But I also knew other people who learned best by going to lectures. And still others who learned best by having a TA work through problems or questions with them and have a one-on-one conversation with them (as a TA I was often the other side of that). For some visual imagery was extremely helpful. For others (including myself) not as much. And what works best can even depend on the subject material for a single individual. In my experience, the way people learn best is far more variable than a fixed set of learning styles. And the way our education system works is usually a shotgun approach where they same material is taught in multiple ways and hope that one of them works. Which ends up wasting a lot of the students time with the approaches that don't work for them. And of course there will be students where none of the methods quite work for them.
Jensson 3y ago
> I can't listen to lectures at all. Like I just fall asleep. Falling asleep doesn't mean you didn't learn from the lecture. I fall asleep during lectures and still learn a lot from them, I get sleepy when I learn stuff so falling asleep during learning is natural. So don't conflate "I focused" with "I learned". You don't learn by focusing, you learn by rewiring your brain, and you rewire your brain best when you sleep. I think people who got praised for working hard rather than for learning seek out activities where they work hard rather than activities where they learn, and conflates that for learning styles when it is just their own mental bias. Or people who prefer one style since it is more comfortable etc, people are really bad at evaluating how well they learned something.
- 7thaccount 3y ago
  Idk. Hard to learn when the professor put you to sleep like a lullaby
gav 3y ago
I've spent a bunch of time over the last couple of years working on learning and enablement programs. The main thing that I've learnt is that nobody likes the bulk of online learning efforts: dated videos with forced Q&A interspersed. I've got a strong hunch that learners have an overall learning modality: some prefer video, some prefer audio, some prefer long form text, and so on, but--there's also a local preference based on their current context: you might have a stronger preference to video for commuting or perhaps you like to print out materials and read it. Finding ways to allow learners to come along their own journey that meets them where they are right now is key to generating better outcomes.

totallywrong 3y ago

It's crazy that the prevalent teaching method is sitting for long periods while listening to someone else's, constant-pitch voice. That's literally the best way to fall asleep, as shown in sleep meditation videos and the like. I was a terrible student, could not keep my eyes open in any class, lost interest, never made it to colleague. Then a few years later I did self-paced distant learning and got my degree in no time while working.

bluGill 3y ago
Some people make that monotone work. I have avidly listened to one smooth monotone speaker talk for 45 minutes, while falling asleep in minutes for a different speaker at the same time of day (different day) who seamingly was much more energetic. I have no idea what the difference was, but i've observed it.
bee_rider 3y ago
I’m sure most instructors would, if they had a choice, cut lectures and just have discussion sections/labs. But this would require that everybody read the book and come to the discussion sections ready to engage. Lectures seem more like a failure-mode that has somehow become the standard. Assume the students won’t read, and have a human take the book’s job. Humans are… not great books. It is weird that video-lectures+in person discussion sections didn’t become the standard by, like, 2010 or so.
- randomdata 3y ago
  The lecture style appears to come from a time before the printing press when access to information was poor, enabling students to be essentially human photocopiers to copy the material to bring back to the home for the rest of the family to learn from. Seems we still do it because we have a love of tradition.
  - Nullabillity 3y ago
    YMMV, which is kind of the entire point here. Personally I found lectures to be a great way to learn, given the right teacher. A big key for me was to stop taking notes so that I could actually focus on what was being said instead. Another was, for lack of a better word… humanity. Video lectures just don't capture me the same way at all.
    - 7thaccount 3y ago
      This wouldn't work well in my engineering classes unfortunately. Sure you might follow along better, but then you'd have no example problems to study and would be screwed when it came time to study for the test.
    - pbhjpbhj 3y ago
      I always had to take notes, still do, if I want to be able to focus on the speaker. Something about how I process speech. I'm very skeptical about the "there are no learning styles" results.
zeroonetwothree 3y ago
Good lecturers are far better than books. Then engage with the class, ask questions, adapt the content to what the students want to know or have trouble with, etc
Detrytus 3y ago
I think lectures as a form of teaching were invented in the middle ages, before the printing press was available. The whole university might have owned only one copy of each book, so learning by reading it wasn't an option for most students. So the professor, who had read the book before, would lecture them on its contents.
BeetleB 3y ago
Most professors I knew would much prefer people read, and the class be used for summary, discussion and problem solving. The problem is they could never get the students to read prior to the lecture.

tayo42 3y ago

Well run classes have the textbook chapters your suppsed to read for the upcoming lecture. So your ready and can interact and ask questions. Learning isn't supposed to happen there. Then it's reinforced with hw. The lazy thing to do is sit down and have someone talk to you. So this doesn't happen in practice.

thayne 3y ago

As a student I was similar to you, I learned best by reading a textbook and working through problems. But I also knew other people who learned best by going to lectures. And still others who learned best by having a TA work through problems or questions with them and have a one-on-one conversation with them (as a TA I was often the other side of that). For some visual imagery was extremely helpful. For others (including myself) not as much. And what works best can even depend on the subject material for a single individual. In my experience, the way people learn best is far more variable than a fixed set of learning styles. And the way our education system works is usually a shotgun approach where they same material is taught in multiple ways and hope that one of them works. Which ends up wasting a lot of the students time with the approaches that don't work for them. And of course there will be students where none of the methods quite work for them.

Jensson 3y ago

> I can't listen to lectures at all. Like I just fall asleep. Falling asleep doesn't mean you didn't learn from the lecture. I fall asleep during lectures and still learn a lot from them, I get sleepy when I learn stuff so falling asleep during learning is natural. So don't conflate "I focused" with "I learned". You don't learn by focusing, you learn by rewiring your brain, and you rewire your brain best when you sleep. I think people who got praised for working hard rather than for learning seek out activities where they work hard rather than activities where they learn, and conflates that for learning styles when it is just their own mental bias. Or people who prefer one style since it is more comfortable etc, people are really bad at evaluating how well they learned something.

7thaccount 3y ago
Idk. Hard to learn when the professor put you to sleep like a lullaby

gav 3y ago

I've spent a bunch of time over the last couple of years working on learning and enablement programs. The main thing that I've learnt is that nobody likes the bulk of online learning efforts: dated videos with forced Q&A interspersed. I've got a strong hunch that learners have an overall learning modality: some prefer video, some prefer audio, some prefer long form text, and so on, but--there's also a local preference based on their current context: you might have a stronger preference to video for commuting or perhaps you like to print out materials and read it. Finding ways to allow learners to come along their own journey that meets them where they are right now is key to generating better outcomes.