Lethargy in Large Lecture Halls

Lethargy in Large Lecture Halls

Many problems exist within education today, more specifically post secondary education. One of the larger problems in many students' and professors' minds is the problem of the environment they are expected to learn/teach in. Different individuals have different styles of learning and the passive environment of the large lecture hall certainly doesn't cater to all of these. Jeffery DeShell, an assistant professor of creative writing at CU Boulder, expresses in an interview that, though he doesn't teach in the large lecture setting himself, that he is extremely familiar with the problem that exists within this setting. He remembers struggling through some of his undergraduate course work specifically because of the anonymity the classroom created between himself and his professors. We see a great focus on amount of material covered, but little attention is paid to the retention of this information. Sleep deprived students enter the classroom and without interaction of some sort, they find themselves dozing, daydreaming and completely losing sight of any information that is covered that day. Instead of soaking in information in the classroom, students tend to cram and rigorously study to do well on an exam. This method of learning is not only stressful, but extremely ineffective (Hoogendyke). As a result, the hundred level courses that are supposedly producing well rounded individuals out of college are being forgotten and lost many years later. What can be done about this? Well not a lot can be done to completely remedy the problem, but there are many simple solutions that will further education and develop better learning environments for students today. A complete revamping of the educational system seems impractical, but what about small changes in the large classroom that could turn it into something more like a small classroom? This prevalent problem that plagues Universities of today and has for many years, is not one we are stuck with. It is a problem, that given careful planning and a little practical problem solving, could be lessened and moved towards resolution.

Straight out of high school and entering a much larger and less intimate environment such as the lecture hall, college freshmen may find the transition intimidating and hard to handle. They may find themselves not speaking up in class and unable to bring themselves to healthy interaction. Jeffery DeShell states that in freshmen level classes students seem less willing or more intimidated to become actively involved in discussion. As one in 200 the student is likely to feel little to no relationship with his or her professor and vise versa. To eliminate some of these barriers that can tend to cause a portion of the lecture hall problems, a professor can take a few moments before class to learn his or her students' names. This not only establishes a relationship between the student and the professor, but also makes the student more comfortable in the class and more likely to participate in discussion (McGraw 1).

Where as the professor has the ability to break down hindering social barriers in his or her classroom, the student is still responsible for his or her education. Any given student has the power to actively learn in this environment, but it takes willpower. A student who is truly devoted to his or her education will take the necessary measures of academic rigor to assure that education. It is important for students to stay away from friends in the classroom. Near by friends can present temptations towards breezy frivolous goofing around and failure to pay attention. These tendencies obviously harm education. The student should also get to know his or her professors by making use of their office hours. Even if professors make attempts to learn their students' names, students can always develop deeper relationships with them. These relationships can be beneficial as a professor can be a powerful advocate for students and help them to better grasp material. Asking questions in class is another way students can further their education, any misunderstanding should be cleared up immediately and in doing so students can become more engaged with subject matter (McGraw 1). Students who develop relationships with their professors' and are not bashful when it comes to asking questions tend to show a higher level of success than students who don't (DeShell). However, not every student is motivated enough to take these measure and even they were more barriers with roots in attention span and the traditional lecture format root themselves in the problem.

I sat in the back of the classroom, observing and taking careful notes as usual. The class had started at one o'clock. The student sitting in front of me took copious notes until 1:20. Then he just nodded off. The student sat motionless, with eyes shut for about a minute and a half, pen still poised. Then he awoke, and continued his rapid note-taking as if he hadn't missed a beat. (Kalish 1)

Given this observation we can see that the problem at hand has much to do with students' attention spans. These "lapses of attention" are not necessarily rare; in fact they occur often enough for most faculty members of universities to be well aware that there is a problem at hand, but why? As the observation above indicates, along with many other studies on attention span, on average, adult students are able to keep focus in class between 15 and 20 minutes before their fleeting attention completely wanes. In a personal interview, Nicholas Hoogendyke, a pre-med student at Colorado State University, reveals that in his classes where the professor strictly relies upon lecture, he is bored to death and it is all he can do to remain focused. Studies conducted by A.H. Johnstone and F. Percival almost 30 years ago seemed to point to this rule of 20 minute attention span when concerning adult students. They observed more than 90 lectures delivered by 12 separate professors and saw what pointed them to this conclusion: students trailing off in note taking between 10 and 18 minutes after initially settling down in class. After their first fall in attention, they would briefly regain composure before drifting off again. As the lecture went on, time between lapses seemed to decrease. By the end of class attention span may have descended to depths of only three to four minutes. Since the time of Johnstone and Percival, other studies on the subject have seemingly established their observations as rule (2). Though these studies do establish good grounds for the problem, they do not explain why students' attention spans seem so short.

The problem can be explained in terms of the current form of teaching that the traditional lecture follows. This form is known as the