School opening reminder: Lectures don’t work

Lectures have been the main strategy for teaching science, notes Rappler Science columnist Maria Isabel Garcia. But it doesn’t work, she says, citing research studies that showed a dramatic difference in average failure rate between traditional lectures and active methods. In the active learning method, the focus is to give students access to connecting with the topic at hand, such as providing problem-solving activities and encouraging lively conversations. Garcia writes: “Knowing how low we rank in science education worldwide, the spectacular failure of ‘lectures’ to make us learn science may not really be a surprise factor contributing to our sad state of science education.” Do you agree?

Read Garcia’s Science Solitaire column on Rappler.