Summary Of College Lectures: Is Anybody Listening By David Daniels

In “College Lectures: Is Anybody Listening,” David Daniels believes there are many flaws existing in the lecture system of education. Daniels wants to change college by eliminating lectures during the students first two years at school. I agree with David Daniels in that lectures are ineffective for students who are relatively new to the college world. College students sit in overcrowded lecture halls dying of boredom, sleeping, and doodling while the rest of the undergrads don’t even show up to the class which in the end negatively impacts the students. Unfortunately, while the lecture system is a drawback for college students all over the world, it is still popular in college education. First, there are numerous reasons why students find lectures difficult. According to David Daniels, “One problem with lectures is that listening intelligently is hard work. Even simply paying attention is very difficult; people can listen at a rate of four hundred to six hundred words a minute, while the most spirited professor talks at scarcely a third of that speed.” In other words, focusing and

As David Daniels once wrote, “It reduces feedback to a minimum, so that the lecturer can neither judge how well students understand the material nor benefit from their questions or comments.” I must say that his post displays exactly the same sentiments that I was thinking. Put differently, there is very little communication between the professor and the student which means if something is not understood at the moment it is presented it is unlikely that the professor will pause in order for the student to seek clarification or reflect on the information. Not only do lectures cause professors to be oblivious of their students’ performance, it hinders their ability to learn from students and teach with discussion and interaction which prevents them from forming relationships with their students as