Teacher Talk and Why We Need 1-on-1 Learning

Modigliani

Reading into teacher talk has brought up some things which I find interesting.

1. Most people talk at about 100 to 200 words per minute. A one-hour lecture could contain 12,000 words. That’s a short book.

2. The concentration span of a student is less than 5 minutes. For an undergraduate, it’s perhaps 15 to 20 minutes.

If an undergraduate can really only concentrate for 20 minutes tops on teacher talk, why is some of the most expensive kind of education, degree and masters, mainly taught in the worst way possible?

A quote of a quote from Geoff Petty’s book, Teaching Today:

‘A lecture is an event where information passes from the notes of the lecturer into the notes of the student, without passing through the brains of either.’

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I have to understand, and I do, even though I do not see it, that tutors and lecturers are busy. Busy marking, writing their own material, studying themselves, publishing their books, speaking in places of importance, teaching us empty heads at lectures with wise words developed through experience and knowledge. All important stuff.

We know lectures are the worst way to learn.

This is most likely why our tutors have made us write blogs, it engages us in a more immersive way. We gather our opinions, of stuff we’ve read independently, we’ve evaluated and analysed what we’ve taken in and then reflect on it here. This blogging technology has been a great breakthrough for learning techniques.

It’s great for independent learning but learning also requires teaching support. Classrooms dilute student-teacher interaction because the teacher is handling a class, an individual student can become lost.

At degree level there’s little rapport between students. There are friends, but they are pockets within a blanket of faces who don‘t know each other. A spiral of silence can occur. If, to the individual, the masses look like they understand, then they don’t say anything because no one else is, for fear of losing face and esteem. Where a lecture is the only other avenue of learning whole swathes of individual students can go unchecked.

1-on-1 tutorials are perfect. They provide intimate and personal help for the student. They create a rapport between student and tutor, allowing great positive reinforcement. It can help confidence too, in the student’s own work, and in contribution to class if the teacher encourages well.

So much good can come from 1-on-1 learning, and I don’t understand why tutors can’t have a permanent schedule of tutorials with students, so the student know they WILL see their tutors, rather than maybe, if they’re not busy.