For Monday's lecture, we had a most interesting role-playing session based on the No Child Left Behind act. Each of us was assigned our own point of view or "role" in the discussion. It was so interesting to see each person really "get into" his or her role. This wasn't real life, but there were moments when it was beginning to feel like real life.
After the lecture, Professor Langholz asked a few of us if we thought the role-play method was effective. He could have given an hour-long presentation on the principles of No Child Left Behind. I would have taken notes. Some would have slept through it. We could have memorized the facts, took a test on it, and sent the information right back out of our minds when we were finished. Now, maybe I won't remember every detail of the discussion and the pretend meeting about a pretend new plan for a school district. But I do think that role-playing a situation like that was very effective. It got most of us thinking...thinking about what we thought of the matter. In the long run, I think that allowing us to develop an opinion, learn to express it, and practice opposing another opinion are the more valuable concepts to be learned. And the great thing is, we were learning the facts in the process.
In the subject of music, I feel that it is almost always better to teach in an interactive way. You can only teach a student so many facts about music theory or history before you've lost them. As a child, I just wanted to sing in music class. There is definitely a time and a place for lecture, but I'm in full support of interactive, activity-based learning and teaching.
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I agree that the lecture was a great way to help us learn about No Child Left Behind. It reminds me of the different intelligences we learned about and how teachers should present their lessons in different ways to appeal to all intelligences/learning styles. It was a nice change from the usual large lecture class.
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