week 3: students Vs lecturers

Dear flowers,

Choosing an angle for an essay topic, provided a given question, is quite difficult. Choosing an essay topic is even harder. I’ve chosen to critically discuss the following statement that really struck me when reading about a PAL program implemented at a UK university in 2008:

“Successful students are better equipped and better placed than lecturers to pass on [writing] skills to novice students in a peer-facilitated environment.”

My initial thoughts on this statement were that students are better placed than lecturers in some situations but lecturers still have a significant role to play in terms of their student’s learning. Perhaps lecturers are needed for the initial introduction of content, to authenticate and give purpose to what we the students are required to know. And, of course (how can I forget?), lecturers set assessments, which motivate students to keep up. Tutorials help us recall what we can remember from lectures, facilitated by more friendly professionals. But peer-facilitated groups such as study groups really give you a chance to cement and clarify what you know. In peer groups you feel free to make connections with lecture material without fear of being judged or embarrassed, which I think is a huge thing for first years trying to comfortably find their place at uni. In peer groups you can ask as many questions as you please because you know that lecturers will be especially pee’d off if you ask them silly questions that your peers can answer. You support each other more than a lecturer or tutor ever can because of the obvious ‘professional distance’ that they project. If lecturers weren’t so busy supervising their PHDs and whinging about uni-related political issues then perhaps we’d feel more inclined to approach them.

I read in an article that lecturers are beginning to feel obsolete due to the increasing availability of online lectures. Some students are saying that they are just if not more valuable than face-to-face lectures. After four years of being at uni I still prefer attending lectures rather than listening online. Maybe it’s due to the whole personal aspect of being able to see the lecturer and see how they speak since I am quite a visual learner. Or perhaps it has more to do with having a fixed scheduled time, requiring me to attend in order to minimise the guilt of not going. Maybe that’s why I sit in the front row, to make myself feel more accountable to the lecturer.

I know that some people think less of me sometimes because I don’t do what typical 21 year olds do but I choose to learn from experience and the experience of others. I know how I learn best which is by sitting in the front row, getting rid of distractions and working with authentic people. It produces amazing results.


Love,
Miss Fun size