Questions for lecturers

Banaba

We have a new topic this semester and our lecturer has limited experience (she said this) however, in class she reads everything from a book that is recommended we read and all her notes are from the same book. I am reading this book now as she recommended it and everything she said and on her notes is word for word. Is she allowed do this? It is university level but regardless of education level, should someone really be paid to give information from a book we can read ourselves?

I'm just wondering is this normal or acceptable. Thanks

DublinDilbert

I wouldn't say its normal at 3rd level for a lecturer to be reading from a book word for word. The book is a resource you can read yourself. The lecturer should be bring in real life experience and examples of what your talking about. Usually the best lectures are the ones where you find out stuff that isn't in any text book.

Banaba

DublinDilbert wrote: »

I wouldn't say its normal at 3rd level for a lecturer to be reading from a book word for word. The book is a resource you can read yourself. The lecturer should be bring in real life experience and examples of what your talking about. Usually the best lectures are the ones where you find out stuff that isn't in any text book.

Thank you, I agree. Last week she spent two hours reading the book word for word, and only lifted her head about 2-3 times. All the lecture notes are word for word also- just paragraphs taken out from the pages.

DublinDilbert

Banaba wrote: »

Thank you, I agree. Last week she spent two hours reading the book word for word, and only lifted her head about 2-3 times. All the lecture notes are word for word also- just paragraphs taken out from the pages.

I'm not sure of the subject so I can't comment too much. But they would be better taking the lecture notes/examples from a different book, at least you will be getting a broad amount of information with different examples etc...

There is a university in England where the lectures are only allowed put up images/graphics on the projector with a max of 5 words/slide. The image(s) is then a prompt for the lecture, where they talk about the material.

Banaba

DublinDilbert wrote: »

I'm not sure of the subject so I can't comment too much. But they would be better taking the lecture notes/examples from a different book, at least you will be getting a broad amount of information with different examples etc...

There is a university in England where the lectures are only allowed put up images/graphics on the projector with a max of 5 words/slide. The image(s) is then a prompt for the lecture, where they talk about the material.

The subject is law and she is a qualified barrister. She did state her inexperience at lecturing so that may play a factor. That makes sense what they do in the uk and seems like a good way to keep the class attention also. Now that you mention it I have seen similarities to this across other lectures

Crazyteacher

Banaba wrote: »

The subject is law and she is a qualified barrister. She did state her inexperience at lecturing so that may play a factor. That makes sense what they do in the uk and seems like a good way to keep the class attention also. Now that you mention it I have seen similarities to this across other lectures

Do you feel like you are learning new material to you? If not , do speak to your class rep , department head,
or else seek advise from your students union. You have the right to have high quality lecturers. Maybe they need to provide some support to your lecturer too so that her teaching improves.

Red Alert

I'm not sure how far into term you are but perhaps give her a few more days... I have used a book on occasion sometimes for the introductory material, but usually just to decide on what order I'm doing the topics in. For instance, I was giving a class on data structures and used the book's treatment of 1-2 lectures' worth of theory before just using its table of contents to decide what order I'd do things in. I wouldn't say though that reading a book word for word in class has much if any value.