[flawofhumanity]

Originally Posted by Vendetta21

This is of course, two methods amongst many, but I'm currently just examining these two. I don't know what the most effective teaching method over-all is, but from my experience I think lectures, especially passionate ones, have been the most successful in helping me remember things.

My questions are thus; Do you think learning based on student answers (a rope-memory technique) and group discussion (trying to show that students already know something) is good for teaching, or just good for evaluating? What is the most effective teaching method or methods?

Well, the problem with group discussion or student answers in high school is that it usually results in just two or three of the smartest kids of the class being the only ones participating, thus becoming to all the other students a lecture from someone less qualified, and often with less clarity. What makes this a bigger problem is there is really no way to keep it from happening without other repercussions, for example by making every student participate you usually end up with people that make it harder for everyone else (calling them stupid, not taking it seriously, or just being a general nuisance.) In any normal grade school classroom I would definitely suggest lecturing over the other two.

However, in an AP class or college classes, the students are usually brighter and take the subject more seriously (since in one way or another they are paying for it, and most likely interested in said subject.) This results in group discussion coming more easily, as they are more likely to have a firm grasp of the matter and be on the same page as everyone else. Student answers are great here, as long as they are not mandatory. Students can sometimes explain things in more layman's terms (I know it's contradictory to what I said earlier, but again, this is because I assume they are closer to the same level as knowledge than the basic high school level) and watching/hearing the others work through it gives the teacher a chance to explain things that weren't understood beforehand.

So really, like everything, I think it's situational.