Lecture Me. Really.
給我講課吧，真的
Before the semester began earlier this fall， I went to check out the classroom where I would be teaching an introductory American history course. Like most classrooms at my university， this one featured lots of helpful gadgets: a computer console linked to an audiovisual system， a projector screen that deploys at the touch of a button and USB ports galore. But one thing was missing. The piece of technology that I really needed is centuries old: a simple wooden lectern to hold my lecture notes. I managed to obtain one， but it took a week of emails and phone calls.
在今年秋天本學期開始前，我去檢查了一下我將講授美國史入門課程的教室。像我所在大學裡的大多數教室一樣，這個教室裡有許多有用的裝置：與視聽系統連接的電腦控制臺、按一下按鈕就能展開的投影幕，大量USB埠。但是缺一樣東西。我真正需要的那項技術已有幾百年的歷史了：一個簡單的木製講臺，能放我的講義就行。我設法弄到了一個，但發電子郵件和打電話花了我一周的時間。
Perhaps my request was unusual. Isn't the old-fashioned lecture on the way out？ A 2014 study showed that test scores in science and math courses improved after professors replaced lecture time with 「active learning」 methods like group work — prompting Eric Mazur， a Harvard physicist who has long campaigned against the lecture format， to declare that 「it's almost unethical to be lecturing.」
也許我的要求非同尋常。老式的授課方式不是已經過時了嗎？2014年進行的一項研究顯示，在教授們以小組作業之類的「主動學習」法取代授課時間後，學生們的自然科學和數學考試成績有所提高——這促使長期以來一直反對演講式授課的哈佛大學物理學家埃裡克·梅熱宣稱「喋喋不休地講課簡直不道德」。
Today's vogue for active learning is nothing new. In 1852， John Henry Newman wrote in 「The Idea of a University」 that true learning 「consists， not merely in the passive reception into the mind of a number of ideas hitherto unknown to it， but in the mind's energetic and simultaneous action upon and towards and among those new ideas.」 The lecture course， too， has always had skeptics. In his 1869 inaugural address as president of Harvard University， Charles Eliot warned that 「the lecturer pumps laboriously into sieves. The water may be wholesome， but it runs through.」
目前流行的主動學習並不是什麼新鮮事。1852年，約翰·亨利·紐曼在《大學的理想》一書中寫到，真正的學習「不僅僅是被動地將一堆原來不知道的觀念都接納到腦子裡，同時也是針對和圍繞這些觀念積極開動腦筋」。講課課程也一直有懷疑者。1869年，哈佛大學校長查爾斯·埃利奧特在發表就職演說時警告說：「演講者辛勤地往篩子裡倒水，水也許有益，但都從篩孔裡流走了。」
Eliot was a chemist， so perhaps we should take his criticisms with a grain of salt. In the humanities， a good lecture class does just what Newman said: It keeps students' minds in energetic and simultaneous action. And it teaches a rare skill in our smartphone-app-addled culture: the art of attention， the crucial first step in the 「critical thinking」 that educational theorists prize.
埃利奧特是一位化學家，所以，對於他的批評，我們或許應該持保留態度。在人文學科，一堂好的講課達到的正是紐曼當年所說的效果：使學生們積極開動腦筋。它還能教授一種如今在被手機應用敗壞的風氣中罕有的技能：全神貫注。全神貫注是教育理論家所重視的「批判性思維」至關重要的第一步。
Those who want to abolish the lecture course do not understand what a lecture is. A lecture is not the declamation of an encyclopedia article. In the humanities， a lecture 「places a premium on the connections between individual facts，」 Monessa Cummins， the chairwoman of the classics department and a popular lecturer at Grinnell College， told me. 「It is not a recitation of facts， but the building of an argument.」
希望廢除講課課程的人並不了解講課到底是什麼。講課並不是朗誦百科全書上的文章。格林內爾學院古典研究系主任、講課很受歡迎的莫內薩·卡明斯告訴筆者，在人文學科，講課「非常重視各個事實之間的聯繫。它不是在背誦事實，而是在組織論據」。
Absorbing a long， complex argument is hard work， requiring students to synthesize， organize and react as they listen. In our time， when any reading assignment longer than a Facebook post seems ponderous， students have little experience doing this. Some research suggests that minority and low-income students struggle even more. But if we abandon the lecture format because students may find it difficult， we do them a disservice. Moreover， we capitulate to the worst features of the customer-service mentality that has seeped into the university from the business world. The solution， instead， is to teach those students how to gain all a great lecture course has to give them.
理解說理性長篇大論頗費腦筋，要求學生們在聽講時進行綜合、組織並做出反應。在凡是長度超過臉書上一條帖子的閱讀作業都顯得冗長乏味的當今時代，學生們這樣做的經驗很少。一些研究顯示，來自少數族裔和低收入家庭的學生面臨的困難更多。但是，如果我們因為學生們也許會發現很難而放棄講課課程，那我們就是在害他們。此外，我們還是在「屈從於」從商業社會滲入到大學裡的客服心態的最糟糕特點。解決辦法應當是教會這些學生如何獲得一門精彩講課課程能提供給他們的所有東西。
Listening continuously and taking notes for an hour is an unusual cognitive experience for most young people. Professors should embrace — and even advertise — lecture courses as an exercise in mindfulness and attention building， a mental workout that counteracts the junk food of nonstop social media. More and more of my colleagues are banning the use of laptops in their classrooms. They say that despite initial grumbling， students usually praise the policy by the end of the semester.
對大多數年輕人而言，持續一小時聽講並記筆記是一種非同尋常的認知體驗。教授們應該欣然接受甚至宣傳講課課程，指出它們是提高學生注意力、使他們專心致志的一種訓練，是可以抵消像食用垃圾食品一樣沒完沒了地接觸社交媒體所帶來危害的心智鍛鍊。在筆者的同事中，越來越多的人開始禁止在教室裡使用筆記本電腦。他們表示，學生們起初頗有怨言，但在學期末通常都會稱讚這項規定。（金進龍譯自美國《紐約時報》10月18日文章）
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