Didactic teaching

 We've been updating our training statistics form at work, and I've been finding myself in the middle of some very interesting conversations about words I thought were better known than they are.

First, I used the word "narrowcast" to refer to the lessons we teach via the LMS or Zoom, and then I had to explain to people what "narrowcast" meant. Apparently that's not a common word. In case you were wondering, narrowcasting is like broadcasting, only you have a precisely delineated audience (for example, only people who can log into your electronic classroom).

To wit: if anyone can get it as long as they know when and where to look, it's broadcasting. If you can only get it if you are in the group that has access to it, it's narrowcasting. Public radio = broadcasting, police band radio = narrowcasting. You get the picture.

The second word that brought the discussion up a bit short was "didactic". Rather than talking about "lectures" and "workshops", I was going to suggest "didactic" vs "activity-based" classes. Most of the people in the room had only heard the word "didactic" used in the same context as "preachy" - if they'd heard it at all. Apparently, that wasn't a common word either. Turns out most people don't just randomly talk about pedagogical methodologies unless they've done an Education degree at some point.

When writing up my notes, I wanted to link to something that said what didactic teaching was in a nutshell, but couldn't find something I liked - so I'll just write my own:

Didactic Teaching in a Nutshell

Didactic teaching is the presentation of information to an audience.

It's commonly (and often derogatorily) referred to as "Chalk and talk" - the idea being that the teacher stands in front of a board and simply talks to (or "at") the class, who sit passively and listen, theoretically taking notes.

Didactic teaching isn't necessarily passive, though. Or, rather, it isn't necessarily unengaging just because it is passive. Like anything, it depends on the execution (and the audience). You can regularly ask the students questions to check their understanding, and you can field questions from the class members who wish to clarify matters or offer comments. Active listening is a thing, and you can encourage your audience to listen actively. Technically, using questions is bringing in a spot of dialectal teaching (see below) but it's still a didactic class.

You can also be interesting and humorous in your delivery of the content, so that your audience finds your presentation engaging, even if they aren't engaged in any interactivity at the time. A stand-up comedy routine is technically a didactic presentation.

However, didactic teaching can be very boring, so if you are a naturally boring presenter (or you have a class that refuses to engage in active listening), it is a dangerous method of teaching to use - even if it is one of the most common.

And now for a digression:

Lectures are considered to be didactic, as the lecturer presents/delivers information to people who aren't engaging in any kind of "activity" per se. The word "lecture" actually means "read" - in the olden days, the lecturer would literally stand at the front of the room and read their notes aloud. If you tried doing that these days, someone would complain (unless you got someone like Stephen Fry to read them for you, I suppose). Interestingly, "lecture" is often used with negative connotations - like "didactic" and "preachy". It seems people don't like being expected to listen while someone talks at them.

Not didactic teaching

Traditionally, the opposite of didactic teaching is dialectal teaching. In this method, the teacher and the students participate in a conversation in which they both talk about the subject matter (even though the student might not have had any information "presented" to them yet) and let knowledge and understanding unfold from the conversation.

The famous Socratic Method (okay, possibly not famous if you haven't studied Education or read much about Greek philosophy) is a form of dialectal teaching that actually consists of the lecturer asking the student questions in order to walk them through thinking out the logical conclusions. It's probably much more suited to philosophy than the inner workings of volcanoes, but I expect the right teacher could make it work for anything.

Most non-didactic classes these days are based around activity-based learning or problem-based learning. In these classes, students are presented with something to do or a problem to solve. The teacher should make sure it's possible for them to find all the information they need to complete the challenge before them (although not all teachers do this). In the process of doing the thing, they actively engage with and apply the information, theoretically making it more memorable.

Work-integrated learning is a cousin of activity-based/problem-based learning, in that students attempt to do the job they would be doing in the real world, had they already learnt what they are learning right now. It's sort of what an apprentice does, learning on the job.

You may notice a slight shift in  language for these methodologies. Rather than didactic/dialectal teaching, we've moved to activity-based/problem-based/work-integrated learning.

This is because the focus of the class has shifted - it has moved from teacher-centred to student-centred.

Now, if you're anything like... well pretty much everyone who talks about this in any kind of professional capacity, you're probably thinking "well that all sounds fabbo - so much better than that awful teacher-centred didactic teaching crap we've been forcing on students for generations!" I'd just like to point out that, once again, it's all down to the execution.

Activity-based learning needs to be really well designed to work well. I've been in activity-based classes that were about as engaging as having someone read their lecture notes to me, and I felt like gauging my eyes out with a spoon rather than doing their stupid activity. I've also heard many a student make similar comments.

The fact of the matter is, a good didactic class can be more interesting and engaging than a bad activity-based class. It all comes down to how engaged the teacher is. If you are connecting with the content and the students, the students will connect with the content as well.