Teaching Innovation

A student at University of Sydney in the early 1900s spoke of an English lecturer whose class:

... was the first and only lecture room that I found in my undergraduate days at Sydney where questions were asked and discussion was encouraged. The other lecturers used to keep the rostrum to themselves, and leave us the business of writing down what we could. But Anderson would dictate a few sentences to us slowly, and then begin to walk about, elaborating his points, popping questions to us, encouraging our replies and trying to get as many of us as he could to join in the discussion. This at least helped us to think and roused our interest. (Turney, Bygott & Chippendale, 1991, p. 280)

And we still resist modifying the lecture format.

• Turney, C. Bygott, U. & Chippendale, P. (1991). Australia's First: A History of the University of Sydney (Vol. 1). Sydney: Hale & Iremonger.