However, many professors fall back on the lecture style for at least three reasons: 1) As a professor friend of mine at Baylor said: “If you aren’t introverted when you begin your PhD, you will be when you are finished!” His point was that dedicated graduate studies change students…and since much of this learning is done in isolation, it is simpler and more natural for most professors to simply talk about the information that needs to be shared with the students; 2) Preparing for class is already time consuming (as I have had the privilege to find out many times myself!), thus adding to this already consuming task by thinking about how to present the material is viewed by many as impractical; and 3) Many (if not most) graduate schools do not incorporate much good pedagogical training into their curriculum, thus leaving their graduates out on a limb when it actually comes time to teach. Thus, many of them turn to the easiest alternative — an academic lecture.

Now I’m not saying that any of theses rationalizations are good, in fact I would say that they are all bad. A good teacher should be willing to make the time sacrifices needed to teach effectively. However, when teaching begins to infringe on higher priorities (like faith and family in my case), what is the professor to do? We all only have 24 hours a day.

So I agree, teachers and professors should do as much as possible to vary their teaching styles to better accommodate learning. However, when teaching begins to steal time from other more important things, any teachers ability to convey information effectively is going to be hurt.