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Essay on The Problem with Lecturing: A Rhetorical Analysis

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When I first read the title of the article “The Problem with Lecturing” I was immediately drawn to the subject at hand. Being a student who has struggled in the past with the teaching method of lecture classes, I was curious as of what aspect Emily Hanford was going to write about. I was curious to see what appeal she would use to make her point. Would she use ethos, logos, pathos or a combination of all three? And at what point would her kairos moments appear. To my delight, Emily touched base on may different aspect of the problem with lecturing including, but not limited to, testing understanding once lectured (ethos), professors taking the matter to heart of its lack of effectiveness (pathos) , and the importance of professors …show more content…

She has a degree in English and American Studies from Amherst College ("American Radioworks"). As it is noted her background and work history gives Hanford credibility as a writer and solid evidence as of why one may trust her concern and observation on the subject of education. As well as being an honored journalist. Next, as an appeal to logic Hanford begins by sharing about two professors in the late 1970 from two different well know college who were perplex that semester after semester there students were not receiving rating above the 40 percent mark on their exams because of the lecturing method that were being used. To further convince the reader about her concern about the problem with lecturing she continues to share about Hestenes and Hallouns testing methods, which were created specifically to probe student understand of physics. This test was known as Force Concept Inventory (FCI), which was used to track the conceptual understanding of physics. She states that Hastenes and Hallouns gave the test to 1000 students who attended two different schools and had seven different instructors and noted that each class was taught in traditional lecture style. Each student was given the test at the beginning of the semester and at the end of a traditional lecturing semester on physics. The testing had found that there was only a 14% growth of conceptual understanding of physics. These uses of logos give her concern

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