Teachers need to perform

THIS passage is from the CET-6 test of June, 2003. Take time to read it and try to get the answers to the multiple-choice questions. Then read Professor Zhang Yanqiu's comments to see the correct answers.

I came away from my years of teaching on the college and university level with a conviction that enactment (扮演角色), performance, dramatization are the most successful forms of teaching. Students must be incorporated, made, so far as possible, an integral part of the learning process. The notion that learning should have in it an element of inspired play would seem to the greater part of the academic establishment merely silly, but that is nonetheless the case. Of Ezekiel Cheever, the most famous schoolmaster of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, his onetime student Cotton Mather wrote that he so planned his lessons that his pupils "came to work as though they came to play," and Alfred North Whitehead, almost three hundred years later, noted that a teacher should make his/her students "glad they were there."

Since, we are told, 80 to 90 percent of all instruction in the typical university is by the lecture method, we should give close attention to this form of education. There is, I think, much truth in Patricial Nelson Limerick's observation that "lecturing is an unnatural act, an act for which God did not design humans. It is perfectly all right, now and then, for a human to be possessed by the urge to speak, and to speak while others remain silent. But to do this regularly, one hour and 15 minutes at a time for one person to drag on while others sit in silence? I do not believe that this is what the Creator designed humans to do."

The strange, almost incomprehensible fact is that many professors, just as they feel obliged to write dully, believe that they should lecture dully. To show enthusiasm is to risk appearing unscientific, unobjective; it is to appeal to the students' emotions rather than their intellect. Thus the ideal lecture is one filled with facts and read in an unchanged monotone.

The cult (推崇) of lecturing dully, like the cult of writing dully, goes back, of course, some years. Edward Shils, professor of sociology, recalls the professors he encountered at the University of Pennsylvania in his youth. They seemed "a priesthood, rather uneven in their merits but uniform in their bearing; they never referred to anything personal. Some read from old lecture notes and then haltingly explained the thumb-worn last lines. Others lectured from cards that had served for years, to judge by the worn edges... The teachers began on time, ended on time, and left the room without saying a word more to their students, very seldom being detained by questioners...The classes were not large, yet there was no discussion. No questions were raised in class, and there were no office hours."



1. The author believes that a successful teacher should be able to _______.

A) make dramatization an important aspect of students' learning

B) make inspired play an integral part of the learning process

C) improve students' learning performance

D) make study just as easy as play

2. The majority of university professors prefer the traditional way of lecturing in the belief that ________.

A) it draws the close attention of the students

B) it conforms in a way to the design of the Creator

C) it presents course content in a scientific and objective manner

D) it helps students to comprehend abstract theories more easily

3. What the author recommends in this passage is that _______.

A) college education be improved through radical measures

B) more freedom of choice be given to students in their studies

C) traditional college lectures be replaced by dramatized performances

D) interaction be encouraged in the process of teaching

4. By saying "They seemed 'a priesthood, rather uneven in their merits but uniform in their bearing" (Sentence 2, Para 4), the author means that ________ .

A) professors are a group of professionals that differ in their academic ability but behave in the same way

B) professors are like priests wearing the same kind of black gown but having different roles to play

C) there is no fundamental difference between professors and priests though they differ in their merits

D) professors at the University of Pennsylvania used to wear black suits which made them look like priests

5. Whose teaching method is particularly commended by the author?

A) Ezekiel Cheever's.

B) Cotton Mather's.

C) Alfred North Whitehead's.

D) Patricial Nelson Limerick's.



Answers: B, C, D, A, A

Now let's examine the correct answers to the questions and the errors the students may make in the test.

This passage talks about two contrasting methods of teaching and tries to set out the reasons for their use.

Question 1 tests the understanding of the first three sentences which are logically connected. Enactment, performance, and dramatization stimulate inspiration and interest. Once the students are made an integral part of the learning process, they will feel inspired and interested in what they are doing. That's why the author says "learning should have in it an element of inspired play." Therefore, the correct answer to Question 1 is B) (a successful teacher should be able to) make inspired play an integral part of the learning process. But 20 per cent of the test takers selected A) make dramatization an important aspect of students' learning. They confused "forms of teaching" (Line 2) with "students' learning." More than 30 per cent of the test takers selected D) make study just as easy as play. Is there any sort of study without mental effort? "Inspired play" (Line 4) refers to learning activities students enjoyed and were amused at.

Question 2 tests the local understanding of Para 3. It says "... many professors believe that they should lecture dully. To show enthusiasm is to risk appearing unscientific, unobjective; ..." So we can infer that many professors believe that the traditional way of lecturing presents course content in a scientific and objective manner. Apparently C) is the correct answer.

Question 3 tests the ability to make accurate inferences. A correct understanding of Para 2 and Para 4 increases the likelihood of your logical inference. Para 2 says "It is perfectly all right... for a human to be possessed by the urge to speak, and to speak while others remain silent. But to do this regularly, one hour and 15 minutes at a time... for one person to drag on while others sit in silence?" The author means to say that a person should not monopolize the lecturing in class. Para 4 says "The teachers began on time, ended on time, and left the room without saying a word more to their students, very seldom being detained by questioners... the classes were not large, yet there was no discussion. No questions were raised in class, and there were no office hours." By that description the author means that there should be more interaction between teachers and students. Therefore, the correct answer to Question 3 is D) interaction should be encouraged in the process of teaching. However, it is worth noticing that more than 45 per cent of the test takers did not catch the connotation of the above quoted sentences. A quarter of the test takers wrongly selected C).

Question 4 tests the understanding of difficult points. The word "priesthood" is used as a metaphor and actually refers to a group of people in a particular profession. "Bearing" refers to a way one moves, stands, or behaves. The correct answer to the question is A) professors are a group of professionals that differ in their academic ability but behave in the same way. Those who failed to recognize the metaphor took C) for the correct answer.

Question 5 tests the ability of scanning. First of all, you have to find the four names from the passage. In fact, Ezekiel Cheever, Cotton Mather, and Alfred North Whitehead appear in the same sentence. That sentence is quite long, but the understanding of it sends you halfway to your success. Besides its length, the inversion of the first part of the sentence sets up a block to test takers. If we put it into the normal word order, it should be "Cotton Mather who was once Cheever's student wrote of Ezekiel Cheever that..." The second part of the sentence introduces another scholar who shared Cheever's opinion in the field of education. Patricial Nelson Limerick appears in Para 2 with his observation that "lecturing is an unnatural act, an act for which God did not design humans." Though he seems to have expressed his argument against lecturing, nothing was said about his teaching method. Only Cheever's specific teaching method is mentioned in the passage, that is "he so planned his lessons that his pupils came to work as though they came to play." And that method is in agreement with what the author advocates firmly at the beginning of the passage. It is thus clear that the correct answer to Question 5 is A).