GATEways to Teacher Education

A journal of the Georgia Association of Teacher Educators that involves lecture (Field Notes, April 2021).

Overall, this participant expressed that they use lecture as an instructional technique so that they can “meet their [students’] needs [with] what they best respond to,” particularly with regard to students’reading levels and challenges with accessibility to instructional resources when completing assignments in school and at home (Field Notes, April 2021). Although these sentiments could be interpreted as this participant having a deficit view of their students, this in-service teacher clarified their response, stating that their students often do not have books or internet access at home, hence putting pressure on them to provide explanations of content information so that students can complete assignments outside of school. Still, these comments call into question whether students from lowincome backgrounds receive equitable opportunities to engage in active learning as compared to students from higher-income backgrounds.

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Decision to Lecture

Nearly 100% of the participants responded that the pandemic impacted their perspectives on lecture as an instructional method in social studies. Fifty-seven percent of participants indicated that they taught social studies online at the start of the pandemic, 28.57% reported that they continued to teach online since the pandemic began, and 85.72% of students noted that they taught in a hybrid format since the start of the pandemic. While participants highlighted the potential benefits to lecture as an instructional method, respondents distinguished differences between lecturing in-person versus online since the COVID-19 pandemic. One participant shared, “I would assume that lecture is not as well utilized in the midst of the pandemic.As a student traditional style lecture is almost useless on a digital format, as it is not as engaging” (Field Notes, April 2021). Another participant highlighted the impact of “Zoom fatigue,” noting “lecture is still necessary to cover particularly challenging content areas (i.e., slavery, the Holocaust, Civil Rights Movement, etc.), but lecture-fatigue is drastically sped up when lecture is delivered via a Google Meet” (Field Notes, April 2021). Moreover, one respondent noted that lecture was “necessary” in online formats because “It [is] rather difficult to establish any classroom culture or ‘withitness’ without it [lecture] in my opinion” (Field Notes, April 2021).

Another issue participants raised with regard to lecturing in online contexts involved trying to elicit student participation. Functional issues with cameras and microphones when teaching via web conferencing applications made discussion stilted and challenging. One participant shared, “With all the technology, it’s harder to lecture over the computer. I struggle to interject during discussion online, and online is harder to unmute, ask if anyone hears me, harder to lecture” (Field Notes,April 2021). Furthermore, another respondent stated: Since the Covid pandemic, I couldn’t really figure out how to implement my typical faceto-face learning methods in the virtual classroom. So naturally, I went back to my crutch which is lecturing. Lecturing was not engaging because students often don’t have their cameras on, and they would only talk via chat. You really don’t know what they are doing on the other side of the camera (Field Notes, April 2021). These participants revealed that they continued to lecture because they