What are the Merits and Demerits of Lecture Method of Teaching Science?

The Merits and Demerits of Lecture Method of Teaching Science are as follows:

Merits of Lecture Method

This method offers certain merits or advantages, mention of some of which are as follows:

a. By making use of this method, teacher feels very secure and satisfied as he can follow it without much botheration.

b. As in this method, no laboratory equipments and other materials are necessary; thus, it is found to be very economical by some experts and is suitable for the schools of our nation, where problem of shortage of resources is generally faced.

c. By this method, teacher can cover lengthy syllabi within short period of time.

d. By making use of this method, teacher can keep a logical sequence of subject properly. Lesson develops continuously as teacher plans the lectures in advance, which prove to be an important fact that less time is required to arrange such lectures.

e. This method does not lead to wastage of time and money in any form as there is no student participation in the teaching process.

f. Lectures delivered by highly qualified and able teachers have high inspirational value. As a result of information provided through the lectures, usually it is found that in students level of motivation and confidence get boost up to considerable extent.

Demerits of Lecture Method

This method has certain limitations, mention of which are as follows:

a. In this method, no place is provided to experimental work as a result of which power of observation found in the students get stagnate.

b. As through this method, students get ready made information from the teacher, thus they are not inspired to indulge themselves in independent thinking and self- exploration processes. Thus, with this method, objective of getting the all round development of the students cannot be achieved in any way.

c. Generally it is seen that half of the students present in the classroom do not pay any kind of attention on the information provided by the teacher. Thus, lecture delivered by the teacher prove to be mere wastage of time and energy and no benefits get accrue to students through this method.

d. Sometimes students understand the information imparted by teacher for a short period of time, but as it is provided orally, then forget it after some period of time. Thus, it can be said that information obtained through such method does not take the permanent position and possibilities of students forgetting it are more.

e. This method does not help in any way to inculcate scientific attitudes and training in scientific method among the students, as a result of which, an important objective of science teaching cannot be fulfilled successfully and all the efforts of teacher will prove to be wastage of time.

When to Use:

This method should be used by the teacher when the number of students in the class are more and there is no proper provision of various scientific materials and equipments in the school or institution. This method is the sole alternative in situations where the number of students in a class is large.

It also finds utility in the situation where there are limited number of periods available on the time table to cover the entire syllabus. However, it can be said that this method is unsuitable for teaching sciences in primary and high school classes and should be used by able teachers who can modify it by mixing it with various practical methods of teaching.