Nevertheless, it has proved to be a highly durable method of instruction. Clearly, there must be more to teaching by lecture than its often highly vocal critics will admit.
Lectures do, in fact, have a number of advantages.
For example, they can be a highly effective medium for conveying enthusiasm and excitement about a field. They are also an extremely efficient means of conveying a body of information when there is either too much or too little printed information. Furthermore, by enabling teachers to control the direction and content of a class session, lectures can guide students through the material in ways that simply are too difficult to convey through the printed text or too cumbersome to accomplish via other instructional methods. However, the obvious pedagogical merits of the format are not always the reason faculty choose to lecture. Rather, the decision to lecture is quite often a default option chosen in part because it is familiar and in part because it gives the teacher control.