Class discussion, utilizing student resources, can be just as motivating as classroom lectures. Under the right pedagogical conditions students often feel empowered and education becomes a meaningful experience where students view themselves as resources and take initiative for much of their own learning. When students view themselves are resource and take initiative for their own learning, they not only liberate themselves from authority-dependent relations in the classroom, but they feel that they can make a difference in the world in which they live. In the SNRE, undergraduate students organized an ongoing environmental justice course where they teach themselves. This is perhaps the only course in the University where students teach each other.
Traditional Teaching Fails to Liberate.
Perhaps a heavy reliance upon lectures foster authority-dependent relations between students and faculty, thus creating asymmetrical relations and social distance. This authority-dependent relation fails to liberate or engage students in critical thinking which could empower them to take charge of their learning. In fact, authority-dependent relations from infancy to adulthood have become so ingrained in students that they often feel less educated unless lectured. It is assumed that lecture are the most efficient way of disseminating accumulated information, mainly because it has been done this way throughout the centuries, and because it is assumed that students will give most of their attention to the lecturer. This is not to say that lectures are unimportant, but that students might be better served if the 50 minute lecture formats were divided into two 15 minutes periods, each followed by discussion.