Book vs lecture

B

bdoss2006

Forum Crew Member
Messages
51
Reaction score
5
Points
8
The instructor of the EMT class at my agency says that the book is useless, and reading it does no good, and that you just need the lectures. What are y’all’s thoughts on that?
 
Me personally, I feel like the book is certainly a helpful tool, and works better for me. I was just curious what other people thought.
 
I'd understand an instructor saying some students may prefer lectures to books, but to rule out books as useful tools sounds dumb to me. Perhaps that instructor hasn't read the book(s) and wants to limit questions about them.
 
“The instructor of the EMT program at my agency” is all I really needed to hear. In my opinion all EMT and paramedic programs should be through a college/university and not an agency.
 
bdoss2006 said:
The instructor of the EMT class at my agency says that the book is useless, and reading it does no good, and that you just need the lectures. What are y’all’s thoughts on that?
Click to expand...
Speaking as an EMT Instructor, this instructor sounds like an idiot who shouldn't be teaching an EMT class. the book gives you a lot of foundation, and is a good reference, but your instructor should be delivering a lecture that supplements the book, not replaces it.

If you aren't reading the book, and you end up failing the quizes and exams, there is a pretty clear reason as to why.
 
In my particular case, I didn't need "the book" but I'm a relatively rare case. I started the EMT course (and later Paramedic course) with a level of knowledge that greatly exceeded those courses in most areas. For the education I got prior to doing anything EMS, I definitely needed "the book" and the lectures supplemented the reading. Any instructor that says that you don't need the book and only need the lectures is not likely to be a good instructor. If, by chance, your instructor is providing you all the info via lecture and you actually are getting all the material you'd get from the book, expect to have a LOT (as in very many) of lectures as there's a LOT of material that needs to be covered and your program will go well beyond the usual number of hours for that kind of course. I'm betting on your instructor being not a good one...
 
I disagree.

I don’t remember my program ever using the book in class for explicit instruction, but they had us using it extensively to help organize information, review information, and front-load information.

Conversely, I had an online undergraduate level science class that was solely based on an online, interactive version of the book. I learned absolutely nothing.
 
I think "using the book" means different things to different students. I read the books to help learn the material the first time around, but they were even more important as reference sources. Trying to find my notes on, say, muscarinic receptors was lots harder than looking it up in a book's index. Also, I found books more helpful when studying for refreshers.

Regardless of the instructor's opinion of books vs lectures, I don't think he's helping his students by telling them to ignore the text.
 
That is the opposite of the truth.

In a traditional flipped classroom (i.e., how the college level typically teaches), the book is essential and should be read before and after class. The lecture supplements the book.

A lecture typically cannot go long enough to convey all the information, so it would be a challenge to cover all the course content that way.
 
Books are more suitable for some, lectures are more convenient for others, I think it is not wise to exclude one or the other, these tools perfectly complement each other if they are used correctly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top