"My education consisted primarily of lectures and textbooks.
These, of course, continue to be vitally important to learning, but I have learned that the key is to create an
environment that promotes active learning. There are many techniques for doing this, even in large classrooms with more
than a hundred students. The new audience response systems (clickers) and interactive online modules are terrific, but
there are also many other low-tech ways of stimulating active learning. Real cases and problems engage students,
particularly if they are current and controversial. Even in a large class I will frequent interrupt my lecture to give
the students five to ten minutes to work on a problem that requires concepts that I've been discussing. Sometimes I'll
ask the students to solve the problem on their own, and then I'll ask them to compare their solution to those of the
students sitting with them. It's a great way to break things up and keep them actively engaged with the learning
objectives."
Wayne LaMorte has been a faculty member at Boston University for more than 20 years and is currently the Assistant
Dean for Education at Boston University School of Public Health. He is also the director of the MD-MPH dual degree
program, the BS-MPH dual degree program, and the undergraduate Public Health Minor at Boston University. Dr. LaMorte
also teaches Evidence-based Medicine and Integrated Problems in the Boston University School of Medicine.
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