Lecture

As the lecture is called a lecture form at universities. It is most often held by a professor or doctoral faculty.

• 4.1 Inaugural Lecture
• 4.2 Christmas Lecture

Origin

The term lecture comes from the early days of universities in the Middle Ages, were not printed in the books. The lecture consisted mainly in that the lecturer to the students read aloud their own or other artists' works and commented.

The end of a lecture

Even today, reads the lecturer often before from a script or from films. Lectures are frontal teaching where listening a lecturer in an auditorium for up to several hundred students.

Professors provide students often to the lectures scripts. More recently, it has become common for the students to download these scripts automatically from a website of the university or the Chair and print. The quality of such scripts vary enormously. Sometimes there is a sparse script - for example, a collection of the presented graphics to which the student has to write down the actual knowledge itself - or there is complete teaching texts that save you from buying a lecture- based textbook almost.

Nowadays it is usually desired by the instructors of the courses that students demonstrate to ask for feedback. Also try lecturers sometimes to address the students directly and actively participate by asking questions at the lecture. A classic class discussion but not created by it.

Workload

With the introduction of the ECTS credit point system in European universities, it should now be possible to compare the workload of students directly. It is considered that one ECTS credit point should correspond to about 30 hours of time - regardless of whether the student sits in class, at home or anywhere else learns. The introduction of a compulsory attendance is increasingly trying to bind the students to the lectures.

Start of lectures

In German-speaking countries, there is often the academic quarter; this means that a lecture fifteen minutes after the time "cum tempore " officially stated in the course catalog (abbreviated ct, Latin: with time) begins. In contrast, the additional features S.T. ( sine tempore, Latin: without time), a beginning of the lecture to the specified hour. The academic quarter should allow the students to change the classroom between lectures. However, many universities have started to shorten the lecture periods to 45 or 90 minutes, which also the academic quarter is: The lectures begin and end most of the time specified.

In most other countries the academic quarter is unknown. In addition, lectures are shorter or much longer duration, up to 180 minutes, not uncommon.

Other forms of teaching

Lectures include not only seminars, tutorials, exercises, practical and exam preparatory and accompanying working groups ( eg diploma -AG) in the area of ​​university teaching.

Special forms of lecture

Inaugural lecture

The first lecture, which holds a new teacher after the Habilitation at his university is called the inaugural lecture. As an inaugural lecture is also referred to the first lecture, reading a professor after his appointment to a new position at another university. The teacher can with the selection of his subject university internally first clarify its position and orientation. Receipt of the inaugural lecture is usually a presentation of the new faculty by the Dean. The inaugural lecture often therefore has a ceremonial context, even if at the end of the lecture, often followed by a second, then held humorous lecture on the private life of the new faculty.

Christmas lecture

Another special form of lectures are Christmas lectures. You will find usually held as the final event of the calendar year prior to the semester break over Christmas and New Year. They do not serve directly the teaching in each subject, but have mostly humorous or ironic. For example, a Christmas Lecture in Chemistry consist exclusively of spectacular experiments or an anatomy lecture only deal with the " beauty of the human buttocks ". Is on the theoretical background then usually only superficially or not received. Also from the Monday lectures of this type are known.