What Is the Distinction Between Secondary and Tertiary Eduucation?

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One major distinction between the secondary and the tertiary education systems is the introduction of lectures and tutorials. A lecture distributes information while students make key notes and record queries; in contrast the tutorial is more interactive as it involves group discussion and interaction. Tertiary institutions expect students to use both lectures and tutorials together to maximize their educational success. Lectures and tutorials are designed to coincide, incorporating the most general ways in which people retain knowledge; by ear, visually, exploration through debate or discussion, and interpretation of perspective. Considering everyone absorbs information differently, this method gives the majority of students the chance to learn. The role of a lecture is to provide students with an in depth explanation of a syllabus chapter. Subjects are broken up into sections or topics and the lecturer will elaborate and supply the knowledge required to interpret and understand its meaning. ‘The traditional lecture is a one-way communication process-the lecturer speaks, the students listen and take notes.’ (Burdess, 2007, p.9) Lecture slides generally consist of dot points or diagrams that the lecturer will then explain at greater length. Without attending the lecture, students will not acquire all the information, as the dot points and diagrams will not be explained. ‘Hearing is a physical process-taking in sound through ears. Listening is a mental process-trying to make sense of this information.’ (Burdess, 2007, p.11) The expectation however, is not just attendance. Students are also required to have read the prescribed material for that topic prior to the attending the lecture. This will arm them with some indication of the lecture topic, and raise questions that the student would then hope to have answered in the lecture. If those
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