The Insufficiency of the Lecture Note
 In Knowledge Acquisition
                                                                    

 It is the natural desire to know that led the student into the academic care of the teacher or the lecturer. The reason for such a formal relationship between the lecturer and the student is primarily for the teacher to inform the student so that the student’s horizon of knowledge about the world will get wider and better.

The nature of this relationship is well expressed in the teaching encounter between the lecturer and the student, whereby the lecturer delivers some pieces of information/knowledge in form of lecture to the students. Although this may take place anywhere, the classroom is its formal place. The lecturer does the best to give the student the best of knowledge he or she could. In addition to this, the lecturer provides a note for the students for their consumption towards proper understanding of what has been learnt, the aim of which is to increase the students’ knowledge.

Having been given this lecture note, majority of the students properly document the notes and heavily rely on them. The students do not go beyond the notes they have at hand. The only time the students go beyond the notes is when they are carrying out research of different types and levels. And so, apart from these moments, the students heavily depend on their notes. To finally show their total dependence on their lecture notes, that becomes their only source for preparation of the examination on the course. They engage themselves in their notes so much to the point of memorizing the information contained in it, all in a bid to pass examinations.

However, with this total dependence on the lecture note and sometimes with poor performance of the students during examinations despite reading and understanding the notes and with the awareness of the real nature of knowledge, we are forced to say that the lecture note is very insufficient for the acquisition of knowledge by the students.

One of the major reasons why the lecture note is very insufficient for the acquisition of knowledge by the students is because the note is a limited container of knowledge. The lecturer may have consulted many books or carried so many researches before making the note; that does not mean that it is more comprehensive than those books themselves. Besides, there are some of them who just download from the Internet. What the lecturer does in his/her note is just to summarise the books and other materials consulted. And as such, unless the student gets hold of those books, proper and adequate understanding of what is in the note cannot be attained. Besides, there are other materials on the subject-matter which the lecturer could not consult and of which the students have a better opportunity to get hold of in order to gain more knowledge on the issue of discussion.

Another reason why the lecture note is insufficient is its possibility of having false or wrong information of which the lecturer may be unaware of. There are cases where the lecturer’s note remains un- updated and given the presence of new information, the note automatically lacks it. Especially for those proud lecturers who claim that there works/notes will forever remain relevant despite future information, they fall in this category of having obsolete knowledge of which the students in trust swallow hook-line and sinker. It therefore means that just as the information contained in the note is false, wrong or obsolete, the knowledge the student will have if he/she holds on to it will definitely share the same fate.

Furthermore, another argument for the insufficiency of the lecture note is that the information contained in it may represent only the personal opinion of the lecturer on the issues discussed therein. There are some issues that need just an exposition of the various opinions on them; but when the lecturer takes a stand on the issues and imprints it in his/her lecture, the whole thing becomes one-sided. That is, contained in the lecture note is a one-sided knowledge. This in turn shades and shapes the knowledge the student begets from having and depending on the note. These and many others prove the insufficiency of the lecture note in the acquisition of knowledge.

Given the above as the case, we cannot overlook the reasons why students depend heavily on the lecture notes. One of them is the unavailability of the materials for the study. Although most lecturers give out information about the materials for study, some of them are beyond doubt unavailable. Worst still, there are lecturers who do not even present or state the materials for the study to the students. Also, laziness on the part of students to make efforts in this regard contributes to their total dependence on the lecture note. More significantly is the situation whereby during examinations the lecturer expects what is in his/her note if not exactly the same way it was given and without which the student either fails or performs poorly. These and many other reasons reveal why the students will not go beyond the lecture note.

From the foregoing, the issue of the insufficiency of the lecture note in the acquisition of knowledge puts the student in a dilemma.  The first option is that he/she pursues adequate scholarly work by going beyond the notes, thereby expanding his/her knowledge and falling into the risk of poor performance if the more knowledge acquired appears on the answer sheet during examinations. The second option is that he/she does not go beyond the note, remains in the world of unlimited knowledge and then performs well in the examination where copy and paste is required.

I believe that the best thing to do as a student is to go beyond the lecture note given, so that the knowledge of the said issue could be wider. And when it comes to examinations, the student must know what the lecturer wants and therefore do just that so that the knowledge of the course which he/she has could be justified. This is because although examination is not the true test of knowledge, it remains the only test of knowledge at the moment.

Finally, the lecture note remains insufficient for the acquisition of wider knowledge and any student who desires more knowledge should go beyond the lecture note. The lecture note is just a foundation and not the house or main building. Scholarship demands so many things more than the lecture notes. The Lecture Note is Very Limited!   

Nwanyanwu Chris