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What is lecturing?
Lecture: 15th century, from Late Latin lectura, Latin lectus past participle of legere – to read.
Lecture: a discourse given before an audience or class, especially for instruction.
Discourse: a verbal interchange of ideas; formal, orderly and usually extended expression of knowledge and thought on a subject.
As the etymology suggests, the origin of the lecture is generally accepted to be found in the medieval pre-printing press era. Books were scarce and extremely valuable, which made the lecturer the absolute gatekeeper of specific knowledge, and the student had to commit what was read aloud to memory from the outset (Brown, 2002).
Remarkably little has changed over the centuries, and lecturing is still the most widely used teaching method in higher education.
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