In his lecture on titled Memorization or Understanding; Are we teaching the right thing”,   Professor Mazur explained that education is not about the delivery of information, the many-to-all focus on the teacher in lecture halls, and the high scores students obtained in final examinations. Teaching, according to Professor Mazur, should be student-focused, involve greater engagement between the students in class, and should focus on the assimilation of materials students receive in class with the context outside of their classroom.  Professor Mazur  spoke  about pedagogy and what we should be doing in lecture halls with  the students. The most gratifying moment in teaching, according to Professor Mazur, is the “aha” moment students have when they truly understands a particular concept.

The UTM Premier lecture held at the “Dewan Jumaah” , at 10am, on Tuesday March 27, 2012 at UTM International Campus in Kuala Lumpur  was attended by a full capacity audience of 200. Professor Mazur usage of clickers to gauge audience response and participation kept the audience captivated for the two hours lecture. He even induced an ‘Aha’ moment from the audience as a part practical demonstration in learning a concept in Physics.   His approach to teaching is to encourage the student to do the learning themselves by participating in classroom discussion with their peers.  This is based on a series of activities which can be easily implemented in a class of any size. Professor Mazur spent about 30 minutes in Question and Answers session which following the lecture which ended at 1:00pm.

The lecture will be repeated at UTM Johor Bahru on Thursday March 29 at 9:30am. The session will be chaired by the Vice Chancellor Prof. Ir. Dato Zaini Ujang.