ABSTRACT
Most college teachers at one time or another find themselves lecturing. In recent years lecturing has been called into question. Traditional teachers lecture, it is said; while those who count themselves among the avantgarde, the innovative, and the experimental will avoid the formal lecture. This is a false and unfortunate dichotomy. Lecturing is neither inherently good nor bad. It has been and remains one of the chief strategies of the college teacher. What is wrong with lecturing is that it is so often done poorly. And it is done poorly because most college teachers don't understand the complexity involved in the transmission and reception of information. To understand the process of communication involved in lecturing it is helpful to know something about human cognitive processes generally.
