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Good Teaching in Lectures:

 

Lecturing is easy to do badly. There is a great deal of evidence that university lectures are generally ineffective in engendering quality learning in students, and a disturbing proportion of lectures are in many ways counterproductive to the intended outcome! This is not to say that they HAVE to be this way. It is possible to make lectures a learning situation of value to students, as well as enjoyable for the lecturer.

Success depends on the lecturer doing some substantial preparation, and accepting some fundamental principles of quality teaching.

First: the lecturer must know what the Big Ideas to be taught ARE, and be prepared NOT TO TELL EVERYTHING. Teaching fewer ideas (better) results in improved learning, but means some information will not be directly "taught". If students understand the Big Ideas there is a good chance they will be able to read and understand more details on their own in any supplementary notes or in textbooks. If they don’t understand the Big Ideas they will probably not understand much of anything they are told, and are unlikely to engage in further reading or research.

 

The basic principle that guide good teaching in lectures are:

 

The need to know.

 

What reason do the students have for learning the information in the lecture? They will decide if they will learn or not depending on the usefulness of the information to THEIR objectives for being there (which may well vary significantly from those of the lecturer).

• Is it directly relevant to their lives now? (The most powerful interest factor)
• Is it necessary for a later part of the course? If so do they know and believe this?
• Can you engage them in solving a problem of some sort? Even if the information is not intrinsically interesting there is a natural human interest in finding out the answer to some sort of challenge or problem.
• If all else fails tell them they have a test very soon!

 

Creating the "Scaffold".

 

Students learn best if they have some idea what is going to be taught. At the start of the lecture an outline of the Big Ideas that will be covered in the whole lecture can act as a "scaffold" for the students to construct meaning during the lecture. This brief overview does not tell them all the details, but is a rough sketch of the "big picture" so that students have more chance of putting information into the right place.

An overhead with the Big Ideas listed can be used to connect sections of the lecture together, and show how the content builds into a coherent whole. As each issue is addressed it can be connected into the whole using the overhead.

 

Using many modes of providing information.

 

One type of information (such at talk or overhead transparency notes) becomes boring after a while. Students need regular changes in mode and centre of interest to maintain their concentration. Moving from the board to the overhead and back, and using a range of text, diagrams, photographs and physical props will help maintain interest.

Similarly, to assist in good understanding, the same Big Ideas should be represented in different modes. Text should be supported with diagrams with the same Big Idea, or a photograph showing the principle in action can be shown. Having students connect together different modes of knowledge about the same principle assists in building understanding, rather than memorisation of one mode (such as a string of text).

At a change of mode is a good time to give students a small (but easy) problem that asks them to translate information from one mode to another. E.g. If a list of characteristics of category is given, give examples in pictures (or chemical formulae, or equation etc) and ask if the example is one of the nominated category. This increases participation while encouraging students to make sense of the information.

 

Listing the Big Ideas separately.

 

The use of a dedicated board to write up the Big Ideas as they are introduced has many advantages. It means that examples or details can be related more easily to the principles they are illustrating by moving to the board and pointing to make connections. The students can thus build up the "Big Picture" of the content with the assistance of the lecturer.

In moving from the OHP to the board to write up a Big Idea the lecturer is also symbolically telling the students that a concept is central and important. Doing this in such an obvious and physical way helps students gain the skill of recognising Big Ideas. With a good class you can ask them to tell you when a big idea has come up, so that you can add it to the board (rather than it always being your decision) – helping to transfer the responsibility to the students and develop the skill of identifying concepts. In smaller groups this can become the time to pass the microphone (physically or metaphorically) to a student to explain the big idea in his or her own words.

 

Asking review questions.

 

To keep students interested and involved, and to help them actively make sense of lecture material, ask small questions at the end of each sub section of a lecture. These questions can be used in a number of ways and serve many purposes.

 

1. A pause for questions gives students valuable time to briefly look back over what has been covered and make some sense of it (chunking time). The pause for questions becomes a signal to the students that you are finishing a sub-topic and will move on, so it is important to look back and make sure that the sub topic makes sense. If they are confused now they will be far more confused by the time they get to look at their notes in the evening.

    

2. If used properly the questions become an opportunity for the students to teach each other. Put up the question on an overhead transparency so that the students can see it and re-read it if they need to, and give them two minutes to talk to their neighbour about the correct answer. The students will review their notes, and teach each other as they decide on the best answer. If you have a cooperative class you can then ask them to vote for an answer by putting up their hand. With a good class this becomes a time for a bit of fun. If it is a well chosen question almost all will get it right. If not - now is the time to reconsider the topic.

    

3. Stopping briefly to review a sub topic and answer a simple problem gives the students a sense of progress through the work. Learning involves collecting information into meaningful chunks, and we are aware of when we do this. Students need to be helped to achieve this feeling of understanding to improve motivation. Small successes in answering a simple problem also help build confidence that students at least have some understanding (even if they will have to spend more time at home and with a textbook to understand fully).

    

4. By using conceptual questions (not numerical ones) for these interlude questions the students are being taught what you value in their learning. If they are constantly asked to understand and explain to peers (or you), and not just calculate, they will try harder to do so, and will learn ideas in order to do so. It is then fair to put conceptual questions on the final exam, reinforcing the value you put on such understanding.

    

5. A difficult time is the end of the lecture, where students tend to be packing up and thinking of the next class (or lunch). Again a summary problem can be a good way to finish the lecture, summarise the Big Ideas that you wanted them to learn, and give a sense of completion to the section.
   
   Students also like to finish the lecture with a successful solution of a (simple) problem as it gives them confidence. With a more advanced or confident class the final question may be a challenge that requires the knowledge from the next lecture, and the students can be told where to read to find the information – or they can wait for the next lecture to find out the solution. This can help build up the "need to know" for the next lecture, and encourage the students to link together lectures. When the students enter the next lecture, and find the same question displayed waiting for them, there is a strong chance they will remember the content of the last lecture, allowing better construction of meaning.

 

Demonstrations and POEs.

 

A demonstration of some sort can be used instead of a question to either summarise the ideas covered in the earlier part of the lecture, or to develop interest in the next section. If the principles of Predict Observe Explain (POE) are used the demonstration can become a very powerful way of engaging students’ interest.

Ask the students to predict what will happen in your demonstration, based on what they already know (give them time to discuss), get some individual answers, and then ask the whole lecture group to vote for the alternative they like the most.

Conduct the demonstration, and give them time to consider what happened and why. The lecture can then proceed, building up to the explanation of the demonstration. This will maintain a very high level of interest in what is being presented, as they will want to have a proper explanation of the demonstration (particularly if the result is contrary to many students’ predictions). It is important that all points of view are explained in a positive way (even completely wrong answers can be praised as a way to bring out misconceptions and so lead to better learning).

This can be even more powerful if the POE is based on a previous lecture’s work. It not only provides a link between lectures, but it means that students have had a chance to think about the ideas being used in the POE and can be expected to make some predictions with explanations.

 

A simple checklist:

 

• Was there a need to know for the students at the start of the lecture?

 

• Were the students informed about what was to be learned in the lecture as a "scaffold" for their learning?

 

• Were the Big Ideas of the lecture clearly identified and written up on a separate screen or board as they were discussed?

 

• Were Big Ideas represented in more than one mode (pictures, writing, diagrams, video, computer simulation etc), and hence mentioned more than once? The bigger the idea the more often it should be mentioned!

 

• Was there an opportunity for students to teach each other and chunk the new knowledge after every 15 or 20 minutes?

 

• Did the students experience success during the lecture in some way? (Correctly answering a question or predicting an outcome of a demonstration).

 

• Did the lecture finish on a high note, with students actively thinking about the theory in some way?

 

If all these questions can be answered "yes" it was an excellent lecture in structure. All that remains is to spend some time talking to students about what they remember of the lecture – and have your confidence pushed back down again! Listen carefully to what had an impact and what did not, and adjust what you do to maximise the active engagement and remove confusion. Share your experience with a friend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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