Lectures
Reasons to Lecture
Lectures are sometimes criticized for being a poor teaching method. Critics portray lectures as boring, passive, and hierarchical. However, none of these descriptors is inherent in a lecture. In some instances, lectures are the preferred method of teaching. This is true when you:
- Have a lot of information to convey in a relatively small amount of time.
- Have complex concepts or ideas that would be beneficial to cover in a step-by-step manner or following a particular organizational scheme.
- Want to convey the same information to a large group of students
- Realize not all students have equal access to print or other material.
- Want to communicate interest in a particular area
- Want to clarify or incorporate text material
- Are interested in modeling the process of thinking, learning or information processing.
- Want students to think about a set of concepts in a structured, organized way.
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The Structure of a Lecture
Introduction - Three main goals in beginning a lecture
- Provide organization. Present an outline on the board or screen and go through it so students have a sense of what will be covered that day. Incorporate a review of previous material to help students make connections.
- Identify objectives. Give students a sense of what they should be taking away from the lecture.
- Capture students’ attention. Tell a story or funny anecdote, ask a question, give an example, conduct a demonstration, present a short questionnaire – something to arouse their enthusiasm from the start.
- Raise a question to be answered by the end of the hour. Example: “How did the U.S obtain its leadership role during World War II? This is the question we hope to answer during this session.”
- Explain the relationship of the lecture content to professional career interests, the real world. Example : “Today’s lecture is about the cost of living indices, a topic in macroeconomics that should help you understand the recent discussions in Congress related to inflation."
- Relate lecture content to previous class material. Example : “Last week we focused on the history of live theater. Today, we’ll be looking at film history, and spend the rest of the week comparing the two forms.”
- Tell students how they are expected to use the lecture material. Example : “Today, I’ll offer a specific model of evaluation and illustrate its applicability in several different settings. When you meet in your discussion groups later this week, you’ll be asked to apply the model as you discuss the Brown versus the Board of Education decision.”
Body
- Do not plan to lecture every minute of the class period. Allow some time to clarify points, respond to student questions, summarize important points, provide and ask for examples.
- Try and break up the lecture every 15 minutes or so. Do this by stopping to ask questions, asking students to generate examples, showing a short video clip, doing a group activity, working through a demonstration.
- Regularly refer back to the lecture outline. This helps students to follow the lecture and instructors to avoid unrelated tangents.
- Make transitions clear. Provide short summaries after each section. Be explicit by using sentences such as, “Now that we have completed talking about central approaches to persuasion, we will begin talking about peripheral approaches.”
- Strike a balance between depth and breadth. Decide how important depth versus breadth is and strive to achieve the desired balance. Going into too much detail means you will cover less material and students may lose sight of the “big picture.” Giving too little detail might mean students do not learn anything beyond the outline of the concepts. Be intentional in your determination of this balance.
Conclusion
- Summarize the main points of the lecture. Refer back to the outline to help students understand what was covered and what is left to be covered. Ask students to provide a summary or review in their own words.
- Give students a sense of what will be covered next (e.g., "Today we discussed the classic perspectives in psychology. Next time we will turn our attention to contemporary perspectives."). Help them make connections between concepts covered on different days
- Convey to students any reading or assignments that should be completed before the next class period. While this is their responsibility, it cannot hurt to remind them. This can be particularly valuable in terms of reading because it can help students make connections between concepts from the book and the lecture.
- Give students the chance to ask any remaining questions.
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The Mechanics of a Lecture
- Speak loudly enough so that it is easy for all students to hear you. If your students have to strain at all to hear they will quickly become frustrated and tune out. Use a microphone if need be. Microphones can be rented free of charge from the Academic Support Center.
- Be intentional about the amount of information on PowerPoint or overhead slides. Students are determined to write down everything they see, and become disgruntled when they cannot. Having very dense slides means you will be waiting for students to copy everything down. This can dramatically slow down the pace of the class and you will “lose” some of the students. If you put up information on a slide, students who are writing furiously will be able to pay less attention to what you are saying. If you have a lot that you want to put on a slide, consider giving a handout or posting the information on the web. This will allow you to maintain a good pace to the class.
- Do not stand at the front of the room if that means you are far from students. Try to lecture from a place that is closer to the students. If you are using PowerPoint and need to be at the front to change slides, consider borrowing a remote control or buying one from Computer Spectrum.
- Students who are sitting near where you are lecturing tend to be more involved. Involve more students by lecturing from different areas of the room. Be sure that you are not walking or pacing so much that it is distracting to students. Also be sure that students can hear you no matter where you are standing.
- Make eye contact with students and note facial expressions and body language. You can often tell when something you said is confusing, amusing, etc.
- Throughout the lecture check to be sure that students are following along and understanding. Ask if they have any questions. Ask them to restate important definitions or concepts in their own words. Ask them to come up with examples or applications of concepts. Ask them a question for which the answer relies on their understanding of a concept (e.g., “Judy has always known she wanted to attend MU. Susan felt like it was a tough choice between MU and KU. According to cognitive dissonance theory, which person should experience more dissonance?”)
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The Importance of Making Connections
Making connections is an essential component of learning. Help students make connections between the lecture content and, for example:
- earlier lecture content – Is the current content a continuation from the previous lecture, or has the topic changed?
- later lecture content – How does the current content foreshadow concepts to be covered later?
- assigned reading material – How does lecture content relate to information in the textbook? It is students’ responsibility to do the reading but it can help them to have you help them connect the lecture and the book.
- students’ own experiences – Can students think of examples from their own lives? Students will understand a concept more thoroughly if they can personalize it.
- the real world – Are there obvious applications of the concepts being covered? Will students discover applications in newspapers, magazines, television? You might point out such applications to help them start to think in these terms.
- students’ pre-existing knowledge – Do students have previous conceptions or misconceptions of the material that might influence their learning?
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Facilitating Student Participation
Students are sometimes hesitant to participate in lecture classes, particularly large enrollment courses. Here are some things to facilitate their participation:
- Make it clear on the first day that you value student questions and comments.
- Respond positively to all student participation. You can tell a student that his or her answer is wrong while still rewarding that student for participating. Responding negatively even once can have adverse effects on participation.
- Build in opportunities for students to participate. Regularly ask students to share examples.
- If you ask a question and no one answers do not simply provide the answer. Ask an easier question, and then work back toward the initial question. Or ask students to take out a piece of paper, think about the question for a minute, and take a minute to write down an answer. Ask the question again; now that students have had a minute to reflect on the question, they are more likely to answer. Alternatively, ask students to discuss the question with the person on their left and right. When students receive peer validation for their answer they will be much more likely to share it with the rest of the class.
- Award course points for participation. If it is feasible, base a percentage of students’ final grade on class participation.
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Active Learning
Do not accept that lectures must be passive experiences. There are many ways to make lectures active, even in large enrollment courses.
- Conduct demonstrations that involve students.
- Think-Pair-Share. Ask students a question, give them one minute to think about the answer, then ask them to turn to the person on their left (or right) and share their answer. Bring the class back together and ask students for some of their answers.
- One minute essays. Ask a question, give students 1-3 minutes to think about the answer and then have them spend 1-3 minutes writing their answers. Bring the class back together and ask students what they wrote.
- Create quick groups by asking students to join up with the student ahead, behind, to the left, and the right. Have them work on a problem and then ask some of the groups about their solution. Not all groups have to have an answer every time.
- Stage a whole-class debate. Ask students to sit according to their position on an issue (e.g., those who are pro sit on the left, those who are con sit on the right). Ask for a pro view and then for a con dissenting view. At the end, have students summarize the points that were made.
References
Teaching at the Ohio State University: A Handbook. Available:
http://ftad.osu.edu/Publications/TeachingHandbook/chap-5.pdf
For More Information on Lectures:
Online Resources
University of California-Irvine Teaching Guide. Available: http://www.irc.uci.edu/trg/56.html
Delivering Effective Lectures. Available:
http://www.reproline.jhu.edu/english/6read/6training/lecture/delivering_lecture.htm
Print Resources
Davis, B. G. (1993). Tools for teaching. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco. Chapter 13: Delivering a lecture (pp.111-119). Available: http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/firstday.html
McKeachie, W. J. (1999). Teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers. Houghton Mifflin: Boston. Chapter 6: Lecturing (pp. 66-84).
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Contributed by Alan Strathman (Residential Instruction Associate Professor, Department of Psychological Sciences).
