Positives of the Lecture Method

1. Lecture can communicate intrinsic interest in a subject. The lectures can give the information an enthusiasm that no book or other media can do.

2. A lecturer can be a role model of a scholar in action. The lecturer’s way of looking at information or problem solving can be a great model for students to emulate.

3. Lectures can communication information that is otherwise unavailable including original research or industry experience. Lectures can provide needed background information that is not available otherwise to the student. It can set a context for the information to be learned.

4. Lectures can organize information in more efficient ways making the information simpler or clearer for the students. This is often the most important reason to lecture—focus the students on the important information.

5. Lecture is face-to-face which usually is better than books or video alone.

6. Lectures allow for the communication of large amounts of information to large audiences.

7. Lectures emphasize learning by listening which can be good for students who like to learn in this way.

8. Lecture allows the teacher to control the learning environment and set the agenda, pace etc.

Lecturing Weaknesses

1. It can be a very passive form of learning. It allows for students to hideout and to attend class unprepared.

2. It encourages one-way communication. Feedback on student learning is not readily available.

3. Lecturers need to be effective speakers. Normal academic training does not address this area of skill development.

4. Places the main burden for organization and synthesis of the material on the instructor. Lecture is not well suited to higher levels of learning like application or analysis.

5. Lectures assume all students are learning at the same rate and at the same level which we know is not so.

6. Lecture makes it very difficult to sustain students’ attention.

7. Lectures tend to be forgotten quickly. Learners form more neuro-connections when they are actively involved and using more than one of their sensory pathways.

8. Lectures often convey information that can be more efficiently obtained in other ways (text, assigned readings, audiovisual). Students see it as wasting their time.

9. Lectures often repeat material covered in the text or in assigned readings.

10. Students often do not hear what the instructor believes he/she said
    a.  Check a few students’ notebooks and compare their notes to each other and to your lecture notes--distortion and omission are common.

11. Is not a learner-centered way to teach. It requires a great deal of unguided student time outside the classroom to achieve understanding and long-term retention of the content.

 The Lecture Process

1. Determine the learning objectives for the lecture—what will the students learn as a result of this lecture.

2. Share a lecture outline or the learning objectives with the students at the beginning of the lecture and keep it visually available during the entire class.

3. Make certain that your lecture notes are easily accessible and well organized. Try to be as extemporaneous as possible.

4. Always check students’ background knowledge of the lecture topic. Previous knowledge is necessary for new knowledge to be learned. This is a big part of being learner centered.

5. Determine what level of understanding of the topic the students need. Don’t go into great detail unless you want them to understand the material at that level. Giving too much material makes for little or no time for understanding

6. Facts should be secondary to the concepts and problem solving abilities that are key to the course.

7. Ask the question “What concepts need to be taught” not “what concepts do the students need to know.” If students can easily get the information from other sources, then lecturing on it is not an effective use of class time.
   -  Ask what is reasonable to explain in 50 minutes? No more than 4-5 key  points or ideas.

8. Decide on an appropriate instructional strategy for your student population. Can your students handle lecture effectively?
   a.       Underlying principal
   b.      Use of visual aids
   c.       Demonstration
   d.      Question/Answer
   e.       Handouts with Student Activity

9. Decide in advance how you will handle students’ questions. Take them as they come up or set a time (at the end of each 15 minutes of lecture) for questions.

10. Instruct the students to do something with the lecture information that will enhance their understanding and retention of the information.
    Example—
    a.       Prepare to make predictions about what will come next.
    b.      Summarize your notes/most important points of the lecture in three sentences.
    c.       Draw a cognitive map from your notes 

11. Evaluate your performance soon after the lecture and make test questions from the lecture material the same day you give it.

Using Visual Aids in Lectures

1. They should attract and hold the students’ attention.

2. They should aid the organization, illustration and clarification of the lecture. 

3. They should encourage active thought—but not distraction.

4. They should increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the presentation.

When Using Visual Aids Don’t…

1.  Don’t talk to your slides. All the audience will know about you is the back of your head.

2. Let the slides speak for themselves. Don’t read the slides word-for-word. It will bore the students and is redundant.

3. Pause after highlighting points on a slide. Give students time to absorb the information.

4. Remember you are the central force behind your lecture not your slides. 

Pace and Delivery of a Lecture

If you are new at giving lectures practice to gauge the time it takes to deliver the lecture. Keep in mind the time you may spend stopping for questions and clarifications.

Give the lecture to a friend or colleague and have them critique it for pace. When nervous we tend to speed up. When too cautious we creep along repeating ourselves often.

Time your lecture to make certain it does not exceed 95% of the class time period.

Project your voice and use your facial expression and body gestures to help emphasize the key points in the lecture.

Make certain the support equipment you intend to use is set up and working. Don’t spend 5 minutes trying to get a screen to stay down.

Attention Span and Lecturing

1.  Studies indicate the average adult attention span is 15-20 minutes. (Vincent Ruggerio 1996)

1. First five minutes are the best

2. The next 2- five-minute periods are good

3. The worst time occurs after about 20 minutes

4. Even when refocused the attention span often becomes shorter as time passes.

 Reasons for short attention span?

• Recent research at the National Institute of Mental Health conducted by Peter Jensen concluded, "Extensive exposure to television and video games may promote development of brain systems that scan and shift attention at the expense of those that focus attention." 

• Secondly, the earlier children acquire a passive TV habit, the more likely attention span will not develop normally. 

• Since the images change rapidly so does the shift of the child's attention. 

• Contrast this externalized control of attention with the internal control required while participating in a self-directed play activity. The child, not a scriptwriter or producer, determines how long he or she will attend to individual tasks. 

• Cognitive science tells us we automatically take time to reduce information down into chunks (categories) that can be attached to our background. Students will do this as a normal part of learning during a lecture even when they are interested and want to learn and listen. 

• Our expectation is to be entertained.

References

Andrews, P. H. ( 1985). Basic Public Speaking. New York: Harper and Row

Baird, J.E. (1974). The Effects of "Previews" and "Reviews" upon Audience Comprehension of Expository Speeches of Varying Quality and Complexity. Central States Speech Journal. 25, 119127.

Beatty, M.J. (1988). Situational and Predispositional Correlates of Public Speaking Anxiety. Communication Education. 37, 28-39.

 Frederick, P.J. (1986). The Lively Lecture-8 Variations. College Teaching. 34, 43-50.

 Knapp, M.L. (1976). Communicating with Students. Improving College and University Teaching. 24, 167-168. 

Lucas, S. E. ( 1983). The Art of Public Speaking. New York: Random House.

McKeachie, W.J. (1980). Improving Lectures by Understanding Students' Information Processing. In New Directions for Teaching and Learning: Learning, Cognition, and College Teaching, edited by Wilbert J. McKeachie. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp. 25-35.

Weaver, R.L. (1982). Effective Lecturing Techniques: Alternatives to Classroom Boredom. New Directions in Teaching. 7, 31-39.

Faculty wanting further information about any of these topics are encouraged to contact Terry Doyle at doylet@ferris.edu

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