How Can We Use the Lecture Format to Improve Student Learning?

Quiz Questions

• Which answers support lecturing as an effective teaching technique?

Evidence for Lecturing

• 1. Control• 2. Saves time• 3. Supplement text, new information• 4. Invites engagement through enthusiasm• 5. Transmits information • 9. Effective organization promotes learning

What about Questions 6,7,8?

• Less effective in promoting thought• Less effective in changing attitudes• Relatively ineffective in inspiring interest

Questions 10 and 11

• Students need to construct own interpretation of new information

• The act of using information, manipulating it, enhances ability to recall/use in future

The Way the Brain Works

• Short term memory – Limited and requires more effort

The Way the Brain Works

• Short term memory – Limited and requires more effort

• Longer term storage – Store new information with similar – Need to understand new information first

The Way the Brain Works

• Short term memory – Limited and requires more effort

• Longer term storage – Store new information with similar – Need to understand new information first

• Neural pathways get stronger with use– Better retention and access

Note Taking

• Many students lack the ability to take good notes– Students typically get 20-40% of main points

• Partly lack of experience– Can teach

Hard to remember things that don’t make sense to us

• TTNZAKGM

More Familiar? Easier -

• KJCSBSJU

If Lecture Sounds like TTNZAKGM

• Give up, tune out

• Try to copy everything

• Don’t understand enough to ask a meaningful question

Question 13

• Attention/absorption declines after 15 minutes– And even earlier with new material

• 50 minute class– Student notes for last 15 minutes have half the

content of the notes for first 15 minutes

Solutions

• What techniques work to help to hold student attention?

Ken’s list for holding attention

• Enthusiasm• Use voice• Eye contact• Accessible language• Examples

Solutions (2)

• What techniques work to help students take better notes?

Ken’s list for aiding note taking

• Rhetorical clues– Number points, Power Point or board

• Framing question• Handouts– Brief outline to Guided Notes

• Summaries• Invite questions– “What questions do you have?”

What are implications of Question 14?

• Students retain more when lectures contain less content and provide opportunities for active engagement

Parting Thoughts (1)

• Is your goal coverage or learning?

• Can’t do it all, so real issue is changing the balance

Parting Thoughts (2)

• Do what feels right for you

• Experiment in small increments

Today’s Presentation as Model

• Quiz as outline and key content• Quiz as means of engagement• Lecture– Power point as visual reinforcement

• Questions to generate engagement• Summary