Lecture Is Dead! Long Live Lecture! How and why to make class time more exciting and rewarding for your students. Rob Eby Blinn College – Bryan, TX Campus

Lecture is Booooring! ๏ So add commercial breaks ! ๏ First 10 vs. last 40 recall is laughable.

If All You Do Is Lecture 15% 35%

Ten and Two, Hike! ๏ 10 minute lecture 2 minutes to chew on it ๏ Similar to commercial breaks ๏ BUT you engage the students ๏ Think of a TV program

What type of commercials? ๏ Minute papers ๏ Clickers – poll anywhere and such ๏ Turn to classmate ๏ Example in book ๏ “What is wrong here?” ๏ Group quizzes

end of or after class ideas ๏ Minute papers ๏ What do you think was the goal today? ๏ Clearest or muddiest point? ๏ Write your own question ๏ Exit quizzes ๏ Solve and Classmates Grade

Make Them Read! ๏ Readings or videos out of class ๏ GUIDE THE READING! ๏ Follow up with quizzes ๏ Help students learn how to learn

Public Speaking Multiply by three 2. Subtract five. 1. UNDO Multiply by three 2. UNDO Subtract five.

Pictures! ๏ Not just any picturesGood pictures Why is the sum of the first n odd numbers always a square?

Pictorial Superiority Effect ๏ Our brains are hard wired for pictures Things written in text are not considered a picture

72 Hours after exposure ๏ Recall from hearing only ๏ Recall from hearing and picture

Pictorial Superiority Effect

Brain Rules ๏ The brain seems to rely partly on past experience in deciding how to learn new things ๏ Make sure they understand what is new each time ๏ Our senses evolved to work together ๏ We learn best if we stimulate several senses at once.

Patterns and Connections ๏ We are better at seeing patterns and abstracting the meaning of an event than we are at recording detail. ๏ Emotional arousal helps the brain learn. ๏ So make it emotional.

Memory and Brain Rules ๏ Most memories disappear within minutes ๏ How do we make sure it gets into long-term memory? ๏ Incorporate new information gradually ๏ Repeat it in timed intervals

Brain Rules Babies are the model of how we learn ๏ observation, ๏ hypothesis, ๏ experiment, ๏ conclusion

Darn Kids these days! ๏ This is not just about “kids these days” this research is decades old ๏ Brains more wired for linear bursts than deep thinking (always on etc.)

Most Desired Skills - Forbes ๏ No. 1 Critical Thinking ๏ No. 2 Complex Problem Solving ๏ No. 3 Judgment and Decision-Making ๏ No. 4 Active Listening ๏ No. 5 Computers and Electronics ๏ No. 6 Mathematics Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics and their application.

Find out more! ๏ ๏ blinn.edu Blinn College – Bryan Campus (next door to Texas A&M)