Lectures What does some research tell us?

Is lecture research still relevant?  Average college student spends about 80% of class time hearing lectures. (Ambruster, 2000; McKeachie, 1994)  Students don’t dislike lectures, they dislike poorly done lectures. (Brown & Kakhtar, 1997)  Lecturing results are not significantly different from other instructional strategies when…

the lectures are used appropriately and prepared carefully according to:  a “fit” factor  a focus on retention  a clear organizational structure  active lecturing strategies

“Fit” factor  Does lecturing fit your objective?  Lectures are effective for explaining factual information or explaining the structure of knowledge. (Kierwa, 1987; Isaacs, 1994; Saroyan & Snell, 1997; Bligh, 2000)

“Fit” factor  Not effective for: promoting thought changing attitudes generating interest or enthusiasm inspiring social responsiveness or self- awareness (Kierwa, 1987; Isaacs, 1994; Saroyan & Snell, 1997; Bligh, 2000)

Retention is the intention!  Focus of a lecture is to uncover the content not cover the content “Because what students retain is more important than what is covered.” (Felder & Brent, 1999; Marcheggiani, Davis, & Sander, 1999)

Do you understand these words?  are  between  consists  continuously  corresponding  curve  draws  variation  graph  if  isolated  known  making  only  often  with  one  points  relation  set  table  values  variables

Retention requires meaning-making:

Retention requires understanding:

Plan a clear organization of lecture  Use an advance organizer: an introduction meant to stimulate the student’s prior knowledge  Provide organizational structure of the lecture to students through an outline or handouts as you present (Saroyan & Snell, 1997; Khuwaileh, 1999; Bligh, 2000)

Clear organization during lecture  Periodic summaries or “taking stock”  Clear transitions and conceptual linking cues (verbal and nonverbal)  Summaries generated by students and confirmed by lecturer (Saroyan & Snell, 1997; Khuwaileh, 1999; Bligh, 2000)

Note taking considerations  Assessment demands will dictate students’ note-taking focus (Sutherland, Badger, White, 2002)  Make important points note-worthy (Maddox & Hoole, 1975): write words or phrase on board dictate heading and subheading read out numbered points

Note taking considerations  Provide incomplete or skeletal handouts for student active involvement. Why?  What is your preferred cognitive style?

When an outline is not provided students with a field-independent cognitive style have a significant advantage over students field-dependent cognitive style for capturing main points of lectures. (Frank, 1984; Kierwa, 1987) Who needs an outline?

Uses of Handouts  Use to provide a visual structure to the information  Use as an active lecturing tool  Use to provide the excessive detail that is important but too much to be presented in the lecture format

Active lecturing techniques  Start with a mystery or story related to the topic (Cialdini, 2005)  Prior to lecture students complete an exercise related to lecture topic (Schwartz & Bransford, 1998; Yoder & Hochero, 2005)  Classroom Assessment Techniques (Angelo & Cross, 1993) one-minute paper muddiest point

Communicating during the lecture:  Stories and metaphors are good- sometimes AVOID seductive details or stories, unless you desire the students to recall the seductive details (Harp & Maslich, 2005)

Communicating during the lecture:  Metaphors can be a problem because International students may easily misinterpret metaphors and can be unaware of misinterpretation! (Littlemore, 2001)

Communicating during the lecture:  Talk as though you are explaining to friends (outside of the discipline) not as though you are writing to fellow researchers or colleagues within your discipline.

Communicating during the lecture:  Complicated vocabulary can become the focus, rather than the facts or concepts to be learned. (Khuwaileh, 1998)  S tudents cannot make inferences, even simple ones, from a lecture. (Bligh, 2000)

“Exemplary Lecturers  are organized according to a set of objectives,  stay away from providing detailed information  emphasize, repeat and summarize frequently, and  use media effectively” (Saroyan & Snell, 1997, p. 89)

RSQC…  Recall- What do you know now that you didn’t know before?  Summarize- In 3 sentences or less explain the main idea.  Question- What was question was left unanswered for you?  Connect- What about this relates to what you already know?

…A  Apply- Describe at least one way you could apply something you learned today to your lecturing strategies.

Contact us:  Please contact TASC ( ) for more ideas, feedback about a lecture or a consultation meeting! Kathryn Cunningham (ext. 241) Bill Burke (ext. 229) Victoria Bhavsar (ext. 256)