I think that you need to consider the audience when preparing and delivering a lecture. Take the course content and use things that your audience can relate to make it more relevant to them.
Hi Dennis,
Good way to create a flow within the class. With your movement and questioning you are changing the pace and enabling the students to pause a bit in their thinking and then refocusing on you and the content when you have moved to a new position. This is effective even when you have moved only a few feet.
Gary
When I lecture, I try to move around the students and engage various students at different times. I pose questions to students and try to get a discussion going about the topic. I ask for input from each student during the class. I always try to solicit comments from each student.
I like to create PowerPoint "builds." for example: see the different layers of software in a computer (stacked one on top of each other).
I inject humor whenever possible. It gets the students' attention. I also utilize the whiteboard to emphasize certain points I want to make.
You can make them more effective by making them relative to what they will be doing in the future. If they are training for something like business, let them know how knowing the information would help them in business.
Hi Andrea,
So do my students. When you bring in speakers where are they coming from? Are they graduates, employers, or someone else from the field?
Thanks in advance for your input on this.
Gary
Our students really enjoy interviews from outside field leaders
Hi Jemeka,
Right you are about needing to break down the content into small units. This way the students can concentrate on the content during the mini-lectures and then use the content during the work sessions.
Gary
Hi Lenny,
Good strategy for enabling your students to get their minds around the new concepts that are being presented. It is like the old saying--"How do you eat and elephant?" Answer--"One bite at a time." This is what learning is about. Keep up the good work.
Gary
Do not read directly from the book, but take the information from the book, adding experiences, theories and examples, along with envolving the students.
Inviting students to apply their new understanding to real life situtations, preparing powerpoints, and encouraging open discussion are a few methods that can be used to promote the right environment for delivering an effective lecture.
Providing mini review sections within a lecture is effective. Doing this gives students the opportunity to stay focused and recall infromation that was previously discussed.
I like to break up long lectures (or difficult topics) into smaller chunks. At the end of each chunk, I will assess the students knowledge of that chunk through some activity (e.g. questions, think-pair-share, practice problems, etc.). This assessment informs me to either review material or move on. I find that students retain knowledge from lectures better with this method, because the spotlight is on them every now and then.
Some ways to make your lectures more effective for students is to include some visual example or real life scenarios about the covered materials. Including a short video demostration can also aid in keeping the students engaged.
I found different ways to cover the lectures more effective, one way is to look a key word from the paragraph and flip it into a question, argument or supporting idea and not last an example from the students. The way I ensure myself they understand the concept behind the lecture and keep their interested .
When I lecture I use the mini olecture concept often. I find that it allows for much more student interaction. The student doesnt have to wait until the end of class to ask questions, this helps the student grasps the content and it also facilitates more classroom discussion. The student also learns sooner than later if a topic is unclear.
Dr. Meers,
Teaching electrical concepts, material the student can not physically see, it is important to keep the students motivated to achieve the learning experience desired.
Regards,
Ron Hampson
I review the content I will cover before class and know what I want to accomplish. I choose problems to solve in relation to the lecture to have the students participate in the learning process.
Hi Elizabeth,
Good start to your teaching career. You are doing the right things, so keep up the good work.
Gary
