Lectures play a vital role in teaching.
Create an atmosphere that encourages student participation by using a conversational tone and not criticizing student questions or comments in front of the class.
When students engage actively with material, they generally understand it better and remember it longer.
I noticed that the assessement quiz answer for attention span is below or above that discussed in the presentations. Reminds me of a professor who said that we should keep our lectures short because the attention span was 15 to 18 minutes and then lectured for 50 minutes.
Hi Craig,
I know you are going to appreciate the results you get with this new format. Your students are going to be more engaged and will appreciate the change of pace that you are going to bring to the class.
Gary
A teacher can make video or audio recording of his /her lectures before the actual lecture in class. Teacher should act as a student in class and should realize and evaluate wheather the lecture contents were good and were delivered effectively.
I am guilty of reading a lot of my lectures. But after this course will:
1. Make them shorter, 15 minutes and more interaction/questions between
2. Talk to my students instead of lecture
Again, I would stress that teachers create a comfortable, relaxed and even humorous learning environment. The highest compliment I receive from students is that they enjoyed attending my class. Not only do they stay more engaged, but they also feel motivated to achieve rather than just passing through.
My lectures are very interactive. I welcome student input even if it sometimes takes us a little off track. I teach law. There are always students who are willing to discuss their first-hand experiences with the court system.
Hi Anita,
I think you will like the positive feedback you get not to mention the increased engagement as a result of you following the instructional delivery format you have laid out.
Gary
The idea of using mini lectures has helped me prepare and deliver effective lectures. Also varying the way the lecture is delivered: mini lecture, questioning, video (20 minutes), etc.
Absolutely have to prepare and test it out - practice before you teach/lecture. It can be time consuming however it's vital that this step takes place. During the building process I get excited about building effective strategies and bringing those strategies to life.
Hi Robyn,
Your "reading" of your students is a great way to get connected to them. You are focusing on how they react to your delivery and the content which in turn tells you how and where to reinforce key concepts. This enhances learning opportunities in a variety of different ways.
Gary
Hi Lani,
Good way to reinforce the content. You are giving your students several different ways to "get" the content.
Gary
When I am teaching, I generally am only in front of a class for 30 minutes to an hour teaching them library-related skills. I might get to do this once or maybe twice during a module or quarter - depending upon when the regular faculty can fit me in.
Because what I am teaching is fairly focused, I tend to demonstrate throughout my lecture and encourage students to follow along, especially if I am demonstrating how to search a database or the Internet. I also encourage questions as I go along and ask questions designed to determine if what I am lecturing on makes sense. For example, if I have been teaching students about using AND and OR when searching, I might ask them if they will find more results with an AND search or with an OR search.
I might also ask a student to provide me with an example that we can use for a search. I think this makes the experience more real for students and also allows students to see me work out the best way to conduct a search that I haven't practiced before. That might sound counter-productive, but I believe it teaches students that finding information is not simply a matter of plugging a few random words into a search engine and sometimes requires multiple attempts and narrowing down in order to succeed.
Learning my students educational/experience backgrounds is very helpful to me. It lets me know how far I need to reach from either side of the continuum to capture all of my audience. I also like to change up the way I deliver the lectures so that I am able to utilize the different learning styles. In the first week I am focused on their body language as well as reponsiveness to the content being delivered - if I get that "glazed" look then I know I need to redeliver in a more meaningful way; in a way that they will understand. I utilize a lot of analogies in my lectures.
I always tell my students read next chapter before class day to discuss at the begining of each class. After the discussion, i use power point and some times i use an interactive cd.
Sometimes they like to solve clinical cases based on personal experiences. I ask them to expose a personal experience and try to settle the case among all.
- Preparing handouts to summmarize lecture content
- Encouraging student participation with extensive question and answer sessions
- Reinterating course content that will be covering in accompanying lab session
Speaking in a clear voice. Being prepared. Having power points that are effective.
I do power point presentation, after that I write important key to remember on the board, them i will ask questions. Now there were times they can't still get it then I need to repeat the lecture again until such time everybody is on the same page.
I try to implement as wide a variety of instructional methods as possible. PowerPoint, handouts, diagrams to label/color, models to make, case studies, anecdotes, pictures, experiments, internet activities all help to keep us going.
I agree that real life field experiences enhances the students understanding of the content and makes it more understandable. Especially, when the course being taught has content that a connection to how they would actually use it is not clearly visualized.
