1. Making your lectures more effective
John Sloman
Economics Network
Welcome and introduction to centre staff
New initiative supporting learning and teaching in higher education economics

3. Tell me and I will forget Show me and I will remember Involve me and I will understand Step back and I will act
(Chinese proverb)

4. I've taught
Snoopy to
whistle
I said that I'd
taught him, not that
he'd learned
I can't
hear him
whistle

5. Plan What makes a good lecture? Lecturing and student learning
Student preparation for lectures
Lecture structure and content
Effective presentation
Activities and breaks
Overcoming barriers to active learning
Building on the lecture

6. 1. What makes a good lecture?
What would make a bad lecture for your students?

7. What makes a good lecture?
Problems with traditional lectures
Too much focus on content to be ‘covered’
Not enough focus on student learning
Focus on student learning
Recording
Motivation
Involvement
Understanding
A lecture exercise

8. 2. Lecturing and student learning
Student learning in lectures .
What are the intended learning outcomes?
Are popular lectures good lectures?
Entertaining?
Spoonfeeding?
Learning styles
Visual, aural, conceptual: encourage variety
Active and passive learning .
Deep and surface learning

9. 2. Lecturing and student learning
Surface learning encouraged by
Heavy workload
Lack of independence
Passive learning
Assessment encouraging recall
Lack of interest
Deep learning encouraged by
Active involvement
Relating to experience
Choices
Progressive subject development
Applications

11. 3. Student preparation Getting background information
Data
Case material
Revisiting previous material
Start with a test
Getting students to identify issues
Use of the VLE
Assigning prior reading
Again, start with a test

12. 4. Lecture structure and content
Clear structure
Mapping / overview
Issues to be addressed
Not too much material .
Examples
Mixing presentation with student activities

13. 4. Lecture structure and content
Lecture session plan

15. 5. Effective presentation
Communication
Keep in eye contact with your audience
Project yourself
Pace
Speed of talking; diction
Coverage
Notes .
What do you want students to do?
Writing versus listening
What do you give them?

17. 5. Effective presentation
Using PowerPoint / OHTs / board
How much to write?
Do you want students to copy?
Talking and writing on the board?
Talking over PowerPoint slides
Posting notes in advance?
Presenting graphs and equations
Make it active
Partially complete diagrams/equations
Careful use of colour

18. 5. Effective presentation
Some PowerPoint tips
Don’t put too much on the screen
Use colour and design carefully
Animated diagrams
Moving from screen to screen: cntl slide#
Use black screen (press b)
Hyperlinking
Avoid ‘death by PowerPoint’

19. 5. Effective presentation
Ways of making your lecture more effective

20. 6. Activities and breaks Do not talk for the whole hour!
Diminishing returns
Attention wanes
Comprehension and learning declines
Give students things to do that aid their learning
Don’t worry about not ‘covering so much’
Even give them a break

21. Examples of activities and breaks

22. 6. Activities and breaks Activities Break
Tests/quizzes (use of PRS?) .
Brief discussion with neighbour
e.g. policy implications
List of advantages / disadvantages
Doing a calculation / completing a diagram
Worksheets
Hybrid between lecture and workshop
Break
Watch video
Compare notes
Tidy up your own notes
Entertainment

23. 6. Building on the lecture
Note takers
Post on discussion board
Use for seminars
Post questions on discussion board
Use it as FAQ
Start debate going with students
Directly link to seminars/workshops
Material covered
Activities in the lecture
Online study guide: your own or published
Think of incentives for use
Preparation for next lecture

24. Active and Passive learning
When students are constrained to the role of listeners while a lecturer delivers a monologue, they tend to be passive, not only at a behavioural level, but on a cognitive level as well
They do not engage actively in the kinds of elaborative information processing that helps to ensure understanding, retention and transfer
Jessica Ball, ‘Strategies for Promoting Active Learning in Large Classes’, Journal of teaching Practice, vol 3, 1994

25. Learning
Learning is fundamentally about making and maintaining connections: biologically through neural networks; mentally among concepts, ideas and meanings; and experientially through interaction between the mind and the environment, self and other, generality and context, deliberation and action.
Learning is enhanced by taking place in the context of a compelling situation that balances challenges and opportunity, simulating the brain’s ability to conceptualize quickly and its capacity and need for contemplation and reflection upon experiences.
James Eison, Teaching Strategies for the Twenty-first Century, 2002

26. Less is more
Comparing lectures in which 90% v 70% v 50% of the sentences disseminated new information (with the remaining time in case being used for restating, highlighting significance, giving more examples, and relating to the students’ prior experience) it was found that students given the lower level of new content learned and retained the lecture information better.
Russell, I.J. et al., 1984, ‘Effects of lecture information density on medical student achievement’, Journal of Medical Education 59: 881-9

27. Note taking
Evidence suggests that for immediate recall of a lecture, students who take most notes themselves come out best and those who rely on tutor notes come out worst.
In the medium term (a couple of weeks) those who listened, but took no notes, came out best.
Longer term, and with the chance for revision, those who took no notes came out worst, and those how have tutor notes come out best.
Liz Barnett, LSE, 2003

28. Audience response system