Teaching for Learning

101 Intentionally Designed Educational Activities to Put Students on the Path to Success

Claire Howell Major, Michael S. Harris, Todd D. Zakrajsek

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781136277146
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Despite a growing body of research on teaching methods, instructors lack a comprehensive resource that highlights and synthesizes proven approaches. Teaching for Learning fills that gap. Each of the one hundred and one entries:

• describes an approach and lists its essential features and elements

• 
  
  

• demonstrates how that approach has been used in education, including specific examples from different disciplines

• 
  
  

• reviews findings from the research literature

• 
  
  

• describes techniques to improve effectiveness.

• 
  
  

Teaching for Learning provides instructors with a resource grounded in the academic knowledge base, written in an easily accessible, engaging, and practical style.

1

The Lecture Method

Description

The word “lecture” comes from the Latin lectare, which means “to read aloud.” Originally the lecture was an approach to transfer knowledge from experts to those who needed the information. Dating back at least to ancient Greeks and the art of rhetoric advocated by Aristotle in around the fourth century bc (Brown & Atkins, 1988), a lecture was the primary method of transmitting knowledge and information. Around the sixth century ad, scholars began to travel hundreds of miles to European monestaries to hear monks read a book aloud from a lecturn. As the monk would read, scholars would copy down the book verbatim (Exley & Dennick, 2004). This reliance on oral instruction became the foundation for teaching in the early universities. The lecture indeed was used as an instructional method in universities as early as the thirteenth and fourteen centuries. A lectern in the classroom replaced the pulpit, but the delivery method remained essentially the same as its religious origins. As colonial universities developed in America, their tutors also relied upon lecture as well as recitation for instruction (Thelin, 2011). The reliance on the lecture by university professors remained significant over time. As Garside (1996) suggests, “since the 1840s, the lecture method of instruction has been the primary method of teaching in the college classroom” (p. 212).

Although today’s lectures do not typically involve reading from a text, the teaching approach still involves having an knowledgeable individual deliver oral information and ideas about a particular subject to a group of individuals who have some reason for seeking out the information. Bligh (1999) suggests a working definition of lecture as a “more or less continuous exposition by a speaker who wants the audience to learn something” (p. 4). The speaker-instructor serves as the conveyor of information to a student audience. In turn, students are expected to listen to the lecture and to learn the information being transferred. The information is typically a synthesis of the professor’s own reading, research, and experience in a given content area. Listening, comprehending, and note-taking are frequent hallmarks of lectures (Biggs, 1996). Students may or may not be expected to take notes and ask questions. As Davis (2009) suggests:

Lecturing is not simply a matter of standing in front of a class and reciting what you know. The classroom lecture is a special form of communication in which voice, gesture, movement, facial expression, and eye contact can either complement or detract from content.

(p. 148)

Thus, the lecture is simply a form of direct instruction.

The lecture is used in disciplines across higher education institutions. Researchers have shown that lecturing in undergraduate liberal arts programs comprises 81% of social science classes and 89% of science and mathematics courses (Kimball, 1988). Neumann (2001) noted that lecture is most prevalent within the humanities. Dennick (2004) notes the lecture is “the cornerstone of many undergraduate courses and is believed by many academics to be the only way their subjects can be taught to an increasing number of students” (p. 1). For many, lecturing is the default method of college teaching (Biggs, 1996).

Purposes of the Lecture Method

The lecture’s primary purpose is to transfer information from an expert instructor to a group of student novices, and thus “the main objective of lectures should be the acquisition of information by students” (Bligh, 1999, p. 4). Lecture is best suited for having students acquire knowledge that is factual and developing conceptual understanding (Exley & Dennick, 2004). Lectures can provide students with new information not readily available in other sources. For example, instructors may lecture on original research prior to its publication, as there is always some gap between when scholarship takes place and when it appears in a textbook (Cashin, 1985; Svinicki & McKeachie, 2013). It also gives instructors an opportunity to test their ideas in front of an audience prior to publishing them.

Lectures can help students understand the core issues and structure of a discipline or field. Lectures provide an orientation and conceptual framework for understanding a topic. Instructors can use lectures to assist students working to clarify key concepts, principles, or ideas (Svinicki & McKeachie, 2013). Lectures also can dramatize important concepts, allow instructors to share personal insights about a topic, and prove useful for highlighting similarities and differences between key concepts (Cashin, 1985).

In addition, lectures can provide a vehicle for instructors to summarize material scattered over a variety of sources. Instructors can use lectures to tailor course content to the interests and experiences of a particular group of students who come together to learn in a course (Svinicki & McKeachie, 2013). Lectures can even be used by faculty members to help organize subject matter in a way that is best suited to the course objectives. Lectures allow instructors to serve as models for their students, demonstrating the ways that members of a discipline or field think about evidence, critical analysis, and problem solving (Cashin, 1985). Lectures can also be used to demonstrate application and problem solving (Exley & Dennick, 2004). Finally, lectures provide an opportunity for instructors to convey their enthusiasm for the course content.

Types of Lecture

Several authors describe different types of lecture (Bonwell & Eison, 1991; Broadwell, 1980; Woodring, 2004). In reviewing a range of different classifications of lecture, we believe lectures may be categorized in terms of the level of student interaction, the classification of content, and the medium by which information is disseminated.

Categorized by Levels of Student Interaction:

• Formal lecture. The lecturer delivers a well-organized, tightly constructed, and highly polished presentation. This type of lecture works well for teaching large groups of students and has been popularized by outlets such as TED Talks (Donovan, 2013) and, more recently, massive open online courses (MOOCs), such as those offered through Coursera or EdX. In the formal lecture, students hold questions until the conclusion of the lecture.
• Socratic lecture. This type of lecture, which typically follows a reading assignment to give students a baseline of knowledge, is structured around a series of carefully sequenced questions. The instructor asks a single student a question sequence. The questions require the student to use logic and inference skills.
• Semi-formal lecture. This is the most common type of lecture. Although somewhat similar to the formal lecture, the semiformal lecture, as the name implies, is less elaborate in form and production. Occasionally, the lecturer entertains student questions during the presentation of material.
• Lecture-discussion. This type of lecture encourages greater student participation. The instructor presents the talk, but he or she stops frequently to ask students questions or to request that students read their prepared materials. The direction of interaction can occur in one of three ways: (1) instructor to class, (2) instructor to individual student, or (3) individual student to instructor.
• Interactive lecture. In this version of lecturing, the instructor uses minilectures of approximately 20 minutes and involves students in a range of brief content-related activities in between. Interaction may occur between instructor and students or between and among students.

Categorized by Content:

• Expository lecture/oral essay. The lecturer begins with a primary thesis or assertion and then proceeds to justify it, typically putting the most important information or supporting examples first and proceeding in descending order of importance.
• Storytelling lecture. The instructor provides content that conveys a story to illustrate a concept. The lecture proceeds in typical narrative form, with an exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Characters are presented and developed through the presentation of the story line. The goal is to present critical content in a way that students will remember it.
• Point-by-point lecture. In this type of lecture, the instructor presents information about a single concept, question, or issue. The organizational structure is typically an outline format, with a hierarchical organization of major and minor points.
• Lecture-demonstration. The content involves a demonstration of a process or activity. The lecture typically proceeds in chronological order, with the demonstration presented in a sequence of events that the lecturer highlights and explains.
• Problem-solving lecture. In this type of lecture, a problem serves as the focus. The lecturer outlines the main problem, the key known elements, and the elements that remain to be discovered. During the lecture, the instructor typically works through the problem and demonstrates a solution or various possible solutions.

Categorization by Medium:

• Naked lecture. The term “teaching naked” was popularized by Jose Bowen (2012) in his similarly titled book. Bowen argues that teachers have much to gain by taking technology out of their classrooms. He argues that teaching without technology, “naked,” will improve student learning. Instructors who adapt this approach talk directly to students without the intervening agency of technology, or, alternately, they use technology outside of the classroom and reserve in-class time for direct communication with students.
• Chalk and talk lecture. This approach is so named because of early uses of lecture in a classroom with a blackboard and chalk. While some professors still use a blackboard, whiteboards and markers and smart boards are supplanting the earlier tools. Regardless of the tools used, the key characteristic of this approach is that the instructor lectures while generating notes on a medium that students can see.
• Multimedia lecture. A multimedia lecture, once called the slide lecture because of the slide-talk approach, is one of the most commonly used approaches today. Instructors use audio-visual software packages such as PowerPoint or Prezi to highlight key points of text. The term “death-by-PowerPoint,” however, is one that teachers should keep in mind, particularly as something to avoid, when using this approach.
• Video lecture. This type of lecture is one in which an instructor lectures and is captured on video as a talking head. At times, the video may alternate between showing headshots of the instructor and full screen visuals of the slides. This type of lecture is often used in the service of online learning and blended learning. More recently, this approach has seen increased usage as part of the flipped classroom strategy (Ronchetti, 2010).

Lectures across different categories work together. Thus, an instructor may give a semiformal, problem-solving, chalk and talk lecture, while another may offer a lecture-discussion, point-by-point, multimedia lecture. Although different disciplines exhibit norms around a common combination, the full range of combinations appear across college and university classrooms.

Parts of a Lecture

When considering aspects of a lecture, Exley and Dennick (2004) suggest organizing the lecture into three basic parts: context, content, and closure. Context includes both the setting of the classroom environment and connecting content to other class ideas. Content describes primacy of new content, which is central to the purpose of the lecture approach. Finally, closure involves providing a summary of content and reinforcing student comprehension.

Context

The context “makes connections with other learning and provides a background from which the importance and relevance of the content to come can be supported” (Exley & Dennick, 2004, p. 46). Several elements establish the context of the lecture: setting the mood, getting students’ attention, introducing the topic, outlining the structure, and stating the relevance of the lecture. We offer the following advice about setting the context of the lecture:

• Whereas other types of teaching allow for more spontaneous adjustments, a considerable amount of the work of lecturing must take place prior to the class session.
• Excellent lectures involve significant planning of the desired outcomes and the content necessary to achieve those objectives.
• Lectures should be organized in a way to clearly explain the primary points for students to retain. Organizing the lecture around these points, along with several complementary examples, will help the students follow throughout the lecture.
• It is important not only to have an organized lecture but also to use the same structure regularly so that students recognize the format easily (Bligh, 1999).
• Slides, videos, and projectors can all enhance a presentation when integrated well within a lecture.
• Consider adding directional notes within the presentation (i.e., when to change slides) as part of organizing the lecture.
• In addition to technology, consider the physical space of the class. How large are the pr...