Lecturing is one of the most common and oldest forms of instruction. In recent years, lecturing has also become one of the more controversial teaching strategies as well. Recently, my campus hosted my friend and co-author, Todd Zakrajsek, who spoke on his book, Dynamic Lecturing:  Research-Based Strategies to Enhance Lecture Effectiveness. In today’s post, I want to share some of the highlights from the book and advice regarding planning dynamic and effective lectures. 

First, it is important to acknowledge that lecturing can be effective or ineffective just like any other teaching strategy. Every student has the experience of a horribly boring lecture, yet there are also plenty of highly engaging and thought provoking lecturers. 

Particularly with novice learners and introductory courses, lectures can be a helpful way to improve student learning. 

So, why do lectures have a bad reputation?

In my experience, this reputation is largely driven by an over-reliance and ineffective practice. Specifically, faculty that lecture continuously for 50 or 90 minutes asking no questions, clarifying confusing information, and failing to engage students.

Simply put, talking at students for an entire class session is an ineffective approach to teaching. In any subject.

However, lectures that include opportunities for students to make connections, consolidate their learning, and reflect all can be quite useful and effective approaches. 

So how do you go about planning dynamic and effective lectures?

Zakrajsek and his co-author, Christine Harrington, lay out four questions to ask yourself about each big idea that you want to get across in your lecture.

1.  How does the content you want to deliver connect with the students’ prior knowledge?

2.  What images or multimedia tools will best help students learn this big idea?

3.  What examples will best help students understand this big idea?

4.  What questions will get students thinking critically about this big idea?

For each of the ideas you want to present in a lecture, think through these four questions to help develop the content you want to present.

Next, you want to consider how you will present the material to class.

1.  How will you bring attention to and emphasize important points?

2.  What reflection exercises will best help students learn the big idea?

3.  How will you give the students the opportunity to engage in retrieval practice?

Each of these questions will help you consider how to present the material in such a way that you will help students engage and later recall the information from the lecture. 

After asking yourself these series of questions, the final element is to think about enhancement opportunities to ensure students have the chance to activate prior knowledge, reflect, and stay engaged. From the use of quizzes to brief student-to-student interaction, these enhancements will enable you to bring the benefits of lectures and active learning to your classroom.