Tips for Delivering Outstanding Lectures

The course ''Tips for Delivering Outsanding Lectures'' prsesents practical tips and techniques for high school teachers, trainers and college professors for delivering effective lectures.  The suggestions mentioned in this course are a result of long years of teaching experience in addition to a number of prestigious references mentioned in the downloadable handbook.

It is not guaranteed that the ideas and suggestions presented in this book will work effectively for all students and for every sittuation, but they are worth the try.

What is a Lecture?

Very simply, a lecture is an organized verbal presentation of subject matter often augmented by visual aids. According to Bligh (1972), a lecture is a period of more or less uninterrupted talk from a teacher. A more detailed definition is found in Percival and Ellington (1988) who state that a lecture is 'a didactic instructional method, involving one-way communication from the active presenter to the more or less passive audience'. Perhaps unkindly we should also include the student who described a lecture as 'an occasion to sleep whilst someone talks'.

History and Background

Historically the lecture can be traced back to the 5th century BC when it was popular with the Greeks. It was widely adopted in the early Christian and Muslim Universities in medieval times when books were scarce, and even today, it is the most common teaching method in higher education. The term lecture comes from the Latin lectare, to read aloud, which identifies it as an expository or ‘telling’ method.

Whilst the lecture largely consists of one-way communication from the teacher, this does not mean that there can be no discussion or dialogue between lecturer and students. Often such two-way communication is limited to the teacher asking questions to establish that the subject matter has been assimilated but many skilled lecturers are able to make their lectures more thought-provoking and interactive, so that deeper learning is possible. This is to be encouraged and we shall return to how this can be achieved later in this chapter.

Research on Lectures

Much has been written about lectures and lecturing and it may help our understanding if we examine briefly what research has established. Three main trends may be noted, the first comparing their effectiveness with other methods, the second detailing the views of students and lecturers and the third focussing on learning in lectures. So what does the literature tell us about the lecture?

In comparing the lecture with other methods we find that:

• the lecture is the most common method used in universities;

• it is as effective as other methods for imparting knowledge up to comprehension level but less effective for higher cognitive levels;

• it is less effective for teaching practical skills than demonstrations and laboratory work;

• discussions are more effective than lectures for changing attitudes.

Teach Your Best - A Handbook for University Lecturers (DES, 387 p.)