When one is preparing a lecture there are two major components that should be considered. First, the lecture should be organized in a way that aids comprehension and retention, and second, in order to maintain student attention, the lecture should be made as interesting as possible. The following paragraphs focus on these two major components.

The initial step in preparing a lecture is to first determine the objectives for the lecture. In other words, a decision must be made as to what you want students to "take away with them" when the lecture is over, i.e., "What do you want your students to learn?" For example, the purpose of the lecture may be to help students (a) learn how to solve a problem, (b) comprehend and remember three or four major issues, (c) demonstrate effective methods of analysis, etc. The focus of your preparation should never be "What am I going to lecture about?" but rather "What do I want my students to learn?"

A lecture should be organized in much the same way that a public speech is organized. That is, it should have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The function of each of the three major sections of the lecture is as follows:

"Tell your students what you're going to tell them."

"Tell them."

"Then tell them what you told them."

Introduction: "Tell your students what you're going to tell them."

Too many times the professor simply walks into the room and begins talking. When this occurs there has been no attempt made to prepare the students for what is to come.

I. Prepare your students to learn by giving them a preview of the days events. (A good method is to write the days agenda on the board.) When you are previewing the days events, share with your students the objectives and goals you have for this class session. (You may want to write these on the board as well.) By sharing this information with your students, you accomplish at least two tasks:

 

(1) you have established a plan/focus for the day and can readily get back on course if you go "astray," and

(2)by knowing what they are supposed to have learned by the end of the class, students can speak up if they are not "learning that."

 

II. Be sure that students have a sense of the "Big Picture." That is, at the beginning of your lecture, tie todays topics/issues into what happened at the last class period and to the plan for the whole course. i.e., what will be happening the rest of the semester.

Body: "Tell them"

After the students have been prepared to learn (by the introduction), they are now ready for the major topic/issues that will be presented in the lecture. The structure of the body of the lecture is critical for comprehension and retention.

"Chunk" the Information
The body of the lecture should be "chunked" into three or four main ideas or issues. By chunking the information we are providing a framework for students to more readily assimilate what they are hearing in the lecture. Learners can much more easily understand and retain four main ideas than a long narrative of information.

Think of these chunks as hooks on which students can hang ideas. When students are reflecting on what they heard in the lecture, they are much more likely to remember the central issues that we have provided as "hooks." Once the hooks are in place, i.e., reinforced in the lecture, students have them as a device on which to "hang" the details that are involved.

Summarize and Preview

Between each major point (or "chunk") and at each natural break in the flow of the content of your lecture, summarize what you have just covered and give the students an overview or preview of what is to come next. With this method, we are providing continuity for our students (i.e., we are tying it together) so that they always have a grasp of the big picture. We are also building redundancy into the lecture. It is this redundancy which helps to reinforce the essential ideas.

Conclusion: "Tell them what you told them."

After you have provided context for the students in the introduction of the lecture, given them chunks of information in the body of the lecture, you are now ready to tie everything together with a summary of all that was covered i.e., "tell them what you told them." Depending upon the complexity of the information, the summary may be either brief or detailed.

It is also good, at this point, to not only summarize but to "pull back" and comment on the relative significance of todays topic and its relationship to some larger picture or topic. You may also wish to conclude the days agenda with instructions about what students are responsible for before the next class period.

 

Once the lecture has been clearly organized, it is time to add "personality." We all know that the lecture will certainly be more effective if we maintain student attention. We can enhance the prospect of keeping students attentive by employing various techniques to make the lecture interesting. While the following paragraphs list several methods for enlivening our lectures, we must first reinforce two very basic strategies for personalizing the lecture. They are: (a) establish and maintain eye contact with the students, i.e., look directly into the students' eyes as you are speaking to them, and (b) learn the students' names and call on them by name as often as possible. These are very fundamental techniques that should be implemented anytime one is interacting with students.

In addition, perhaps the most critical component of a good lecture is to intersperse teacher talk with student activity. That is, "break-up" your lecture at frequent intervals. Fifteen to twenty minutes is about the upper range of students ability to concentrate. At the end of fifteen minutes (twenty at the most) break-up the lecture by introducing some kind of activity that engages the students.

Some general suggestions for breaking-up the lecture along with methods for making it more interesting are listed below.

This Part  provides  different activities to engage students at various intervals throughout the lecture.

The use of groups provides an opportunity for all students to participate.

Come to class prepared with intriguing questions to generate class participation.

 

For example, if you are going to be talking about the "evils" of industrial pollution, bring a small box to class that is labeled as Pandora's Box. Inside the box, place slips of paper which identify various kinds of pollutants. At appropriate times during the lecture, individual pollutants (the evils mentioned above) can be literally "pulled" out of the box for discussion.

Bring items that students can touch/feel, smell, taste, handle, etc. (Caution: be sure that all students can be involved.)

 

Relate personal examples of your experience that relate to the subject matter

The stories you tell may illustrate or amplify the topic/issue or they may be stories about others experiences. (Caution: they must be relevant to the subject matter.)

In order to illustrate the dangers of running a red light, a professor asked students to reach into a jar filled with 100 capsules, one of which was cyanide. Their chances of getting the cyanide capsule were the same as the chances of colliding with another car if they ran a red light.

Hopefully, it has been made clear that the lecture method of instruction does not have to be class time spent with students watching the clock in anticipation of the end of the period, while battling to stay awake. If one takes specific steps to (a) make sure that the lecture has a clear, meaningful structure and (b) include some mechanism for making it interesting, the lecture can serve as a very effective teaching tool.