Raman, a bright student, skips his Physics lecture and sneaks into the English literature class. A few students from other departments join him in this surreptitious trip. But why?
Many skills go into the making of good lectures, which, if well-structured, well-planned and well-delivered, get the undivided attention of the class.
The Professor of English knows this, and Raman and the other students make it a point not to miss his interesting, informative lectures. The Professor has competence in the pedagogical method of lecturing.
Planning
A lecture has instructional objectives and should never be an extempore talk. Planning a lecture means preparation of the lesson plan, the subject content, teaching aids and the questions to be asked in the class. Methods of getting feedback and humorous interludes must be thought about.
A good lesson plan makes the delivery of the lecture easy and boosts the confidence of the teacher. Before starting work on it, a teacher has to carry out the content organisation based on the syllabus. While doing so, keep in mind the abilities and the interests of the learners.
Take care to follow a proper psychological sequencing — for instance, simple to complex, familiar to unfamiliar and ensuring success. For a topic such as energy extraction from ocean waves, think of presenting the simple concepts of waves before moving on to the complex subject of ocean-wave energy. A teacher of Marine Biology can mention the familiar concepts of photosynthesis before presenting the unfamiliar topic of “Primary production in the sea.”
If the students feel successful in something, they will be more receptive. Start with a simple question or problem which they can answer. In the Physics class, for instance, put before them a problem to calculate velocity before discussing Newton’s laws of motion. On gaining experience, the teacher will be able to make use of some of these methods properly and become innovative in content organisation.
Delivery
A well-planned lecture is easier to deliver. However, planning alone does not guarantee effectiveness. Lecture delivery must have introductory, development and consolidation phases.
The introductory or warm-up phase must prepare the learners to receive the subject content. The teacher establishes a rapport with the students and motivates them to be active listeners. Some steps to achieve this are as follows:
Check the entry behaviour of the students to ensure that they have adequate knowledge to assimilate the concepts and principles of the new topic.
Briefly explain how the topic is related to those already covered.
Provide an advance organiser — an idea or concept that the students already know and has similarity to the new topic. For example, when a Marine Geology teacher wants to discuss submarine canyons, an advance organiser, “Submarine canyons are like rivers,” can be mentioned because of the similarities between the shapes of the rivers and those canyons. The learners relate it to their pre-existing knowledge, making for effective learning and enhanced retention.
The teacher can arouse the curiosity of students by presenting some ideas contrary to expectations or by posing a problem relating to knowledge already acquired. The curious students will be eager to understand the new topic. Based on the skill of the teacher and the nature of the subject, many such useful methods can be devised.
The development phase, when transaction of knowledge takes place, consumes the major share of time. The teaching points are presented in a planned sequence. The teacher explains the concepts and principles and presents data, figures, charts and so on. Examples and analogies are used for explaining the points. Teaching aids are used. To drive home the ideas, gestures and postures are adopted.
Analogies reduce the complexities of the concepts. However, they must be apt. A wrong analogy will lead students in the wrong direction. Check with the students several times to know if the analogy has worked.
Use of teaching aids, even the blackboard, is important in the development phase. Computer-aided presentations require skill. The slides for presentations should not be overloaded with information. They can be used to encourage active learning by including some open-ended questions or by making the students complete a figure before the full version is shown. Shun irrelevant details and keep a tight focus on the teaching points.
A lecture that ends abruptly falls flat. Hence the need for a consolidation phase. Summarise the teaching points to enable the learners to recapitulate and retain the knowledge. Ask a few questions to ascertain meeting the instructional objectives. Give home or classroom assignments. Drop indications about the topics of the coming classes. Thus bring the lecture to an elegant end.
Other skills
Good lecturing requires many more skills. Communication skills, a pleasant attitude and good manners make students active listeners. Body language is important. Hands, eyes and facial muscles are used to convey ideas and emotions. All these have to be controlled because overdoing distracts the learners.
The main stimulus for learning in the class is the talk of the teacher. However, use communication boosters to break monotony and sustain interest and attention. Humour, visual aids, cartoons and anecdotes are the common boosters. Making students laugh is a good practice. A few jokes can let off pressure and helps in memorising by association.
Voice modulation is a simple method of stimulus variation. A talk delivered in monotonic voice and uniform pace will fail to generate interest. Voice modulation and pace variation, if used appropriately, help transact knowledge. Encourage the students to interact with the teacher, making classroom learning a two-way process. Such interaction allows clarification of teaching points and increases the enthusiasm of the teacher. Brief discussions add to the variation of stimulus. The teacher needs to acquire skills in such variations.
The teacher must be passionate about imparting knowledge. The lecture must not deviate much from the teaching points. Be good in time management so that the portions can be covered in the given time
.Many methods other than those discussed here can make the class interesting. To make a lecture good and effective, the teacher ought to have sufficient skills in the planning and delivery of lecture. The teacher must have a professional attitude by updating subject knowledge and showing a desire to excel in the profession, willingness to put in hard work and an interest to sharpen skills.
Retired Professor And Dean,
College of Fisheries,
Kerala Agricultural University.
