Practical lesson 7

Practical lesson 7

1. What is lecture?

2. What is the difference between lecture and interactive lecture? Which is more effective?

3. Can you add something more into the list of elements to be controlled when planning a lecture?

4. What is practical lesson?

5. Your new ideas on improvement of practical lessons.

Answers

1. Lecture as a model of teaching is frequently criticized, but this is a fact that it has managed to survive so long in pace of many technological developments. Lectures are often used to teach organized bodies of knowledge which is an important part of the school curriculum at all levels, and they have continued as a primary form of instruction in colleges and universities even at different school stages. According to Perrott in almost all lessons or learning sequences, the teacher has to present information and ideas. He has to introduce topics, summarize the main points of the learning activity and stimulate further learning. All these activities require the use of lecture-explanation techniques.

According to Brown, the term lecture was derived from the Medieval Latin “Lecture” to read aloud. So, Lecture consisted of an oral reading of a text followed by a commentary.

Good and Merkel (1959) suggest lecture as a method of teaching by which the instructor gives an oral presentation of facts or principles to learners and the class usually being responsible for note taking, usually implies little or no class participation by such means as questioning or discussion during the class period. (Howe, 1980) gave same definition as lecture occurs whenever a teacher is talking and students are listening. And finally Monroe considers that, formal disclosure of presentation of knowledge to students may be included under the lecture method. From the above discussion four main features can be suggested for the process of lecturing.

1. Intention: The lecturer's intentions may be considered to provide coverage of a topic, to generate understanding and to stimulate interest. Consideration of these goals of lecturing as also the knowledge of the earlier learning of the students are essential constituents of lecture preparation.

2. Transmission: A lecture sends a message verbally, extra verbally and non- verbally to the learners. The verbal messages may consist of definitions, descriptions, examples, explanations or comments. The 'extra verbal' component is the lecturer's vocal qualities, hesitations, errors and use of pauses and silence. The ‘non verbal’ component consists of the teacher's gestures, facial expressions. All of these types of messages may be received by the students, and what they perceive as the important messages may be noted.

3. Receipt of Information: The information, meaning, and attitudes conveyed by the lecturer may or may not be perceived by the students. Attention fluctuates through out the process of lecture. The attention of students can be increased if the lecture includes some short activities for students such as brief small-group discussions or simple problem solving. Any change of activity may renew attention. Therefore, the receipt of information is an important feature in the process of lecturing which has to be considered by the instructor.

4. Output: Any instructional strategy should lead directly to the objectives and interrelated goals for a course of study. So the student’s response or “output” is very essential in the process of lecturing and it may occur on immediate reactions to the lecture and the lecturer. However more important than the immediately observable responses to n lecture are the long- term changes in student. A lecture may change a student's perception of a problem or theory, it may increase a student's insight, and it may stimulate the student to read, think, and discuss ideas with others. The probabilities of these events are depending upon the student's knowledge, attitudes, and motivation to learn and on the lecturer's preparation, lecture structure and presentation.

2. Types of Lectures Lowman has classified the major types of lectures as follows:

Formal Oral Essay- This model can be considered as a highly polished kind of lecture that presents information primarily to support a conclusion (Kyle, 1972). In this process the lecturer has reviewed and selected from a large body of knowledge the theories, research studies, and arguments that support his conclusion. The most formal of such lectures are written out and read to the students. Listening to one can be an emotionally and intellectually significant experience but this kind of lecture is rarely used in teaching process.

Expository Lecture: In this lecture the instructor does most of the talking, with only occasional questions from the students. These lectures are less elaborately planned than oral essay.

Provocative Lecture: There is more intention of provoking thought in this process. Here the teacher challenges students' existing knowledge and values and helps them to form a more complex and integrated perspective.

Lecture Discussion: Here the teacher encourages students to comment or express concern rather than simply raise questions. The lecture-discussion class begins with the instructor speaking for few minutes and then stimulating a few minutes of discussion around a key point in his remarks. During such discussion the instructor offers brief clarification or integration between students comments, but students do most of talking.

Lecture – Recitation: In this process the teacher stops to ask specific questions or requests students to read prepared material aloud. But the teacher provides the questions and students share what they know or have prepared.

Lecture Laboratory: In this method, students follow short lectures by making their own observations, experiments, or other independent work. This lecture is used in science as well as in studio art and writing classes.

Lecture Discussion Cycle As it was described, the lecture discussion method encourages students to think about the content being presented as well as heightening their involvement in the lecture proceedings. So it can be considered as a more valuable method than others, thereby the cycle of this method is presented here to illustrate the process of teaching according to the lecture method.

According to my opinion interactive lectures are more interesting than traditional lecture. In simple lectures only teacher speaks but interactive lectures all students attend very active.

3. Lecture Preparation

INTRODUCTION

There is given preparation as one of the characteristics of the effective teacher Preparation is a broad concept and goes well beyond the planning of what you intend to say in your lecture.

Careful preparation can do a great deal to address issues of lecture effectiveness, student motivation, and your own levels of stress. Accordingly, skills in preparation are worthy of close attention. Of course, you need to be reasonably efficient during the preparatory process to avoid the common pitfall of spending too much time on it. Time-wasting can be due to poor skills in preparation or to procrastination. Both of these problems can be eliminated with a little guidance and some practice. The ideas that follow can be applied to the preparation of a single lecture and, with appropriate modifications, to a series of lectures or a course module.

An important preliminary step in your preparation is to find out as much as you can about the context of your lectures within the overall program. Unfortunately this context is often ill defined and may be only titles in a long list of lecture topics given out by the teaching department or school.

This last point is most important. You may wish to try out some new ideas with students. But proceed carefully! Students do appreciate good teaching but may resent the use of techniques that seem irrelevant to their purposes, to the course aims, and especially to the way the course is assessed. In introducing new techniques you must carefully explain their purpose to students. Be prepared for some resistance, especially from senior students, if they do not appreciate the connection between the techniques and their past experiences in university and, particularly, the assessment arrangements.

The course controller, curriculum committee, head of department and other lecturers in the course are all potential sources of assistance to you. However, do not be surprised if you are told that you are supposed to be the expert and that it is your responsibility to know what students should be taught! If this happens you should insist on some help to review what happened in the past. To do otherwise is to teach in an academic vacuum.

4. Practical lesson is a successful teaching strategy that aims to involve students in the learning process. It includes a variety of learning and teaching techniques, which maybe be very diverse based on individual instructor’s preferences. Practical learning should share the following characteristics:

 The instructor is a facilitator instead of a lecturer.

 Students are expected to actively engage with the course content.

 It encourages students to develop higher-order thinking skills (Applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating).

 Students are expected to construct their own understanding of the course materials.

There are two important aspects of practical classes:

 For many subjects, ‘doing’ is an important part of the knowledge. You learn about the ‘doing’ part in practical class.

 In practical classes you have to apply the theories in practical situations.

5. I have some suggestions about improving the practical lessons. Teacher should give a chance to students to explain lessons for his or her course mates. When people want to learn something it is best way to teach. They will search information and facts about lessons and share with their friends . It will be more memorable.

Case Studies. This technique focuses on developing students’ problem-solving abilities. Present a real-life problem to the students. By analyzing the issues or problems, students are expected to apply newly acquired knowledge or concepts to address the problem.

Group Work. Group work allows every student to speak and share personal opinions. The instructor can break the class into groups of any size, although it is typically recommended in a group of 3-5 students. A variety of tasks can be assigned in group work activity, such as assigning articles to read, information to share, interesting topics to discuss, specific subjects to teach to other groups, etc.

Icebreakers. Icebreakers are an effective approach to get students’ attention and have them discuss their interests and expectations for the course. For example, instructors can start a class by dividing students into groups and have them talk about the most interesting things about themselves.

One-Minute Paper. By asking students to write down a short paragraph in class, instructors can have students reflect on presented knowledge and collect informative feedback. The instructor should allow students to complete the writing in one-minute or less (Davis, Wood, & Wilson, 1983).

Reciprocal Peer Questioning. Reciprocal Peer Questioning is a strategy emphasizing higher order thinking by allowing students to observe the question patterns of their teacher, which directs students to learn how critically and recognize what is the important information (Helfeldt & Henk, 1990). In class, instructors can ask some questions and expect students to answer them based on their understanding. Once students are familiar with this teaching method, instructors can encourage students to develop their own questions by filling in the blank.

Think-Pair-Share. It is suggested that instructors pair students for a few minutes at the beginning of each class, then, have students review the previous class content, and discuss their thoughts with the their fellow students. Each pair of students then shares their findings with the whole class as part of a formal discussion. By monitoring students’ discussion, the instructor is able to clarify students’ misconceptions in class.

References

1. 
   Bligh, D. What’s the point in discussion? Portland, Oregon: Intellect Books.
   
2. 
   Davis, B. G., Wood, L., & Wilson, R. C. . ABCs of teaching with excellence . Berkeley: University of California.
   
3. 
   Helfeldt, J.P. & Henk, W. A. (1990). Reciprocal questioning: Answer relationship an instructional technique for at-risk readers. Journal of Reading , 33, 509-514
   
4. 
   Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., & Smith, K. A. Active Learning: Cooperation in the College Classroom. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company.
   
5. 
   King, A. Enhancing peer interaction and learning in the classroom through reciprocal questioning. American Educational Research Journal , 27, 664-687.
   
6. 
   McKeachie, W.J., & Svinicki, M. Teaching tips: strategies, research, and theory for College and University teachers. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.