This text is a summary of Chapter 6 of “McKeachie’s Teaching Tips“. The title of the post is the title of the chapter.

According to the author, “Effective lectures combined the talents of scholar, writer, producer, comedian, entertainment, and teacherEffective lectures combined the talents of scholar, writer, producer, comedian, entertainment, and teachers in ways that contribute to student learning. in ways that contribute to student learning.”

I think the two main questions that this chapter tackles are: Is the lecture (still) an effective method of teaching? If it is, under what conditions is it most effective? The “still” in the first question above is not really part of the text of the chapter but I’ve added it because it is clearly implied by its introduction.

Most research seems to point out that lectures in the traditional sense are less effective than active learning methods or text sources. In spite of this, lectures may still be useful to present more up-to-date information, to summarize materials from multiple sources, and to orient students by focusing on key concepts, principles, or ideas, pointing them to materials that provide them with more in-depth knowledge. Lectures also have an important motivational element because the lecturer’s enthusiasm and motivation are transmitted to the students and also because the lecture can point out contradictions or conflicting viewpoints. Personally, I find the enthusiasm aspect really important. In my own personal experience, I tend to get bored with lectures where the lecturer her or himself looks bored.

Preparing a lecture

When planning lectures, one must bear in mind that contemporary teaching should be less and less about knowledge dispensing. It makes more sense to try to teach students to learn and think, by analyzing materials, formulating problems, developing hypotheses, criticizing and evaluating solutions. In a way, this means that the lecturer is not teaching the students a specific subject but teaching them how to learn from her/him. A corollary from this is that lectures in a course should start at a slower pace so that students acquire tacit knowledge about the method, procedures, and conventions in the field under study. This allows them to learn in a more autonomous way. Another important aspect is adapting to the varied needs of students so as to account for different backgrounds, interests, and motivations. Ideally, the lecturer should put some effort into becoming familiar with their audience.

The chapter also devotes a section to discussing preparation of lecture notes. In summary, if notes are too detailed, lecturers tend to pay too much attention to them, which means less direct interaction with the students and a more boring lecture. The chapter also suggests the use of graphical representations (for the notes) because this promotes “flexibility and spontaneity”. These graphical notes can also be used in lecture slides. The author also recommends the use of cues to the lecturer, e.g., “Write on the board”, “ask for examples”, “show source code example” (for a more detailed example that involves programs), etc.

Lecturers tend to organize their lectures in terms of the content they want the students to learn. According to the author, lecturers should instead strive to tell a story, e.g., a mystery, because this not only engages students better but also aids in memorization. Analogies are also very effective because they build a connection between the topic being taught and the knowledge that students already have.

Parts of a lecture

About the introduction of a lecture, the author has the following to say:

“the introduction of the lecture should point to a gap in the students existing cognitive structure or should challenge or raise a question about something in the students existing method of organizing material in order to arouse curiosity.”

The author latter emphasizes the importance of asking questions early in the lecture to guide the student’s learning. He gives an example in the context of cognitive changes in aging: “Do you get more or less intelligent as you get older?”. These questions emphasize what students should learn from the lecture and thus should focus on its most important aspects. It is also possible to present quizzes before and after the lecture, again, to better direct the learning and focus on the most important parts. Finally, another effective strategy for the intro is to begin with problems or cases presented in newspapers or TV shows.

When discussing the body of the lecture, one of the first things the author says is that “the enemy of learning is the teacher’s need to cover the content at all costs”. Besides arguing about the need to avoid overloading the student with too much content, the text discusses some techniques that can be used to improve information retention: examples, humor (although it is a double-edged sword, since sometimes the students will remember the humor more than the point it is trying to convey), periodic summaries, and checking students’ understanding. For the later, the text presents the interesting suggestion of giving students one minute to discuss with their neighbors and write down the questions that arise from that quick discussion. According to the author, it is even more effective to have activities within the lecture.

For the conclusion of the lecture, besides the obvious (recaping the lecture), an interesting idea is to give three minutes for students to write a “minute paper”. This forces them to think about what were the most important things they learned and organize it. These papers can even be collected and used as part of an ongoing evaluation. The lecturers in the BKO course use this approach after each lecture. I really enjoy it because it leads me to reflect on my learning.

How to improve lectures

The entire chapter can be summarized in the following snippet: “one way of improving lectures is to think about how students process lectures.” This is related to what students think and do during lectures and how that can be leveraged to improve learning.

Keeping students’ attention focused on the lecture is one of the most important and challenging aspects of being a lecturer. According to the author, attention “involves focusing one’s cognition on those things that are changing, motivating, or novel.” Some general tips to grab the attention of students include saying that something will be on the test, varying aspects of the lecture such as its pace, intensity, and volume, making gestures, moving, and making eye contact with the students. Other tips include giving examples that relate to the students’ interests, and presenting the topic as a mystery to be solved. I’ve done the latter in the past when talking about economic incentives for companies to contribute to OSS. It really seems to help capture the students’ attention.

Two techniques that the chapter highlights as particularly effective are to avoid going too long without a break and using “clickers”. The first case is self-explanatory: lecturers should give breaks regularly, even if just to ask students to stand up and stretch a bit. The second involves providing students with devices that allow them to respond to questions during the lectures just by clicking on one of a few possible options. This approach can be implemented easily in on-line classes (by means of Mentimeter/wooclap, reacting to comments, etc.) or in in-person classes where every student has a laptop. In scenarios where these premises don’t hold, it is still possible, although a bit more cumbersome, to use post its or something similar.

The chapter makes an interesting discussion about note taking. On the positive side, taking notes is useful because it helps students pay attention to a lecture. Furthermore, if the notes involve not just writing verbatim what the lecturer says but also to transform and interpret that information, it is a very useful tool to improve memorization and help making connections. Finally, it is an “external memory” that students can later review. On the negative side, taking notes consumes attention resources from the students and those resources may be required to understand more complex topics. This is related to the amount of information students are able to retain in their short-term memory.

Concluding remarks

This chapter helped me understand a bit better how students process information in class. Thinking about short- and long-term memory, time required for note-taking, and how much attention students are able to give in class can have very practical impacts. The chapter also provided me with many useful suggestions to improve my classes, such as giving regular breaks, not prioritizing subject coverage in lectures, communicating my enthusiasm about the topic at hand, and creating opportunities for students to interact during lectures are all sound advice.

One limitation of this otherwise super useful chapter is the strong focus on in-person activities. Many of the recommendations only make sense if there is a student physically sitting beside the other. For online classes, I think it would be harder to engage the students in the same manner and alternative solutions would be necessary.