EEE: News & Events: Article: Quick-thinks: The Interactive Lecture
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Quick-thinks: The Interactive Lecture
Susan Johnston, Ed.D. and Jim Cooper, Ph.D.
In the last few decades, research has shown that students retain a greater amount of
information when presented with a more interactive lecture. "Quick-thinks" are types of
questions designed to break up the monotony of lecture and engage students in critical
thought. When students are given the time to stop and critically analyze the information
presented during lecture, they have a greater chance of retaining more information for longer
periods of time.
Many instructors feel pressured to cover a great deal of information in their courses. For the class
sessions that are especially content dense and seem to call for a traditional-lecture format, there is an
active-learning strategy that provides a viable alternative to more time-consuming group tasks. We
have named the strategy Quick-thinks and they are designed to be easily inserted into lectures so that
students are given an opportunity to think about important content as the lesson unfolds. When
students are asked to participate instead of passively receive information, they stay more focused, they
can check their own understanding, and they are cued to content that has been selected for
emphasis.
The research support for incorporating active-thinking opportunities into classroom or televised
lectures is impressive and spans many years. In his classic text, Democracy and Education, John
Dewey noted that learning is "something an individual does when he studies. It is an active, personally
conducted affair." Since Dewey's work in the early part of the twentieth century, there has been a large
body of theoretical and empirical work to support his assertion.
Theoretical Arguments for Active Learning
The influential cognitive psychologist Jean Piaget stressed the importance of assimilation and
accommodation, two processes that he asserted all people use in order to develop beyond primitive
stages of cognitive development. These interactive processes of introducing new information into
existing cognitive structures and changing those structures to adapt to new information, underscore
Piaget's view of people as active, intellectually-engaged learners who are striving to bring meaning to
the world. Other theorists concerned with both pre-collegiate and adult learners, such as Vygotsky,
Perry and Belenkey, support Piaget's general approach, suggesting that for cognitive development to
occur, students must be engaged in a series of intellectually meaningful tasks of appropriate difficulty.
All of these theorists decry a view of the learner as an essentially empty vessel to be filled with "received
knowledge" presented by the lecture method or other techniques, which foster little involvement of the
learner.
Empirical Arguments for Active Learning
The research documenting the power of active learning in fostering students' cognitive and affective
(attitudinal) growth is substantial. Research on undergraduate and medical students exposed to
lectures indicates that they were attentive and readily assimilated lecture material during the first
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10-20 minutes, but that attention and note-taking dropped dramatically thereafter. A study by Ruhl,
Hughes and Schloss (1987) compared lectures presented without pauses with lectures where, every
12-18 minutes students paused for two minutes and discussed and reworked their notes (without
interaction with the teacher). Students in the latter group performed better on free-recall quizzes and
on a comprehension test. In fact, the differences were so large that they would have raised the
performance of the experimental students' one-two letter grades (depending on grading scales used).
In large classes, research indicates that "teacher-talk" about academic content (essentially lecturing)
accounts for 88% of class time, silence accounts for 6% and student talk for 5% (Lewis and
Woodward, 1984). Small wonder that students retain only 45% of lecture material three-four days
after lectures and 24% eight weeks after lectures (Menges, 1988). Dissatisfaction with the lecture
method caused six professors at Oregon State University to develop a "feedback lecture." This
procedure involved having two, twenty-minute lectures per class meeting with an instructor-posed
discussion question after each twenty-minute lecture. An evaluation of the system revealed that 99%
of the students surveyed said that they found the discussion question useful or extremely useful.
Eighty-eight percent said that they would prefer the feedback-lecture approach to straight lecture if
they had the choice of formats.
In a discussion of large-class instruction, Bonwell and Eison (1991) suggest that it is the "method of
instruction used, not the size of the class" that seems to be the best predictor of learning. They cite
the 1987 work by Frederick who suggested that effective large-class instruction implies use of: 1)
variation in instructional strategies, 2) visual reinforcements to focus students' attention and reinforce
their learning, and 3) opportunities for students to provide personal insights and interpretations.
What is effective instruction?
Only in the last thirty years has a cumulative base of knowledge emerged which reliably predicts such
student outcomes as academic achievement, higher-order thinking skills, reduced attrition and
positive attitudes toward subject matter among college populations. Space limitations do not permit an
exhaustive description of research-based good practices. However, we would like to highlight some
issues, which have a bearing on the active-learning Quick-think strategies described later in this
document.
In 1984, Herbert Walberg, one of the preeminent researchers working in the area of syntheses of
educational research used meta-analysis to examine which educational interventions had the greatest
impact on a number of student outcomes. He found that the most powerful predictor of positive
student outcomes was feedback to students on their performances. Another strong predictor was
instructors offering visual and other cues to students regarding course content and giving feedback to
the students when they responded to those cues. In 1987, the American Association for Higher
Education published its landmark report, "Seven Principles for Effective Practice in Undergraduate
Education." Unlike Walberg's work, which was focused largely on pre-collegiate populations, the AAHE
group investigated the empirical and theoretical support for teaching techniques used with college
populations. They listed "active learning" and "prompt feedback" as two of the seven research based
principles having significant efficacy. They also identified time on task, a procedure fostered by the
active-learning strategies described in this article, as one of the seven principles, along with
"student-faculty contact" and "cooperation among students."
The research on both class size and televised instructional indicates that it is the method of
instructional presentation, not the class size or medium of instruction that is most predictive of
positive student learning and attitudinal outcomes. Over thirty years of qualitative and quantitative
research point to active learning as among the most powerful methods for influencing higher-order
thinking skills, general academic achievement, student attrition, liking for the subject matter and a
host of other outcomes. We believe that use of the active-learning strategy described below is a
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relatively low-risk instructional intervention that has the power to transform the classroom from a
passive to an engaging learning environment.
Active-learning Strategies
The following Quick-thinks were designed for application to a wide range of content areas:
1. SELECT THE BEST RESPONSE
2. CORRECT THE ERROR
3. COMPLETE A SENTENCE STARTER
4. COMPARE OR CONTRAST
5. SUPPORT A STATEMENT
6. REORDER THE STEPS
7. REACH A CONCLUSION
8. PARAPHRASE THE IDEA
One approach to piloting some of these techniques might be to select one course on which to focus.
Review the main topics and list the most essential content to be learned at each class session-those
concepts, skills, principles, or facts that have the highest priority. One way to think about this is to
consider which "big ideas" you would like students to remember one year after they complete your
course.
Then match each of these content focal points with a Quick-think task that seems to best fit. For
example, if you are going to teach a procedural skill, task #6 (REORDER THE STEPS) might be a good
choice so that students can gain familiarity with that procedure. If you are going to teach an abstract
concept that has a complex definition, you might want to choose # 8 (PARAPHRASE THE IDEA) so that
students can translate technical language into their own words and test their own understanding.
Using the lecture notes or outlines that you have on file for each lesson, use arrows to mark the places
where you could insert a Quick-think task. Referring to the corresponding examples described below,
create the tasks you need using the specific content from your target lesson. Then transfer each task
to a blank overhead transparency with a fine point overhead transparency pen or a computer printer.
At the first class meeting in which you plan to use Quick-thinks, you will need to explain to your
students how you will be using this strategy and how it will positively affect their learning. There is no
set formula for how often to stop and ask students to think about the content being explained. Our
experience and some quantitative evidence suggest that every fifteen minutes or so results in
increased attention, interest, and learning. Participation options vary: students can record their
responses individually and then explain their answers to a neighbor, they can verbally generate an
answer with a neighbor, or they can be asked to silently think about a possible response. The
instructor then needs to provide feedback so that students can hear or share correct or possible
answers. Following are specific descriptions of eight Quick-thinks.
1. Select the Best Response
This task is most similar to the traditional multiple-choice test item. Students are presented with a
question or scenario and then asked to consider which one of several alternatives best answers it. This
task can simply require the recall of information just covered in the lecture or the application of that
information.
The original question or scenario can be:
* an incomplete sentence that is completed by the selection of one response.
* an incomplete sentence containing an internal blank line to be filled in by the correct answer.
* a complete sentence followed by several; possible answers.
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EEE: News & Events: Article: Quick-thinks: The Interactive Lecture
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Example
Course: Psychology
Content to be learned: Defense mechanism
Format selected: Incomplete Sentence
While Professor Woods was going through a painful divorce, he tended to create unnecessarily difficult
tests and gave his students unusually low grades. A psychoanalyst would be most likely to view the
professor's treatment of his students as an example of
a. repression
b. projection
c. displacement
(Correct answer: c. displacement)
2. Correct the Error
For this task, the instructor creates an intentional error based on important content just discussed.
Students are then asked to correct that mistake. This active-thinking task requires a basic level of
comprehension and some immediate processing of content just heard or observed.
The intentional error can contain:
* inaccurate or illogical statements, conclusions, predictions, or implications
* weak arguments
* unlikely quotations
Example
Course: Teaching Methods
Content to be learned: Learning outcomes
Format selected: Inaccurate Statement
A learning outcome in a lesson plan describes how the teacher will present the new content.
(Correct answer: A learning outcome is a description of what the students will do to demonstrate their
understanding.)
3. Complete a Sentence Starter
For this task, instructors create a sentence stem that needs completion to reflect an accurate
statement. In order to complete the statement accurately, students need to understand the
information that was just explained, discussed or read. The content described can be presented in a
way that requires only a rote level of understanding where students simply recall information just
described by the instructor. In order to elicit a deeper level of understanding, the sentence starter
would require reflection that goes beyond recall to levels of application, analysis or evaluation.
The sentence starter can focus on:
* a definition
* a cause/effect relationship
* an implication
* a rationale
* a controversy
Example
Course: Criminal Justice
Content to be learned: California's "three-strikes" sentencing policy
Format selected: Cause/effect Relationship
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"The `three strikes' mandatory sentencing laws might result in _______________________."
(Correct answer might include: prison overcrowding, increased pressure on judges to make
exceptions, increased employment opportunities in prisons, new prisons built, and/or reduced crime
rates.)
4. Compare or Contrast
For this task, instructors identify two important parallel elements from the lesson. As students are
asked to focus on similarities or differences, they must think about the content at a deep level. This
strategy is most effective if the instructor has not already provided a comparison, but has simply
presented the two elements separately in some depth.
The items being compared or contrasted can be:
* theories, methods, or models
* examples of writing, music, art. . problems or solutions
* aspects of historical or current events. . authentic or mythical scenarios
Example
Course: Art History
Content to be learned: Twentieth-century painting
Format selected: Examples of Art
After viewing the 1933 Joan Miro painting entitled Composition and the 1950 Jackson Pollock painting
entitled One, record one similarity between the two paintings. (Correct answer might include: fluidity of
design, non-realistic content, or impression of movement.)
5. Support a Statement
For this task, instructors create a statement for which students must locate support from their
immediate lecture notes or from the homework reading or they can be asked to generate their own
reasons or data to support the statement. Rather than passively accept information given by the
instructor, students are asked to think about why a statement might be justified.
The statements requiring support can be:
* conclusions
* inferences
* theories
* opinions
* descriptions
Example
Course: Geography
Content to be learned: Negative impact of political decisions on ecology
Format selected: Conclusion
"Warfare has historically had a devastating impact on the earth's resources. Give three pieces of
evidence to support this statement." (Correct answer might include: the systematic scorching of the
earth by retreating armies, tank exercises that destroyed animal and vegetative life in the southern
California desert, hydrogen bomb testing that rendered some Pacific islands uninhabitable.)
6. Re-order the Steps
For this task, instructors present a series of steps in a mixed order and students are asked to re-order
the items into the correct sequence. This task can be used either as a motivational technique where
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EEE: News & Events: Article: Quick-thinks: The Interactive Lecture
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students are asked to anticipate the order and make a logical guess before learning the information or
as a method to allow students to review the content that they have just learned.
Steps needing to be re-ordered can belong to a:
* procedure
* sequence
* method
* plan
* strategy
* technique
Example
Course: English
Content to be learned: Using the American Psychological Association (APA) format to write in-text
citations when paraphrasing someone else's work in a written essay or research paper
Format selected: Procedure
These steps need re-ordering:
1 - write your paragraph or sentence
2 - place an ending period
3 - write the author's full name and the year of publication
4 - enclose with parentheses
(Correct answer: Step 1, 3, 4, 2)
7. Reach a Conclusion
This task requires students to make a logical inference about the implications of facts, concepts, or
principles they just learned. A conclusion can be drawn from: data, opinions, events, or solutions. The
statements provided to students may result in multiple responses that can all be logically derived from
the content provided.
The inferred conclusions can be:
* probable results
* probable causes
* negative and/or positive outcomes
Example
Course: Earth Science
Content to be learned: Testing for hardness using common objects equivalent to minerals on Moh's
Hardness Scale
Format selected: Probable Results
"If you can scratch the smooth surface of a mineral with a tempered-steel file but not with a piece of
glass, you could conclude that _________________"
(Correct answer might include: The mineral cannot be quartz, topaz, corundum, or diamond. The
mineral has a hardness between 6 and 10 on Moh's scale.)
8. Paraphrase the Idea
This task requires students to rephrase an idea using their own words. When students engage in this
kind of translation process, they are forced to check their own understanding of what they think they
just heard. It is often helpful to have students target their paraphrase toward a specific audience,
such as: a novice, a colleague, or a client.
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EEE: News & Events: Article: Quick-thinks: The Interactive Lecture
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The content to be paraphrased can be:
* a definition
* a theory
* a statement
* a procedure
* a description
Example
Course: Health
Content to be learned: The body's adaptation to stress
Format selected: A Statement
Paraphrase this statement so that a member of your family would understand what is specifically
happening to his body during a stressful event: When an individual perceives a stressor, the body
automatically responds with a three-stage process known as the General Adaptation Syndrome.
Acknowledgements
TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR LISTSERV is a shared mission partnership with the American Association
for Higher Education (AAHE), The National Teaching and Learning Forum (NT&LF)
http://www.ntlf.com/ (http://www.ntlf.com/) , and The Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning (SCIL)
http://scil.stanford.edu (http://scil.stanford.edu)
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