Effective Teaching
Jay D. Hunt, Ph.D.
CSRB 4D1
568-4734
Overview of Lecture
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Preparation
Delivery
Examinations
Course Evaluation
Preparation
• Know your audience’s level of knowledge
– Undergraduate
• Need to know facts and principles
• Foundation for future learning
– Graduate
• Need experimental design and interpretation
• How to gain knowledge
– Professional
• Need previous facts in context
• Much more goal-oriented
Preparation
• Organize your thoughts before you work on
your lecture.
– Create an outline of what you want your
students to know.
– Generate learning objectives:
• Good: “Be able to recognize and draw the structure
of each of the nucleotides.”
• Poor: “Know the nucleotides.”
Preparation
• Generate supplemental handouts when
appropriate.
– Particularly important for professional students
– Do not replicate information in the textbook.
– Examples of useful handouts:
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Lecture outline
Learning objectives
Sample test questions
A review of your lectures
For graduate students: articles
Delivery
• Two types of learners
– Visual
• Need to see slides, black board, overhead transparencies
• Learns from reading the text and handouts
– Aural
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Need to hear you speak the lecture
Will ask more questions than the visual learner
May not even own the textbook
Tend to join study groups more than visual learners
Delivery
• From the outset of the lecture, let the
students know:
– What you are going to teach them (outline)
– What they are expected to know
• Only the topics covered in the lecture, or
• The topics covered in the lecture plus the textbook
– That you encourage questions and interruptions
– How to reach you if they have questions
Delivery
• Questions from the students
– If one student has a question, others in the class
probably have the same question.
– One can judge the class’ comprehension of the
material from the questions received.
– Questions sometimes point out weaknesses in
one’s delivery.
– Use questions to extend the lecture’s content.
Delivery
• The same principles for giving a good
seminar apply to giving a good lecture.
– Pace your delivery to the class
– Project your voice and do not talk to the board
or screen
– Do not read to the class except in rare instances
where appropriate
– When appropriate, involve the class
Delivery
• When leaving a topic and moving to the
next topic, always:
– Briefly review the take home message
– Tell the students what they are responsible for
– Place the topic in context with the next topic
(this may include, “What we will discuss next
has nothing to do with what we just
discussed.”)
Examinations
• Prepare test questions immediately after
giving a lecture (so that the information that
you discussed is still clear in your mind)
• Prepare the test questions before you give
the lecture (so that you will cover the
material covered in the questions).
Examinations
• The types of questions will depend on the
class size and the type of student
• Multiple choice test knowledge of facts and
principles
• Essay questions test facts, principles, and
application of same
Examination
The best type of multiple choice question is the type in which the
student must complete the sentence.
•
The best college football team on the
planet is the:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Boston Celtics
Alphabetizing the answers
Chicago Cubs
ensures there is no bias toward
Dallas Cowboys
using certain letters.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Tennessee Volunteers
Examination
Avoid using negatives and confusing syntax in the question.
•
Each of these teams is not a college
football team except:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Boston Celtics
Chicago Cubs
Dallas Cowboys
Pittsburgh Penguins
Tennessee Volunteers
Examination
A better way to phrase the same question
•
Which of the following is a college
football team?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Boston Celtics
Chicago Cubs
Dallas Cowboys
Pittsburgh Penguins
Tennessee Volunteers
Examination
Avoid “All of the above” and “None of the above.”
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All of these are college football teams
except:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Boston Celtics
Michigan Wolverines
Ohio State Buckeyes
Tennessee Volunteers
None of the above
Examinations
• Design essay style questions to test more
than just facts. Essay questions with no one
correct answer are fine:
– Which college football team is the best in the
world? Describe the process by which it
became the best. Contrast the team’s strengths
with last year’s weaknesses.
Course Evaluation
• Always evaluate your course!
– Ensure anonymity by using standardized, nonidentifying questionnaires.
– Encourage comments.
– Do not collect questionnaires yourself. Have them
mailed to a collection center (preferred) or have them
placed in an envelope at the end of the final
examination.
– Use the data to constructively modify your course!
– Do not take negative comments personally.