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Can be dull, boring, repetitive
Transfer- rather than application- of information is typically focus
Passive learning leads to forgotten concepts
Goals often not met:
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What we want to tell vs.
What they want to know
No useful, timely feedback

 L engthy
 E ndless
 C ontinuous
 T orture with
 U nending
 R epetition of
 E xplanations

 Cultural norm
 Efficient coverage
 Reasonable preparation time
 Large group friendly
 Non-threatening to learners
 Inspirational (hopefully!) to listeners

 Class in which the instructor breaks the lecture so that…
 Students participate in an activity
 work directly with the material
 allow students to apply what they have learned, or
 give them a context for upcoming lecture material.

 Lecture no more than 10-15 minutes at a stretch……

 Active review and summary
 Interspersed tasks
 Integrated quizzes
 Assessment-based learning
 Participant control
 Teamwork
 Debriefing

 Lecture for 10-15 minutes
 Learners summarize on cards (3 minutes)
 Form groups and choose best summaries
 Entire group votes on best summary
 Repeat or use different approach
 Can be anonymous or not
 Post summaries to block website

 Lecture for no more than 10-15 minutes
 Stop and pause 30 seconds
 Randomly choose student to manufacture an interruption
 Deck of cards
 Names in a hat
 The interruption….

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Apply
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(e.g., [L]: “how would you treat this patient?”)
Disagree
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(e.g., [S]: “I would measure TSH before T
4 because…”)
Illustrate
 (e.g., [S]: we would observe smaller vessel diameter in a patient with a plaque , and that would effect blood pressure…)
Paraphrase
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(e.g., [S]: “..so it seems the main point to consider in diagnosing stenosis vs. regurgitation is…”)
Personalize
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(e.g., [S]: “I always remember that concept by Roy G. Biv…”)
Question
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(e.g., [S]:“ I see that the T-wave is inverted, but can you tell me why it is only in certain leads?”)

 Roving microphone(s)
 Lecturer simply asks student with microphone
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“what do you think of that?”
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“can you summarize that in a way we all can understand?”
 Microphone continues to be passed around

1. Complete a lecture portion (10-15 minutes)
2. Ask students to get together in pairs.
3. It's important to have small groups so that each student can talk.
4. Ask a question. (Open-ended questions are more likely to generate more discussion).
5. Give students a minute to two (longer for more complicated questions) to discuss the question and work out an answer.
6. Ask for responses from some or all of the pairs.
7. Repeat
Alternative: Write-Pair-Share

 Conceptual multiple-choice questions that focus on a single concept
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Can't be solved using equations
Have good multiple-choice answers
Are clearly worded
Are of intermediate difficulty
 Assessment with ConcepTests

 generally short useful for immediate quantitative assessment of student understanding.
 Enhancing ConcepTests with Peer Instruction
 Combine with post-hoc Think-Pair-Share for example

 Power Poll TM
 Anonymous responses, immediate feedback
 Large colored letters
 Identified responses, feedback
“survey”
 Individual note cards to be turned in
 Graded or not
 Important post-hoc peer explanations

 Seventh inning stretch
 Effective imagery
 Hard candy bonus questions
 One-minute paper v = Q/A !

 Interactive Lectures, S. Thiagarajan.
ASTD Press, 2005
 http://www.thiagi.com/interactivelectures.html
 http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/interacti ve/whatis.html