Despite its limitations for promoting critical thinking and long-term retention, lecturing continues to be the teaching method of choice on most college campuses, particularly in large classes. Here are some classroom-tested activities to increase students’ active engagement in lecture courses.

Intersperse lecture with more active strategies
Studies have shown that pausing every 12-18 minutes during a lecture for some kind of activity increases students’ understanding and retention of material presented. Here are a variety of activities to use during such short pauses:

• Note Comparison – Ask students to compare notes with a neighbor and fill in any gaps or misunderstandings. Additionally, you may call for questions students have been unable to resolve between them.
• Think-Pair-Share – Present a question, problem, or case study for students to consider. Students think about it alone for five minutes or less, then pair up to discuss their views. Selected pairs (or all in a smaller class) share their conclusions with the rest of the class.
• Focused Writing – Have students write briefly on a topic arising from the lecture. Some ideas:
  “Give an example of this concept or principle.”
  “Explain this concept in your own words.”
  “How does this idea relate to your own experience?”
• Feedback Lecture – Divide the class period into two mini lectures separated by small-group or paired discussion of a focused question from the lecture. Ideally, this discussion will provide a logical starting-point for the second lecture period.

Increase participation

• Voting – Use a show of hands to keep students involved and to determine what the class believes as a group. A quick vote on a provocative question can spark interest at the beginning a lecture. Voting can also be used during lecture by calling for a “show of hands,” and then calling on students for opposing views, reasons, etc.
• Brainstorming – (a) Start class by having students brainstorm on what they know about the topic for the day. Put ideas on the board and use them as an organizing principle for the lecture. (b) Give a mini-lecture, then have a group brainstorming session to solve a related problem.
• Student Questions – Devote an entire class period from time to time to addressing students’ questions. Have students submit questions ahead of time, and allow the class to vote on which they would most like answered. Go over as many as possible in the time available.
• Fish-bowl – Pre-select (ask for volunteers) a small group of students to discuss a controversial topic in front of the rest of the class. Ask non-participating students to take notes as they listen and write a quick “position paper” at the end of class.
• Trade a Problem – Divide the class into teams and have each team construct review questions, to be written on index cards, with the answer written on the back of the card. The teams then trade cards and attempt to answer one another’s questions by team consensus without looking at the answer on the back. If the team’s answer does not agree with the original answer, they should add their answer on the back of the card as an alternative. Cards continue to be traded. The teacher may want to conduct a whole-class discussion on the questions with more than one answer.
• Concept Map – Divide the class into groups, each with a large piece of paper or a transparency. Each group should write down the topic being studied in the center of the paper inside a circle or rectangle, then place related concepts around it, drawing lines as appropriate to indicate relationships among elements of the “map.” Results may be shared with the full class.

Monitor Student Learning

• ConcepTests – In this activity, developed by Eric Mazur at Harvard, lecture is interspersed with brief, multiple-choice, conceptual questions to test student understanding of the material. Students may indicate their answers by show of hands or flash cards (at Harvard they use special palm-top computers). If most students do well on a question, the lecture proceeds to new material. When the concept test reveals that students have conceptual problems or misunderstandings, students are encouraged to work out the answer to the question in small groups. If many students still have problems, the instructor spends more time on the material.
• Ungraded quizzes – Use formative (un-graded) quizzes to help students check their own knowledge.
• Minute Paper – In the last three minutes of class, ask the students to write anonymously one thing they remember from class and one question that remains. Collect these and scan them to check comprehension.

Encourage active note-taking strategies

• Outline – Hand out a skeleton outline at the beginning of class to give students a structure for note-taking.
• Matrix – If the lecture lends itself t osuch a presentation, give students a blank table with columns and rows labeled, in which to fill appropriate material from the lecture.

Provide more opportunities for human contact

• Student-faculty meetings – Meet with groups of students to discuss material during office hours throughout the quarter, scheduling these groups so that eventually every student has had an opportunity to meet in small discussion with the professor.
• Student-student discussion – Organize student groups to meet in class or out of class for discussion.

Understand what lectures can and can't do

What a good lecture can do:

• Present information not readily available in print
• Adapt material to the particular backgrounds/interests of an audience
• Provide structure to help students read or study better
• Stimulate interest in further learning
• Communicate instructor attitudes
• Model disciplinary thinking or problem-solving

Lectures are generally not good at promoting:

• Transfer of knowledge to new situations
• Higher-order or critical thinking skills
• Long-term retention of material
• Open-minded exploration of controversial material
• Changes in attitudes

Other limitations to the lecture:

• Studies have shown that most adults’ attention to a lecture bgegins to decline marketdly after about 10-15 minutes.
• Students are passive during a lecture; they may not engage with the material.
• Many students do not learn best through listening.

For further reading:

Bonwell, Charles C. and James A. Eison. Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom. 1991 ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Reports.
LB1027.23 .B66 1991

Sutherland, Tracey E. and Charles C. Bonwell. Using Active Learning in College Classes: A Range of Options for Faculty. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, no. 67, 1996.
LB1027.23 .U848 1996

Bligh, Donald A. What’s the Use of Lectures? 2000, Jossey-Bass.
LC 6515 .B55 1998