Lectures - Classroom Scenarios

Classroom Scenarios

Start

Click the "Start" buttom to reflect on a common scenario that instructors and students often experience.

Dr. Wood teaches a 75-minute undergraduate course with about 30 students. He prepares and presents topics enthusiastically with real-life examples and research findings. He encourages his students to ask questions anytime. He also pauses his lecture intentionally and periodically "Any questions?" before he moves to the next topic. However, Dr. Wood can tell that most students are silent and do not ask any questions. They often look bored and unmotivated. Dr. Wood feels that he has to drag them to learning, and teaching and learning do not tangle in his class.

Case 1

Strategy 1

a

Strategy 2

b

As food for thought, mouse over the strategies below to see two possible strategies that Dr. Wood can do at his fingertips.

What can Dr. Wood do to make his lecture more interactive?

If Dr. Wood plans to lecture a topic about 15-20 minutes, he can do a Background Knowledge Probes first to assess students' prior knowledge (8-10 minutes). Then, he can only address unclear concepts instead of lecturing about everything from scratch.

First, Dr. Wood can use the 10-2 framework to break up his lecture (10-minute lecture, pause, and do a 2-minute small active learning activity). Second, he can select a strategy from the module, say Closing Summary, after your 10-minute lecture.