As we resume teaching face to face after 3 years of remote and hybrid teaching, as an academic passionate about making an impact, it’s fantastic to be back in the classroom and lecture halls!
Did I just use the word ‘lecture’? It’s 2022, post-covid and it’s become more apparent than ever before, that while it’s good to have a sense of normality, it’s imperative that we don’t go back to the ‘old norm’ and ‘lectures’ are certainly one of them. If we haven’t reviewed our teaching pedagogy, we can’t claim to have progressed. To think that we can continue to give lectures spanning 50 minutes or worse still just under 2 hours and expect our students to take away more than 50% is ludicrous to say the least. Where’s the engagement? Where’s the active learning?
In one of my seminars today, students complained that they struggle to pay attention when the lecturer reads from the lecture slides, speaks in mono tone and continues speaking for long stretches at a time. When I offered a statistic, that students’ attention only holds for 20 minutes, one brave student said he doesn’t even get to 20 minutes.
We need to take an honest look in the mirror. Our student cohorts are not what they used to be 20, even 10 years ago. It’s a pattern I’ve seen develop over the last 10 years and it’s clear that our student’s mental health is deteriorating, students are less able to manage stress and anxiety, the opportunities and market have changed significantly. There is no better time than now to rethink how we conduct our ‘lectures’. It’s just not fit for purpose. It’s time to review and reflect on our pedagogy.
For a start, break it up. Let’s make the confession now, as knowledge experts in our fields we feel the need to pour as much knowledge out onto what we think are hungry for knowledge students. If we work with the statistic that on average, concentration doesn’t hold for longer than 20 minutes, then it’s a no brainer that you need to break the lecture.
Give careful thought to what’s worth explaining and what students can work out for themselves. This may mean you explain concepts, key terms, theories etc, however, if students can extract the comparisons, analysis or conclusions, let them do it for themselves, it’s a far more powerful learning experience. I’m not suggesting leaving students to their own devices (excuse the pun!), certainly guide them along, however, putting students in the driver’s seat in extrapolating the knowledge will prove far more beneficial.
There’s nothing worse than standing at the front of a class and not knowing what students have understood (or not). Using online polling software helps you gain a quick pulse and insight into student’s minds. Software such as Teams and Zoom have inbuilt polling tools for online sessions. However, in a classroom setting, I use Mentimeter, but other tools include Kahoot, Padlet, Jamboard etc.
Demonstrate an example and then get the students to work through a question either independently or even better, with their peers. Nothing beats learning on the job and teamwork. While students roll up their sleeves and get working, I suggest walking around the room and engaging with students as they work. Yes, even if it’s a large lecture room! I appreciate that walking away from the podium for some may be quite daunting, however, having personally used this strategy for several years, the insight it gives is powerful.
My final point leads directly on from the last point made. Be flexible enough to respond to your learner’s needs. After walking around the classroom, gauging how students are getting on, or even gauging from responses to an online quiz or poll, if you realise that there are key areas that majority students are struggling with, be flexible enough to rethink your teaching plan for that session and respond to the learner’s needs. It requires quick thinking and judgement and may even require tweaking the remaining teaching plan.
In order to be effective educators, we need to be attuned to our learner’s needs and respond accordingly and when it comes to traditional lectures, it has to be out with the old and in with the new! Happy teaching!
Mariam Essof