A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

Lecturing to large groups
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the lecturer very highly, and indicated they felt that it was a prerequisite for their
involvement. Similarly, the smaller study with engineering students (Davies et al., 2006)
concluded that enthusiasm was one of the key features of a good lecturer. The evidence
seems to confirm that a lecturer who is able to transmit their enthusiasm and interest
through the lecture is providing a powerful stimulus for student learning. These types of
study show that an effective lecturer can deliver far more than the transmission of
information and ideas, and there is often a need to explain this to students. In particular,
it may be important to explain to students why simply having a copy of the PowerPoint
presentation is no substitute for lecture attendance.
Interrogating practice
• What approaches have you used to generate and maintain interest in your
lectures?
• What links do you make between the particular topics in your lectures and
the students’ existing experiences and knowledge?
• Do you think that your students appreciate the benefit of attending
lectures? If not, how might you make this clearer?
Organisation and structure
A lecture needs to be well organised in order for a student to make sense of it. Most texts
on lecturing, or on giving presentations, talk about paying attention to the beginning,
middle and end (i.e. the overall anatomy of the lecture), and these are aspects most
lecturers are comfortable with. The case studies illustrate some strategies for structuring
used by experienced academics in their lectures. However, difficulty can arise when
the lecturer perceives the structure to be perfectly clear, but the students do not. This
can happen because the lecturer, who knows the subject matter very well, fails to provide
the signals and clues that guide the student through the lecture. Thus, despite the overall
structure, the student gets lost or misses the key points. Brown (1987) has suggested
a number of simple ways to give students the sorts of clues and signals they need
(Table 5.1).
Interrogating practice
• How well structured are your lectures?
• Are the sections clearly organised and well linked?
• Will students know the key points to take away?