Interactive Lecture

-a technique in which the instructor incorporates engagement triggers and breaks the lecture at least once to have students participate in an activity that lets them work directly with the material. *Engagement triggers -capture and maintain student attention and the *Interactive Lecture Techniques -allow students to apply what they have learned or give them a context for upcoming lecture material. Breaking up the lecture with these techniques not only provides format change to engage students, these activities also allow students to immediately apply content and provide feedback to the instructor on student understanding. Goal: to engage students by finding ways for them to interact with the content, the instructor, and their classmates.

Necessity: the ability of the instructor to choose the content of the lecture segments based on the students' needs.

Steps in Conducting an Interactive Lecture 1. Offer attention to pre-instructional planning and classroom management. It is in this step that the instructor:
y chooses content y establishes learning objectives y considers incentive structure y designs overall classroom atmosphere for participation, and y addresses logistical issues

2. Determine a learning task and while not required, it is certainly helpful to select a potential engagement trigger to create an interactive lecture segment. The actual interactive segment must be centered around the completion of some learning-oriented task. .

Engagement Triggers for Interactive Lecture Segments The instructor might want to begin an interactive lecture segment by using some sort of engagement trigger to capture student attention.
y y y y y y y

Asking a thought-provoking question Evocative visuals, physical props Cartoons Photographs Evocative textual passages News clips Clips from movies or television shows

Learning Tasks for Interactive Lecture Segments Learning tasks are the actual activity the instructor has students to do Options: Interpreting graphs: Give students real data, as a graph for a short question or to plot themselves as part of a longer exercise. Have them summarize and interpret any patterns they can find. Making predictions from demonstrations: Demonstrate a theory or principle using all students or a subset of students. Brainstorming: Elicit responses from students that assess prior knowledge of a topic. Tying ideas together: Let the students synthesize big ideas before the instructor starts to do so through lecture. Applying what has just been learned in class: It's very important to make sure that students can connect abstract ideas with specific real examples, especially slightly complicated ones. Reading to apply a concept: Reading is a good task for students to have a chance to see a real world example of something that has just been discussed in theory in class.

3. Select an activity from the many possible learning techniques that are available. This is done after the instructor has determined what learning task the students must complete and has selected a potential engagement trigger.

Interactive Lecture Techniques Interactive Lecture Techniques are the processes by which students complete the activity. Rather than having only individual students answer questions when called on, interactive techniques allow all students to participate. These can be subdivided into three levels (Basic, Intermediate and Advanced)

Basic
y Think-pair-share activities pose a question to students that they must consider alone and then discuss with a neighbor before settling on a final answer. This is a great way to motivate students and promote higher-level thinking. One-minute write activities ask students to stop what they are doing a produce a written response in only one minute. This technique can be used to collect feedback on understanding by asking them to identify what they thought the most confusing point was or to voice a question. Question of the day activities enables the instructor to pose a question that is generally not multiple-choice but rather requires short explanations, annotations or drawings that develop communication skills as well as higher-level thinking.

Intermediate
y Demonstrations may involve all students or a subset demonstrating to the entire class a concept or principle that has just been taught or will be taught. Effective demonstrations ask students to predict outcomes, experience the demonstrations, and reflect by comparing the prediction and actual outcomes. Concept Test questions are conceptual multiple choice questions that are used to assess student understanding. Students work on the questions individually. Role playing activities put the student in the position of a relevant decision maker forcing them to apply the content to determine a policy or solve a problem. This often calls upon higher order thinking skills and the synthesis of ideas and when students do this it groups, negotiation skills become important as well. Skeleton Notes offers examples of skeleton or partial note handouts or power points slides that maintain intellectual engagement throughout the class period by forcing students to complete partials notes as the lecture progresses.

y y

Advanced
y Simulations are often a form of extended demonstration that also can require more

preparation and class time, but they allow students to analyze more complex situations and produce a broader range of responses. y Experiments are a form of active learning that can take more time for instructors to develop and require more class time, but they too allow students to tackle more complex problems. 4. Determine how to structure and manage the interactive class period. There are as many ways to structure an interactive class session. Instructors might add an occasional activity to a regular lecture class, or include several activities in every class period.

REMEMBER!
Create a Classroom Atmosphere Conducive to Interactive Learning If the classroom atmosphere is comfortable and nonthreatening to students, they will be more inclined to participate in interactive lecture segments. Instructors can enhance the overall tone in the classroom by making themselves approachable to students, knowing their audience, and helping students feel comfortable working with each other. Be an Effective Classroom Manager Generally Instructors must carefully manage the classroom for effective interactive lectures. This includes laying out expectations, coping with physical space, maintaining control, and determining how to disseminate information. Be an Effective Classroom Manager During Interactive Segments The instructor must manage the classroom during interactive segments. This includes providing clear instructions, definite time constraints, monitoring and responding to students, and monitoring activities.

Why Interactive Lecture?

y foster active engagement and accountability; y promote student retention and learning of the material presented during lecture; y give students practice in developing critical-thinking skills; y enable instructors to assess how well the class is learning that day.