At its most basic, pedagogical level, we tend to think of a "lecture" as a period of continuous presentation by an instructor. Lectures can be offered in a classroom in real time or recorded and offered for students online. For most of us, lecturing is a default approach to teaching that is based on our professional roles and expertise. As with any leaning activity, however, the decision to lecture should result from a careful consideration of the instructor’s strengths, the students’ capabilities, the nature of the course material, environmental factors, and learning outcomes. Whether we acknowledge it or not when presenting information to our students, many different kinds of learning are happening during the period of a lecture.
In this series, we will be joined by experienced UT faculty and instructors, looking at these different uses and facets of lecturing by exploring it from the following vantage points. Please plan to attend as many of these sessions as you can. RSVP for the series below. Lunch will be provided for all registered participants.
1. Rapport: Connect & Communicate (Thursday September 8th 11:30-12:30)
Helping students feel part of your class community is essential for effective learning. In this session, we'll explore the following areas and ideas:
- Rapport has been identified as one of the most important elements of successful course experiences, even more important than your teaching methods. Build rapport on a regular basis, not just at the beginning of class, and help your students develop rapport amongst your students as well as with you..
- Connect with your students by developing small activities that help you find out more about them and allow them find out more about you and each other.
- Be available – before class, after class, expect to see them in office hours.
2. Reinforce: Information into knowledge (Thursday September 22nd 11:30-12:30)
In this session, we'll discuss how you may strategically break your class time into segments so that students can reinforce the concepts and ideas that form the core elements of your course.
3. Relate the Knowledge (Thursday October 6th 11:30am - 12:30pm)
Make sure students know why they are learning the content. In this session, we'll talk about how you can give students exercises and case studies in contexts to which they can relate. When appropriate, allow them to apply the knowledge to other contexts, including real-world situations.
4. Reflect on Learning (Thursday October 20th 11:30am -12:30pm)
In this session, we'll discuss how you can ensure that students have the time to summarize/analyze/synthesize what they have heard so it becomes something they can see that they have learned.
RSVP for Oct. 6
RSVP for Oct. 20