The Creative Lecture: Keeping it Engaging

Have you ever sat in a classroom whereby the instructor went "on and on" on a topic that seemed like forever - without any interaction with the students. The instructor was just pushing out the material in a monotone manner.... to the point you just disengaged and couldn't wait for the class to be over. Well... I have and I am sure many others have too. So.... what's going on here? Why the one-sided approach with no attempt to spice it up? Clearly the instructor is not in-tune in how to bring creativity into the lecture - a valuable teaching approach that has its merits,when done correctly. In Stephen Brookfield's book entitled The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom, he states that the lecturer needs to explain the purpose of the lecture, its relevance to the goals of the course, as well as its relation to the past and future lectures. Five key reasons as to why lecturing is an important element of teaching are: 1) to establish the broad outline of a body of material 2) to explain, with frequent examples, concepts that learners stubble to understand 3) to introduce alternative perspectives and interpretations 4) to model intellectual attitudes and behaviours you with to encourage in students 5) to encourage learners' interest in a topic (2015, p. 71-72). So if lecturing is such an invaluable tool - how does one make it engaging for its students? The answer lies in being creative in the process. In his bookWhat's the Use of Lectures? Donald A. Bligh (2000) explains that the optimum attention span students will listen to an uninterrupted talk on a topic or sub theme is 12 minutes. He also states that "lectures teach information" ...."they are not as good as discussion for getting students to think, or to develop their attitudes, without variations in the usual lecture techniques" (2000, xv). Now with this in mind - it is up to the teacher to keep the lecture engaging. So what can be done?

When l look back at my educational journey of instructors who have taught me - I can clearly see those that used their own creativity in bringing the lecture and classroom to life. The examples in Brookfield's book such as using breaking lectures into chunks (i.e. 10-15 minutes), using silence at certain intervals to create an impact, using clickers in engaging classroom responses, using social media within the classroom, providing scaffolding handouts, and one of my favourites - moving around the room when lecturing, are all great ways in which an instructor can keep the lecture interesting and keep your students inspired - and several of these methods, I got to personally experience as a student in both my undergraduate and graduate years. As Bligh (2000) points out "there is only one thing more contagious than enthusiasm, and that's the lack of it" (p.59)(Brookfield, 2000, p. 72). This is such an important element to keep in mind as an instructor. You don't want to just lecture to students and not have them engaged and involved in the process. Otherwise the learner is disengaged and ends up not participating.. and the learning becomes lost. Should this continue over a period of time.. one can lose the learner all together.... and this is not the outcome anyone wants. So..it is up to you - as the instructor - to keep it engaging! As I begin my journey as an instructor, these are wise words for me to keep in mind as well. I am happy to say that I do (and have done) several of these methods already in my planning of my teaching. But, one can never be reminded enough on the many ways on how to keep lectures an engaging and enjoyable learning experience.

References:

Bligh, Donald A. (2000). What the Use of Lectures? 1st Edition. Jossey-Bass. New York, NY

Brookfield, Stephen. (2015). The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust and Responsiveness in the Classroom. 3rd Edition. Jossey-Bass.

San Francisco, CA.