Ludy T. Benjamin, Jr

Lecturing - 1 Lecturing Ludy T. Benjamin, Jr.

When American consumers are surveyed about what cheese they especially like, they name cheddar or American or gouda or Swiss or mozzarella or parmesan or, perhaps, gorgonzola. Yet they almost never mention the leading selling cheese in America, the cheese that outsells every other cheese by a substantial margin. That cheese is, of course, Velveeta. Apparently in a world of increasing culinary sophistication it would be gauche, if not high society list suicide, to admit a preference for a cheese of such low social standing. So the millions of Velveeta eaters remain in the closet. But the sales figures do not lie. The lecture is the Velveeta of teaching methods. It is the most maligned of teaching techniques, yet it is the method of choice for better than 80% of college instructors today. How do we explain this apparent paradox? How can we account for the incredible longevity of this teaching method whose demise has been predicted on multiple occasions in centuries past and whose imminent death is assured by today's technology clairvoyants? When printed books first appeared in the 16th century, it could be argued that the principal justification for the lecture as a means of imparting knowledge no longer existed, a claim made in James Boswell's (1946, originally published in 1791) biography of Samuel Johnson, in which Johnson was quoted as saying "I cannot see that lectures can do so much good as reading the books from which the lectures are taken" (p. 315). The more modern version of this view has been expressed by Maryellen Weimer (1988): We are at a point in history where we can say emphatically, if the lecture exists to transmit information, then the lecture has no real purpose. Information in published forms and databases can be far more current, far more comprehensive, and far more convenient than any lecture. (p. 1) Now, 14 years later at the beginning of the 21st century, after several new generations of personal computers, and after an explosive growth of the internet, we can surely make that statement even more emphatically. However, as Weimer and others know, the lecture continues to thrive because it does something more than just impart information. That "something more" isn't always easy to define, which gives lecture bashers and lecture supporters plenty to debate. In this chapter it would be impossible to give a comprehensive overview of the lecture method in terms of dos and don'ts and certainly not a review of the extant scientific literature on lecturing. Such coverage already exists and for that the reader is encouraged to refer to Brown (1978), Davis (1993), Eble (1988), Banner & Cannon (1997), McKeachie (1999), and Tierney (1996). Instead, this chapter will explore selected issues endemic to lecturing that are often problematic for the novice lecturer. I hope that at the end of this chapter you may have a fresh idea or two about the lecture and will understand something of the reasons for the lecture's popularity and longevity. ______This manuscript was published as: Benjamin, L. T., Jr. (2002). Lecturing. In S. F. Davis & W. Buskist (Eds.). The Teaching of Psychology: Essays in Honor of Wilbert J. McKeachie and Charles L. Brewer (pp. 57-67). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Lecture Style Lecturing - 2

Much has been written about the importance of lecture style, an admittedly ambiguous term that is related to personal characteristics of the lecturer (sense of humor, friendliness, optimism, honesty, creativity, etc.) and the manifestation of those characteristics in the delivery of the lecture. As the story goes, when the novice teacher asked the master, what are the three most important components of the lecture, the master replied, "delivery, delivery, delivery." In the same way that personal characteristics of the psychotherapist are important in predicting patient recovery, regardless of method used, so too are such traits important in determining teaching effectiveness, or at least teacher popularity as determined by student ratings. Beginning teachers often wrestle with their teaching style or what Banner and Cannon (1997) called "teaching personality." They point out a problem that can be disastrous: A trap young teachers often fall into is that of assuming "teaching personalities" that are not their own... Acting may be an important technique of successful teachers, but the adoption of roles must always be deliberate and temporary -- and always for good effect. Teachers who assume permanent masks without realizing what they are doing are guilty of a kind of hypocrisy particularly offensive to the young, who show a remarkable talent for unmasking such deception. The classroom is not a stage, and those who feel obliged to assume different characters in order to be effective in it should probably not be teachers in the first place. (pp. 108-109). I have observed just such transformations in faculty members, one, for example, who is soft- spoken outside of class but displays a classroom lecture style that borders on the histrionic. For a few teachers this Jekyll and Hyde strategy may work; but for most, it signals certain failure. Lectures are performances, and they should star you as you. I recall reading a newspaper article about a university in the Los Angeles area that was dismayed that its chemistry department faculty were getting poor teaching evaluations from students who often commented that the faculty lacked a sense of humor. Someone in the university administration decided to hire Hollywood comedy writers to provide some jokes for the chemistry professors to use in their classes (aren't college administrators hilarious?). I never read a follow up to that story but, like you, I think I know the outcome. In her discussion of the lecture, Weimer (1988) summarizes this issue quite well: The most effective "performing" is not a contrived act, but a genuine, authentic presentation of the person involved. If the "role" to be played is the person you are, you don't need to fear being false or not being up to the part. (p. 1) Teachers need to be aware of their own traits and how they can be used to advantage in the classroom. Ultimately such self knowledge is a critical variable in determining the cognitive strategies one would use in delivering a lecture (Weinstein & Meyer, 1991).

Passion

Passion is sometimes included among those variables associated with lecture style or teaching personality; however, I have separated it because of its importance and because I view it to be independent of lecture style. That is, you could envision a number of lecture styles, any one of which might or might not involve passion as a component. Some writers (e.g., Weimer, 1993) prefer the term "enthusiasm" to passion, but whatever the term, the message is the same, it Lecturing - 3 is critical for good lecturing. It is, perhaps, this dimension that separates the adequate lecturers from the good and really great ones. I recall an anthropology professor from my undergraduate years who was enormously popular (his classes filled the first day of registration) despite the fact that he rarely gave A's in his classes. I took both of his undergraduate courses, made B's in both of them, and sat on the front row (I had been told by another student to do that) every day, spellbound by his lectures. He was in his 60s, near retirement, and had taught those same two courses for more than 30 years. He had long since ceased his program of scholarly work, but he had not lost his passion for the subjects that he taught. He made us laugh and cry, and once I remember him crying, facing the board with his back to the class, his body trembling, and in a weak voice saying "class dismissed," after which we filed out in silence, compassion, and awe for the humanity and integrity of this man. Mostly he made us think and he made us care about issues beyond our own lives. I still think about some of those lectures today, almost 40 years later, and realize how they changed my life. It was his passion for his subject that made those lectures so memorable. And as someone remarked about another great teacher, clearly, students were "willing to venture the work for the sake of the zest" (Benjamin, 1991, p. 132). It is difficult to imagine a lecture delivered with genuine passion (or enthusiasm) that would not be exciting to students. The flip side is that it is difficult to envision a lecture delivered without passion that would be interesting. I can't imagine passion being faked in the classroom. Perhaps a few rare individuals could muster such a ruse, but for most lecturers the task is an impossible one. Passion is not a personality trait; it is a feeling that is domain specific. One might be passionate about baseball but wonder why sports pages bother to publish hockey scores. We all know introductory psychology instructors who omit assigning chapters in their text (and thus the accompanying lectures) that they deem uninteresting or unimportant, whereas they may expand the lecture coverage of those topics about which they are passionate. Such selection (unless carried to extremes) is desirable. Faculty ought to lecture on those topics about which they are most enthusiastic. Camille Wortman has done just that in her introductory psychology course: I knew at some level, that if I was not lecturing about something that was vital and involving for me, the lectures would not have high interest value for students. At that point, I decided that I would not try to cover the entire field of psychology in my lectures. I reasoned that this was why I had assigned a textbook. I began to see my job in the lectures as that of supplementing the textbook by covering topics that I wholeheartedly believed the students should know about. (Wortman & Smyth, 1997, p. 166) Of course, some faculty, for example, those who teach six to eight preparations in a year, may not be able to exhibit genuine passion for all, or even most, of those subjects, as compared to faculty members who teach a few courses each year that are typically related to their research interests. Presumably everyone has some subjects, some issues about which they are passionate. Know what yours are and find ways to feature them in your lectures. You need to care about what you are teaching. Displaying that passion in your lectures will lead to greater satisfaction for you and your students. Identify Clear Goals for the Lecture Lecturing - 4 One of the chief complaints of students about lectures is that the lecture objectives are never made clear. Weimer (1987) suggests that "At the beginning of the lecture tell students outright where you are headed and how you intend to get there" (p. 5). And I would add, why you are going there. Teachers should have overarching goals for their courses and each class meeting should be planned to mesh with one or more of those goals. The goals for the course might include teaching content, teaching critical thinking, using writing to learn exercises, and connecting textbook content to everyday life experiences. Class days will differ in which goals get covered and how much coverage they receive, but those overarching goals should be paramount in helping the instructor plan for each day. As Weimer (1987) encourages, begin the lecture with a clear statement of your goals for that day, ideally on the board or screen. You should spend a few minutes going over each one of them. Do not assume that the students know why you are covering the material that you have selected. Tell them why. That is, give them the rationale for your lesson plan. Explain briefly why you are going to cover the topics you have selected for that day. Proselytize for your goals of the day. In her book on how to give effective lectures, Elizabeth Tierney (1996, quoting Andrew Grove) reminds us that "How well we communicate is determined not by how well we say things, but by how well we are understood" (p. 10). To achieve that for your students, give them a context for the day's lesson. They will understand and enjoy the presentation more if you have shared with them not only your plan for what you hope to accomplish in the lecture but also your reasons for the day's content and methods. Remember that Less is More

In observing beginning teachers over the years and in talking with colleagues who have taught for a decade or more, there are some evident changes in teaching practice that come with experience. One of the most obvious is a substantial reduction in the number of ideas the teacher chooses to present in lecture. So instead of covering acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, discrimination, and 10 other conditioning concepts in a single lecture, you might use the lecture to show how reinforcement and punishment procedures are used in therapy or in industry or in parenting. In this approach you teach only a few concepts, perhaps two to four, and you elaborate those concepts with multiple examples. Some faculty assume that they cannot devote their lectures to such depth at the sacrifice of breadth. Like Camille Wortman, my assumption is that textbooks exist to provide breadth. Second, I assume that college students can and will read the book on their own. Making those assumptions allows me to use class time for whatever topics I (or the students) might choose (see Bernstein, 1997). I have a daily reading list for all of my classes and communicate the expectations that (a) I expect the reading to be done prior to class, (b) I will lecture on some topic related to the reading for that day, and (c) the reading will typically be important background in understanding the material to be covered in lecture.

To understand why less is better than more, think about a 20-page term paper you might assign. The best papers will always be those that take a small topic and cover it in real depth. For the students who choose to tackle topics too large for the page limit, their papers will seem Lecturing - 5 superficial. There will be no room for the kind of integration and analysis of ideas needed to make sense of the topic; in reading the paper you won't be able to determine whether the student understands the topic. Lectures work the same way. Cover too much material in the allotted time and students will take away very little from the class. Narrow the coverage, create a real focus for the lecture, elaborate on the ideas you are presenting -- especially with examples that make sense in the lives of your students -- and your students will understand the ideas better and retain the information longer. As Casey Stengel said, 'you could look it up.' It's in the cognitive psychology literature. The sad reality is that even among experienced teachers, their lectures are still packed with more than can be covered in the allotted hour, a fact that leads to hurried deletions, poor explanations, holding students beyond the ending time for the class, and failing to provide any summary for the lecture (more on this last issue later). All topics are by definition too large for the class time available. The "lecturer's specific task, like the scholar's task at large, is to bring some part of knowledge too big in its unselected vastness ... into a manageable form" (Eble, 1988, p. 75). The task is to select. As Eble (1988) notes, "wisdom is in part learning what to leave out" (p. 73). If you feel that you have to communicate to students all that you know about your discipline, you are in for a life of disappointment. The Need for Spontaneity

Clearly, planning is important for lectures. Successful lecturers typically put in many hours of preparation for their classes. Beginning teachers sometimes write out their lectures in full, a few, perhaps, reading them in class. Such presentations, despite the planning, are not usually successful, nor are those rare teachers who write out their complete lectures and then memorize them for later recitation. Most teachers will work from some kind of outline that seems to get abbreviated over the years to a few notecards of prompts for particular points to be made in the lecture. "Preparing the lecture is important, but it must accommodate spontaneity as well as planning" (Eble, 1988, p. 72). Instructors must be willing to let go of some of their planning. Think about the message you send when you say to a student, 'Well, that's an interesting question and it certainly relates to what we're talking about today, but we don't have time to go into that because I have other material I have prepared that I have to cover.' As I said earlier, my experience with textbooks is that they tend to be encyclopedic; that is, they certainly cover the breadth of the subject. My class time is mine and the students' to do as we please. If a digression prevents me from covering 75% of the lecture I had planned for that day, so be it. There may be times when departures from the plan may not be desirable or feasible, for example, the class period before the exam that contains questions that you have yet to cover. On the whole, however, good lecturers are willing and able to alter their plans when the need arises (see Benjamin, 1999). Be willing to take risks in class, to relinquish some of the control that a thoroughly-scripted lecture may imply. Research has shown that such spontaneity is highly valued by students and associated with teachers whose students do well (Boice, 1996). Don't Lecture All the Time Lecturing - 6 In his book on teaching, Eble (1988) recalled that in his student days in graduate school, he had "only two highly effective lecturers" (p. 69) and I would echo that exact figure for my four undergraduate years. Like Eble, I don't remember most of the others (who probably performed adequately) and the few that I do recall were truly awful lecturers. If we can generalize these anecdotal data more broadly it would suggest that most of us in college teaching are not maestros of the lectern. That may be a good reason to look for supplements (not necessarily replacements) to the lecture method, but it isn't the only reason. There is interesting research on student attention span and the lecture. When the lecture begins, most students are paying close attention, unless previous experience with a particular lecturer has encouraged students to tune out early. Indeed, it is the time of optimal attention for the class in terms of the percentage of students attending. If they are going to be reached, the start of class is when it can best happen. According to research, that attention lasts for most students for about 10 minutes (McKeachie, 1999). Most readers can validate that finding from their own experience as listeners at conventions and department colloquia. Interestingly, it is paying attention that will cause many students to shift their attention elsewhere. They will be listening to the lecturer who, after a short while, will trigger an association for the listener who will then be carried away on a path of reverie elicited by that association. After that initial departure, students cycle in and out of the lecture, paying attention from time to time but drifting away frequently as well. At any one time, less than 50% of the class is likely attending to the lecture. So what can the lecturer do? The answer is to break up the lecture in ways that encourage students to maintain attention. There are countless ways to break up a lecture including brief demonstrations, activities, problem posting on the board, one-minute writing assignments, video segments, small student discussion groups, and in-class internet searches (perhaps to demonstrate how to get information for a question raised in class). The active learning literature in psychology is probably better than any other field, consisting of probably more than 1,000 published activities, including two series of psychology activities handbooks published by the American Psychological Association and Lawrence Erlbaum Associates (Benjamin & Lowman, 1981; Benjamin, Nodine, Ernst, & Blair-Broeker, 1999; Makosky, Sileo, Whittemore, Landry, & Skutley, 1990; Makosky, Whittemore, & Rogers, 1987; Ware & Johnson, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c). Thus, there should be one or more appropriate activities regardless of your lecture topic. In addition to the use of various activities as ways to break up long lectures, think about constructing your lectures as mini-lectures, or what Hoover (1980) has called lecturettes. Lecturettes might be 10 to 20 minutes in length. They can be used to foster discussion, writing, or other in- or out-of-class activities. Some of the topics for the lecturettes can even be student generated, with enough time, of course, for the instructor to prepare. I have developed a number of these for my classes over the years, based on student questions: How is a child's understanding of humor related to its cognitive development? What happens to the nature of dream imagery in persons who suddenly lose their sight? Robert Boice (1996) proposed breaking lectures into brief sections with each section having a clear beginning and ending, perhaps separated by discussion or some other activity. He suggests that if you have three main ideas for a lecture you might consider three mini-lectures, perhaps followed by a still shorter fourth mini-lecture that would integrate the ideas of the other three. In summary, the lesson is that unless you are one of those rare lecturers who can hold an audience spellbound, you would be wise to pace your lectures in some way that enhances student Lecturing - 7 attention. The Need for a Summary

Earlier I talked about the importance of beginning the lecture with a clear exposition of the main ideas that would be covered and some explanation for why those particular ideas had been selected. Well, the end of the lecture is a great place to remind students of what they should have learned. This obviously crucial component to any good lecture is about as common in the classroom as bluefin tuna are in the Missouri River. Why is this so? Likely you know the answer. My guess is that we don't offer a lecture summary because we are too busy at the end of class trying to mention the last critical idea or two that we didn't get to cover. It doesn't take a genius to see the loss in such a misguided pedagogical practice. You have three minutes left in the class when you finish covering the second of your four points for the day. Your decision is either to spend those minutes summarizing the key points to be remembered from the main ideas already presented or to cover rapidly the remaining two ideas. Surely that decision should be a "no brainer," but apparently not. If you don't regularly provide a summary in your lectures, start now. Such a capstone is critical in maximizing learning in the lecture. If students come to expect such regular summaries of key ideas, they will be attentive at the end of the lecture knowing the importance of such integration for their own understanding, not to mention better grades. Why Lecture?

Perhaps because so few lecturers are truly great ones, Eble (1988) wondered if "The best general advice to the teacher who would lecture well is still, 'Don't lecture'" (p. 68). But it is not the advice that Eble would give. McKeachie (1999) asked the basic question: What are lectures good for? He cited the research evidence that shows that when measures of knowledge are used, the lecture is as efficient as other teaching methods. However, when the dependent variables are "measures of retention of information after the end of a course, measures of transfer of knowledge to new situations, or measures of problem solving, thinking, or attitude change, or motivation for further learning, the results show differences favoring discussion methods over lecture" (McKeachie, 1999, p. 67). Lectures can be very effective devices for communicating certain kinds of information, as McKeachie (1999) has noted. They can provide integrative and evaluative accounts (the fruits of the lecturer in reducing that 'unselected vastness to a manageable form') that may not be available in any printed or electronic version. Lectures can be models of critical thinking and problem solving that can teach students higher cognitive skills. Further, lectures have motivational functions; by challenging students' beliefs, lectures can motivate students to pursue further learning (McKeachie, 1999). For years educators justified the lecture as a means of providing the maximum amount of information in the shortest amount of time. Whereas the invention of books didn't seem to challenge seriously that claim, recent developments in computer technology have. I doubt that the current challenge will differ much from the earlier ones that forecast the end of the lecture. Lecturing - 8 After World War II some education specialists predicted that the lecturer would be replaced by films, later by teaching machines and programmed instruction, still later by computer-assisted instruction, and most recently by personal computers and the internet. Although the current claim of imminent doom is yet to be tested, the fate of the earlier dire predictions suggest that this one, too, is overstated (Benjamin, 1988). Eble (1988) argued that the lecture has persisted because "human beings remain responsive to all forms of intercourse with other consenting humans" (p. 69). Books and television and computers all lack a critical element as information devices, they lack "face-to- face confrontation with other talking, gesturing, thinking, feeling humans" (Eble, 1988, p. 69). Of course the lecture isn't the only teaching method that involves the students and teacher in face-to-face interactions. Other techniques, such as discussion methods, do that as well. But the lecture is unique in defining the role of teacher and student. The very one-directional nature of this method (information flowing from teacher to student) -- the characteristic that draws criticism from those who want students to play a more active role in their educational experiences -- is arguably, and paradoxically, its strength. The lecture clearly acknowledges the scholarly authority of the teacher, an authority that most college students feel they have paid to see. It offers the teacher the best chance to illustrate the creativity, magic, and insight that are components of great lectures. It offers faculty the opportunity to inspire and students the opportunity to be moved or enlightened or changed in dramatic ways. Eble (1988) noted that "teachers everywhere enter into lecturing too lightly, pay too little attention to what good lectures might accomplish. They are even more remiss in failing to consider what makes up the skills of a really good lecturer" (p. 70). Because the lecture will likely continue as the dominant mode of instruction in higher education, at least for the foreseeable future, it is incumbent on faculty to take this activity more seriously. With the authority attached to the lecturer comes the awesome responsibility of stimulating the intellectual growth of students. So if you lecture, learn to do it well; if you do it well, learn to do it better. There are plenty of resources to help you, and the references in this chapter provide a good start. References

Banner, Jr., J. M., & Cannon, H. C. (1997). The elements of teaching. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Benjamin, Jr., L. T. (1988). A history of teaching machines. American Psychologist, 43, 703-712. Benjamin, Jr., L. T. (1991). Harry Kirke Wolfe: Pioneer in psychology. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Benjamin, Jr., L. T. (1999). A platform disaster: Harry Hollingworth and the psychology of public speaking. Nebraska History, 81, 67-73. Benjamin, Jr., L. T., & Lowman, K. D. (Eds.). (1981). Activities handbook for the teaching of psychology (Vol. 1). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Benjamin, Jr., L. T., Nodine, B. F., Ernst, R. M., & Blair-Broeker, C. (Eds.). (1999). Activities handbook for the teaching of psychology (Vol. 4). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Bernstein, D. A. (1997). Reflections on teaching introductory psychology. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Teaching introductory psychology: Survival tips from the experts (pp. 35-47). Lecturing - 9 Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Boice, R. (1996). First-order principles for college teachers: Ten basic ways to improve the teaching process. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing Co. Boswell, J. (1946). The life of Samuel Johnson. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co. (Originally published in 1791). Brown, G. (1978). Lecturing and explaining. New York: Methuen & Co. Davis, B. G. (1993). Tools for teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Eble, K. E. (1988). The craft of teaching: A guide to mastering the professor's art (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey- Bass. Hoover, K. H. (1980). College teaching today: A handbook for postsecondary education. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Makosky, V. P., Sileo, C. C., Whittemore, L. G., Landry, C., & Skutley, M. L. (Eds.). (1990). Activities handbook for the teaching of psychology (Vol. 3). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Makosky, V. P., Whittemore, L. G., & Rogers, A. M. (Eds.). (1987). Activities handbook for the teaching of psychology (Vol. 2). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. McKeachie, W. J. (1999). Teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (10th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. Tierney, E. P. (1996). How to make effective presentations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Ware, M. E., & Johnson, D. E. (Eds.). (2000a). Handbook of demonstrations and activities in the teaching of psychology. Vol. 1 - Introductory, statistics, research methods, and history (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Ware, M. E., & Johnson, D. E. (Eds.). (2000b). Handbook of demonstrations and activities in the teaching of psychology. Vol. 2 - Physiological-comparative, learning, cognition, and development (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Ware, M. E., & Johnson, D. E. (Eds.). (2000c). Handbook of demonstrations and activities in the teaching of psychology. Vol. 3 - Personality, abnormal, clinical-counseling, social (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Weimer, M. (1987). Changing complaints about lectures into compliments. The Teaching Professor, 1(2), 5. Weimer, M. (1988). Lecturing: Performing or being? The Teaching Professor, 2(3), 1-2. Weimer, M. (1993). Improving your classroom teaching. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Weinstein, C. E., & Meyer, D. K. (1991). Cognitive learning strategies and college teaching. In R. J. Menges & M. D. Svinicki (Eds.), College teaching: From theory to practice (pp. 15-26). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Wortman, C. B., & Smyth, J. M. (1997). Using one's own passion and undergraduate TAs to transform the large-lecture introductory psychology course. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Teaching introductory psychology: Survival tips from the experts (pp. 163-180). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.