Large Group Teaching

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Large Group Teaching

• West Virginia UniversityTeaching Scholars Summer
  Institute June 2009

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Presented by

• Dr. Mark Paternostro
• Associate Professor
• Department of Physiology and Pharmacology
• West Virginia University
• mpaternostro_at_hsc.wvu.edu

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Educational Experiences

• Courses taught
• Human Anatomy and Physiology
• Physiology (freshmen-graduate)
• Gross Anatomy using Cadavers
• Pathophysiology
• Clinical Neuroscience
• Administrative experience
• Teaching and Learning, Faculty Mentoring
• Student Retention

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Todays Objectives

• Outline characteristics of a good teacher
• Discuss the purpose of the traditional lecture
• Describe how to apply Gangne's "Nine Events of
  Instruction" to lecture development
• Define "large group lecturing"
• Discuss teaching strategies to consider when
  lecturing to large groups
• Discuss methods to make large group teaching more
  personal

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Characteristics of Good Teaching

• Take a few minutes and write down 3
  characteristics that you think describe good
  teachers.

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Teaching Styles

• As our students have a preferred learning style,
  each of us has our own teaching style
• How would you describe your teaching style?
• Factors to consider
• Approach to content
• Organization and planning
• Delivery methods
• Interactions with students
• Personality

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Why do we lecture?

• Establish a general outline or overview
• To introduce material that is new (student
  demographics)
• To prepare students for future, integrative work
  (foundations)
• To convey large amounts of information in a short
  period (efficiency)
• Allows economy of teaching large numbers of
  students
• To provide teacher guidance to student study
• To provide more extended treatment of material

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When not to lecture?

• To communicate complex, abstract or detailed
  information
• To promote student-student or student-instructor
  analysis of work
• When focus is on discussion and critical-
  thinking concepts
• To promote independent thought or developing
  students' thinking skills

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What makes a good lecture?

• Robert Gagnes Nine Events of Instruction
• gaining attention
• informing learners of the objective
• stimulating recall of prior learning
• presenting the material
• providing learning guidance
• eliciting performance
• providing feedback
• assessing performance
• enhancing retention and transfer

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1 Gaining Attention

• Media (video clips)
• Stories (clinical)dont give away the ending
• Demonstrations
• Pose question
• Controversy
• Humor

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2 Informing Learners of Objectives

• Review what will be covered today.
• Review how the material will be covered.
• How is this relevant to course.
• Explain real-world applications.

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3 Stimulating Recall of Prior Learning

• Quiz on prior knowledge and prerequisite skills.
• Ask questions to review related material.
• Make connections to previous work.
• Mini-review

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4 Presenting the Material

• Detailed organization of material.
• Lecture in small chunks whenever possible (15
  minute change-ups).
• Use a variety of media and methods in presenting
  information (variety of learning styles).
• Performance
• Show examples to clarify concepts.
• Relate lecture to learning objectives.

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5 Providing Learning Guidance

• Highlight important ideas, concepts, or rules.
• Use repetition.
• Use summaries/transitions.
• Provide students with learning strategies such as
  pneumonic , other memory aids (LR6SO4AO3)

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6 Eliciting Performance

• Allow time for practice (in lecture or before
  next lecture).
• Provide case studies, or simulations.
• Study guide questions.
• In class quizzes (ppt) used as summaries (more
  later)

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7 Providing Feedback

• Feedback should be immediate, specific, and
  corrective.
• In-class question and answers.
• If quizzes used, need returned in a timely
  manner.
• Allow additional practice opportunities after
  feedback is given.

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8 Assessing Performance

• Provide independent activities that test student
  knowledge/skill acquisition.
• Assessment needs to be appropriate, relevant.
• Assessment for student and instructor.
• PPT Quiz/summary-transition slides.

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PPT Quiz

• Which of the following anterior pituitary
  hormones stimulates the adrenal cortex to secrete
  Cortisol?  
• ADH
• ACTH
• Vitamin D
• CRH
• Aldosterone
• Important to design ways to assess the large
  groups response

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9 Enhancing Retention and Transfer

• Make connections to previous work, future topics.
• Apply learning in real-world scenarios.
• Highlight connections with other subject areas or
  professional duties.

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Lecture Aids

• See handouts
• Lesson Planning Worksheet
• Observation Form

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New Topic- Large Group Lecturing

• What does the term large group lecturing mean
  to you?
• Is there a difference between lecturing to 30
  students and 130 students?
• Any other factors that define large-group
  teaching?

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Auditorium-style Classroom Limitations

• Presentation
• Location of instructor, movements, eye-contact
• Visual issues
• Audio issues
• Using a variety of lecture tactics
• Promoting student-student interactions
• Connecting to students

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Scope Out Your Classroom (before you build your
presentation)

• Do it well in advance of first class
• Check out sample PowerPoint slides
• Project, sit in back of room
• Check out laser pointer
• Check audio system- wireless vs. stationary vs.
  none turning head syndrome
• Overhead projector work
• Board work
• Student seating

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Teaching Aids-Handouts

• Course packets, check before sending to print
• Advantages-students given all material in advance
• Disadvantages-lose flexibility
• PPT online for student printing
• Advantages- allows students to customize, print
  to their own liking (2 slides per page instead of
  3, color etc.) allows electronic note-taking
  always available
• Disadvantages-student responsibility
• Design handouts to encourage note-taking
• Promoting active learning
• PPT slide layout- leave room for notes
• Do handouts discourage attendance?

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Good Slide?
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Better Slide

• Renin
• Angiotensiogen
• Angiotensin I
• Angiontensin II
• Aldosterone

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Interactive Techniques

• PPT quizzes
• Think-pair-share
• Short-writing hand in on way out, use at
  beginning of next class
• Muddiest point
• Three minute summary
• Key word list
• Note-review
• Middle of lecture, 3 minutes to review notes
  (circle key terms, look for missing info,
  confusing points)
• Instructor interaction, get consensus, review to
  entire class

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Considerations for Large Number of Students

• Lose the personal connection to students
• Cant see everyone during lecture
• Lose the confused look
• Cant remember names and faces
• Students lose personal connection with each other
• Spontaneous study groups
• Commiseration factor
• Student diversity (learning styles, majors,
  abilities, etc.)

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What to do?

• First day introductions
• Who you are both professionally and personally
• Why you (not someone else) teaches this course
• Student personal note-cards
• Get to class early
• Small-group study sessions
• Chat rooms
• Email-quick responses
• Listen to your students