3 Problems with Lecture (and What to do About Them)
How many lectures did you attend before graduating college? Do you still remember any of them today?
In order to graduate from college I attended 40 courses and the only classes I remember are from a public speaking course. I remember it because we were supposed to use repetition and get audience participation and I didn’t really accomplish either of those during the speech assignments we were given and I ended with a B-. It was one of the lowest grades I ever received in my academic career. Yet I still remember the classes because the professor involved us in the learning. Every other course I attended over four years was lecture-based.
A lot of the sermons and homilies I hear in church are similarly lecture-based. Sometimes I think the priest makes a good point, but usually I’m making a grocery list in my mind or thinking about what I have to do at work during the upcoming week.
During the fifteen years since I graduated college I’ve noticed that too many training workshops and business meetings intended to ensure attendees walk away knowing more also revolve around lecture and the person in the front of the room.
Lecture isn’t a teaching strategy, it’s a telling strategy. Add some PowerPoint slides and perhaps it’s a showing strategy, too. It’s a way for the person in the front of the room to say: “I have information that you need, so sit back and pay attention and open up your head so I can fill it with my knowledge.”
Problem #1: No Evaluation
The teacher, presenter, trainer, facilitator – the lecturer – has no idea whether or not the students “get it.”
Addressing Problem #1: There is a proverb that goes: tell me and I forget, show me and I understand, involve me and I remember. If your goal is for the learners to remember your material, it is essential that the learners are involved in the session. Following are several quick tips to involve your audience, regardless of group size:
- Pose a question to the group… and take a few responses. Rhetorical questions can get people thinking. Going a step further and taking a few answers, or at the very least asking learners to share their answers with the person next to them can quickly get participants engaged. And the opportunity to turn to a neighbor and answer a question can also help add energy to the room.
- Turn to your neighbor to discuss. This strategy can be useful in answering questions, brainstorming new ideas or discussing a case study you’ve just presented.
- It’s time to practice in small groups. Taking five minutes out of your session to allow your learners to gather with those around them and apply the content you’ve just taught is an opportunity for immediate reinforcement that will help in reinforcing the learning, moving it from short term to long term memory. I still remember a peer coaching model from a training session I attended four years ago because the presenter gave us five minutes to practice the model.
Problem #2: Lecture Feels Easier to Prepare
Many argue lecture is just faster and easier for teacher and learner – there is less time needed for preparation and there’s no need for the attendees to burn valuable energy in touchy-feely type activities.
Addressing Problem #2: This argument begs two more questions:
- Is it still faster and easier if the content needs to be re-taught again next year, and the following year, and the year after that because nobody remembers what you lectured about?
- Is it really true that simply putting together some lecture notes and spending an hour or two on PowerPoint slides is really faster?
One effective strategy in addressing this concern is to have the learners do the teaching as they’re doing the learning. I was once asked to train groups of people on a series of child welfare laws. The original lesson plan called for a brief lecture on each law. And none of the trainees were able to recall details of the laws or their importance six months after the training. I re-designed the lesson plan to break the learners into groups, assign each group one of the child welfare laws and give them a short period of time to note the key points of the law and what its impact would be on their work. Each group wrote their comments on a piece of flipchart and then all participants spent time reading through the various flipcharts. A de-briefing session followed in which questions were asked and answered by the participants themselves (I was on stand-by to make sure nobody was giving erroneous information about the laws). This was a lot easier than trying to keep everyone awake while lecturing about the laws. And the participants, who were responsible for teaching about the laws, also were able to retain the information.
Problem #3: Lecture is Content
Lecture is generally focused on a topic – lecture is solely content. If the audience isn’t familiar (and/or passionate) about the topic, they may struggle to follow along. And if they can’t connect the dots between the content and how it can impact their work or life, it may not be retained very long.
Addressing Problem #3: The instructional design formula I’ve come to embrace in designing any lesson plan incorporates the following steps:
- Anchor
- Content
- Application
- Future Use
I wish I could offer credit to whoever came up with this formula, but I not sure where the credit is due. But it truly is simple and incredibly effective.
Anchor: A brief activity or question to tie the learning to the learner’s personal experiences. Unless the learner can see themselves in the content, they may have difficulty relating to and figuring out how to apply the content to their own context. Read more in An Anchor Activity in Every Presentation.
Content: This is the information you intend to get across to the audience. Going back to the example of the child welfare example above, keep in mind that content does not always need to be lecture-based.
Application: This is an opportunity for learners to try out the learning in a safe environment, practicing in the training room.
Future Use: Job aids or simply giving the learners an opportunity to brainstorm how they plan to use the learning when they return to their office are both examples of future use activities.
The Scenario: Problems with Lecture
Josh had been delegated the sexual harassment talk for the upcoming new hire orientation. His boss provided Josh a Word document with 19 bulleted points on the topic and a video to show next week’s group of 4 new hires. When asked for any words of wisdom in presenting it, Josh’s boss explained: “It’s pretty straight forward, just show the video and answer any questions. Check it off the box and let the new folks go to lunch. Anyone who’s ever heard of Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill knows that sexual harassment is a bad thing. We just need to be sure we cover it.”
At 11:30 on Tuesday morning, Josh arrived at the training room, ready to ensure that the four new hires he was about to meet would always remember the organization’s policy on sexual harassment. Josh found the new hires unattended at the moment by any staff members. They said the previous session had ended a few minutes early and they were given a break until this session. They were all hungry and looking forward to lunch after this 45 minute session.
Josh surveyed the faces of each new hire – they all looked relatively young. Definitely in their early 20s. After greeting them, he asked if any of them knew who Clarence Thomas was. The new hires looked at one another, and at in unison two of them said: “a Supreme Court justice.” One new hire continued on: “Jinx! Buy me a coke!!”
Ignoring the last comment, Josh asked if any of them knew who Anita Hill was. The new hires again looked at one another. Nobody responded. The room was awkwardly silent. So much for “anyone who’s ever heard of Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill knows that sexual harassment is a bad thing.”
“You know what, never mind about those obscure references. As you can all see from the agenda, we’re here to discuss sexual harassment. What is sexual harassment?”
Silence again. The new hires looked around the room. Stared at the ceiling. And the floor. There was no eye contact with Josh.
“Actually, it’s not a rhetorical question. I really want to know what you all know about the topic. Why don’t we do this: each of you pair off and take 45 seconds to share with a partner everything you know about sexual harassment.”
After a moment or two, the new hires turned to a neighbor and began sharing thoughts. Forty-five seconds later Josh brought their attention back to him. “Well, it sounds like some people in here know something about sexual harassment. What did you talk about?”
One pair shared that they thought sexual harassment had to do with hitting on co-workers, even after being told to stop. The other pair mentioned that they had heard the term “hostile work environment” but they weren’t quite sure what that meant. A five minute conversation around the overall topic of sexual harassment ensued.
Once the conversation and questions began to wane, Josh announced that they were going to watch a video. The video had four different scenarios. Josh gave each new hire a piece of paper to take notes. In one column, new hires were asked to jot down one ah-ha moment, question or take-away from each scenario. In a second column, new hires were asked to jot down any themes that arose from the initial group discussion on sexual harassment that they observed in any of the scenarios (i.e. do any of these scenarios illustrate the idea of creating a “hostile working environment” that we discussed in our initial conversation?).
Following the video Josh led a conversation about each scenario using the notes that the new hires jotted down. In order to wrap up the 45-minute session, Josh quizzed each new hire on a hypothetical situation and what each new hire would do if confronted with such a situation.
As Josh released the new hires for their lunch break, one commented that this was the “fastest 45 minutes of the day so far. I mean, time really flew by in this session. And I have to say, I was expecting someone to just talk at us about the topic for 30 or 40 minutes and then pass us off to the next presenter. That’s how the rest of the morning has gone so far. And it hasn’t been easy staying awake or paying attention to those sessions.”
A second new hire added, “Yeah, I always expect new hire orientation sessions to be quick ‘check off the box that I learned this or that topic.’ It seems like it would just be easier to tell us the information and move on. But I really appreciated this session. I can definitely say I will remember it. While the topic itself is dry and quite frankly kind of icky, this session was very interesting. Thanks for getting us talking. And thinking.”
