LECTURING IN THE PRECLINICAL CURRICULUM A GUIDE FOR FACULTY LECTURERS AT THE ALPERT MEDICAL SCHOOL OF BROWN UNIVERSITY ”Some people talk in their sleep Lecturers talk while other people sleep.” Albert Camus “My lecture was a complete success, but the audience was a failure.” Anonymous Sloman, John and Mitchell, Chris (2002) The Handbook for Economic Lecturers (http://www.economics.ltsn.ac.uk/handbook/lectures) Overview Lectures make up the primary form of teaching in the preclinical curriculum at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University Students experience hundreds of lectures during their first two years of medical school And while lectures can be an efficient method of conveying vast amounts of information to a large group of students, high quality lectures are not easy to design or to deliver We recognize that most of our faculty lecturers struggle to make their presentations comprehensive and engaging in the face of limited time and seemingly limitless content This guide is meant to provide some useful tips as you create, modify and refine your medical school lectures From Teaching to Learning Lectures can be an effective and efficient method to: Provide an organizational framework for complex biomedical concepts Highlight major ideas Set the stage for further learning Arouse student interest in a topic However, as we think about designing high quality lectures we need to move away from a focus on teaching, and move towards a focus on learning When we focus too much on the act of teaching, we tend to pay most attention to our own actions, and to “covering” all of the necessary material “Covering” material too often involves shoveling as much content as possible into a single lecture The number of power point slides for a single lecture becomes large, and the time afforded to each individual slide becomes shorter and shorter TIP: Limit the number of your power point slides For a 50 minute lecture on complex biomedical material, the number of slides should probably not exceed 30 Lost in this process is a focus on student comprehension We can cover all the material we want, but it won’t matter if students don’t understand what is being presented Lectures are only effective if the end result is learning Focus on teaching“Covering” the material Focus on learningMaximizing student A shift in focus from teaching to learning keeps in mind the essential outcome- student comprehension And when student comprehension becomes our goal, we can structure our lectures to maximize their learning within the time allotted Maximizing Learning in the Time Allotted There are several ways to maximize the amount of information that students can absorb within a given timeframe One way is to reduce wasted lecture time Another is to be sure that your lecture is structured in such a way that students find it easy to follow your thinking Understand the context of your lecture: Understanding your audience and what your learners already know will cut down on wasted time Communicate with your Course Director regarding what information has already been presented, or will be presented in future lectures The more you know about the learning objectives for your specific talk, the more targeted you can be when designing your lecture Additionally, ask questions about your learners to better understand their comprehension level This will prevent you from spending precious time presenting information at an inappropriately simplistic, or inappropriately sophisticated, level Reduce Time Spent On: Unnecessary repetition of material Content presented at an inappropriate level Make your presentation as visually accessible as possible: Making your presentation as accessible to students as possible will allow students to fully concentrate on the content being presented There are many practical ways that you can make your presentation visually accessible Use at least an 18 point font Use a standard font like Arial or Times New Roman Use a text color with a high contrast to your background color such as a white background with blue text, or a blue background with white or yellow text Use a simple background without a lot of patterns Title each slide Include “orientation” slides that let students know where they are in the lecture content Write in point form, not complete sentences Limit yourself to 4-5 points per slide TIP: Remember that your slides may be printed out and distributed to students Fonts and images should be large enough to read in printed form Slide backgrounds should not be visually distracting (www.iasted.org/conferences/formatting/Presentations-Tips ppt) The addition of images to your presentation can increase student understanding of the material presented However, these images should also be as visually accessible to students as possible Make images as large as possible- fit them to the space allotted Images, graphs and tables should be clearly visible from the back of the room Label each image Do not use complex tables- simplify the material presented or highlight the important information TIP: Help is available for dealing with images in your presentation! Contact Luba_Dumenco@brown.e du for assistance with sizing, importing, etc Reduce Time Spent On: Unnecessary repetition of material Content presented at an inappropriate level Interpreting poorly constructed slides Increase student engagement through greater participation: Increasing student participation in your lecture will help then engage with the material Students become active, rather than passive, learners While some of the strategies below may seem to “waste” valuable time that could be spent delivering lecture content, remember that our goal is not to “cover” material but to maximize student learning By increasing students’ engagement with the material you eliminate time that is actually wasted on student daydreaming, or on unnecessary reviewing of material later! Begin the lecture with a question or problem Invite students to ask questions or challenge your ideas When showing an image, ask students what they see before providing an explanation yourself Check student understanding with a quick multiplechoice question (have students vote on the answer) or survey of the group Include real-life examples and cases to illustrate the ideas being presented Ask several students to provide brief summaries of the major ideas covered in the lecture Allow time at the end for discussion and questions (Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning: http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/html/icb.topic58474/TFTlectures.html) Other strategies for delivering an engaging lecture include: Move around the physical space rather than stand in one place TIP: If students are busy reading a long slide, they are not able to listen carefully to what you are saying, or to participate in the discussion Put the basic ideas on the slide, and then elaborate on these ideas in your presentation Make sure the students in the back of the room can hear you- use the microphone if necessary Ask a trusted colleague to observe your lecture and provide you with feedback on your teaching Reduce Time Spent On: Unnecessary repetition of material Content presented at an inappropriate level Interpreting poorly constructed slides Passive learning or daydreaming We greatly appreciate your contributions to the education of our medical students Please know that you are playing an important role in their development as future physicians Thank you! Written by Emily Green, MA ©2008 Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University Contact the Office of Curriculum Affairs for more information: (401) 863-9139 ... to maximize their learning within the time allotted Maximizing Learning in the Time Allotted There are several ways to maximize the amount of information that students can absorb within a given... stand in one place TIP: If students are busy reading a long slide, they are not able to listen carefully to what you are saying, or to participate in the discussion Put the basic ideas on the slide,... cover all the material we want, but it won’t matter if students don’t understand what is being presented Lectures are only effective if the end result is learning Focus on teaching“Covering” the material