The act of lecturing goes as far back as the Ancient Athens, and as a method of university teaching, it emerged in the medieval times (McLeish 1976). Fast-forward to today, and the lecture remains one of the most popular methods of university teaching, appreciated for its efficiency and cohort-building potential. However, in recent decades, a widely reported decline in lecture attendance has fuelled debates on the effectiveness of traditional methods of lecturing and the reasons for students’ lack of enthusiasm.
In this context, educators often voice their concerns about the availability of lecture recordings and their effects on dwindling attendance. Research, however, shows that while these are valid concerns, they tend to be overemphasised at the expense of considering the positive effects lecture recordings have on supporting flexibility and equity in learning (Do 2017). When surveyed, students note assessment deadlines, work commitments and other practicalities, such as transport and travel time, as the more important reasons for their choice not to show up to lectures (Do 2017). Most importantly, students see lecture recordings as flexible learning tools, particularly valuable for review of difficult and complex material (Larkin 2010; Do 2017).
Rethinking the lecture is not a binary choice between lecturing and not lecturing or teaching face-to-face and moving content online. Students are clear: recordings, and by extension other online materials, cannot replace face-to-face teaching, but face-to-face teaching needs to maximise the interactions between teachers and students to uphold its value (Larkin 2010). What is essential is understanding the value and place of lecture – or any other teaching method – in the context of a subject-specific curriculum and communicating that clearly and explicitly to students (see Massingham and Herrington 2006).
To that end, this resource moves beyond the question of the sustainability of the university lecture, and instead acts as an invitation to carefully examine the place and value of lecturing in your teaching practice and students’ learning. To enable this, the resource discusses what the lecture is and outlines a range of enhancements of – and alternatives to – the traditional lecture. Additionally, it showcases examples from the Faculty of Arts of different approaches to delivering lecture-style content and direct instruction, ranging from adding interactivities to traditional lectures to creating flexible and accessible online learning spaces to support active learning in physical classrooms.
Showcases
These showcases highlight teaching and learning innovations across the Faculty of Arts that either innovate the traditional lecture format or use alternative methods. The showcase videos were produced by Xinran Chen and Yuqi Zhao – Master of International Journalism students, who completed their capstone internships at the Arts Teaching Innovation.
What 's a lecture ?
Stemming from its etymology, ‘lecture’ is associated with the act of reading out loud and hence commonly considered to be an exclusively passive mode of knowledge transmission, juxtaposed with active learning (Exley and Dennick 2009, 1). Yet, the type of ‘reading’ implied by the Latin word lectura does not merely refer to oral instruction, it denotes a form of interpretation. This is particularly significant in the context of the Humanities, where lectures are often based on a text and its expert interpretation by the lecturer (Fulford and Mahon 2020). In that sense, the lecture is interpretative work, it is about building – and at the same time modelling – a sustained argument. Of course, not all lectures in the Arts disciplines perform – or indeed need to perform – this function, but this is an excellent example of the lecture fulfilling a very specific purpose. And, it raises the question: what other objectives can lectures fulfill?
French and Kennedy (2017) identify seven benefits of lectures, which range from providing structure for a subject, developing a sustained argument, presenting cutting-edge research and modelling behaviour to motivating students, promoting skills of listening and note-taking and building a sense of community. Like with any other teaching method or learning activity, these benefits are not guaranteed; for them to be realised, the lecture needs to be structured and delivered in a particular way. For example, if a lecture is to promote the skills of listening and note-taking, students need to know what they are listening for. That may mean giving students direction by way of objectives and an overview at the start of the lecture to convey the purpose of the lecture and what is important to pay attention to. It could also mean capturing students’ attention with compelling and relatable examples or giving students a task, which involves using the information presented in the lecture.
The latter example, in particular, signals a possibility of interaction within the lecture and troubles the definition of the lecture as a merely passive encounter with information. This is not a new idea. At present, lectures often include explicit and implicit student-to-teacher and student-to-student interactions. Adding purposeful interactions within an otherwise passive content delivery introduces a more student-centred approach, which is a common recommendation for improving lecture attendance (Do 2017, 56).
The lecture and its alternatives
The broadening scope of the lecture highlights that the question that needs to be tackled is not whether to lecture or not, but rather when to lecture, how to lecture, and what to do instead of lectures where the teaching context allows for a different approach.
Exley and Dennick (2009, 8) identify three conditions that make the lecture a fitting method of teaching. These are when the lecture 1) provides a clear overview of the topic and is delivered by an expert, 2) presents intentionally selected limited content in line with the intended learning outcomes, 3) is delivered by a knowledgeable and skilled presenter, who is enthusiastic about the subject matter and can convey that to students. If these conditions are met, a conventional lecture may be a good choice as an efficient tool of imparting knowledge (Exley and Dennick 2009). However, if the aim is to develop self-regulation and higher order skills in students and extend their interaction with content, then active and more discursive learning methods are better suited (Brown Wright 2011). What becomes clear is that in making these decisions there are some key questions to be asked and answered, such as what the content is for, what the role of the teacher/lecturer is and what we want students to learn.
The three categories below indicate possible innovations of – and alternatives to – the lecture and implicitly consider these questions. The categories of ‘Interaction’, ‘Performance’ and ‘Flipped Learning’ offer different focal points in thinking about teaching and learning but are not necessarily mutually exclusive. These approaches can be combined at the level of a subject or even a single teaching event, such as a lecture.
Interaction
‘Interaction’ is a broad category of innovations of different scale that can be embedded in a conventional style lecture. These innovations encourage us to think of the lecture as a space of active learning where students can learn through intentional interaction with their teacher, their peers and the subject content. Combining lectures with active learning strategies has proven to be effective in encouraging deep learning and achieving higher levels of comprehension (e.g., Baeten et al. 2013). Some simple reasons for embedding active learning in lectures include maintaining students’ attention, aiding absorption and understanding of content and giving students’ a voice (Exley and Dennick 2009).
Content delivery in lectures can be regularly interspersed with activities either requiring students' contributions or checking their comprehension. Students can, for instance, give examples from their lives to illustrate theoretical content being presented or respond to quizzes and polls giving the lecturer real-time feedback on their understanding of the content or indicating their opinion. University-supported learning technologies, like Padlet and Poll Everywhere, can help facilitate such interactive breaks even in large lectures.
Exley and Dennick (2009) encourage lecturers to use a variety of interactive mechanisms to enrich the learning experience for students. They highlight that it is draining to sit still, listen and take notes for hours on end, and suggest that the lecture should contain different movements and presentations to appeal to the senses in different ways. They also recommend the lecturer split the content into short sections ‘lecturer input’ and interspersing this with student activities that allow interaction and active learning.
Student-to-student and student-to-teacher interactions are usually grounded in students’ interaction with the lecture content, hence, like with any other form of active learning, embedding interaction in lectures requires thinking about the function of content. For example, interactive activities can be set up to ask students’ analysis or opinions of relevant case studies or real-world problems. This is where students can draw on the lecture content to show their comprehension of the content delivered so far in their responses and simultaneously giving the lecturer valuable real-time feedback, which can be either used there and then to adjust course within the lecture or adopted the following week.
Examples
Szpunar et al. (2013) report on segmented psychology lectures delivered online at Harvard University. Students in one group undertook memory tests after each segment of the lecture and students in a second group engaged with the memory tests or quizzes at the completion of the lecture. The results revealed that students who took part in more testing during the lecture were significantly more focussed and reported that they engaged with the material more – their minds ‘wandered’ less during the lecture. They took more notes on the lecture slides and interacted more with the material. Importantly, those students who took part in quizzes throughout the lecture gained more knowledge of each of the lecture segments.
Here at the Faculty of Arts, Dr Nick Pendergrast, Senior Tutor in Sociology, embeds interactivities into large Sociology lectures to check students' understanding of key concepts and give them the opportunity to contribute their ideas and experiences. Dr Pendergrast's approach is explained in this showcase.
A range of active learning approaches, including problem-based learning, case learning or decision-making activities, can instruct interactions in lectures. For example, the lecture can be structured around a problem where the task for students is to follow the argument (Bligh 2000, 74). This type of structure can also inform a set of interactions with students. Similarly, a case study can inform the basis of a theoretical lecture, where students engage in case-based learning immediately upon receiving instructions. The use of case studies allows students to learn inductively (they may learn better from examples than from logical development starting with basic principles). To that end, a lecture can follow an inductive teaching approach, whereby a case study is first presented, giving students time to reflect on what they notice in the case study. The lecture can be structured around the analysis of that case study, using theoretical devices which are introduced to help students navigate and explain the case study.
These types of activities activities can help transform the lecture into a localised site of assessment, where students engage with a lecture-based event in their assignments. Localising assessments not only promotes in-class engagement, but also has the added benefit of reducing assessment vulnerability to generative Artificial Intelligence. Professor Fiona Fidler’s Debating Science in Society subject, highlighted in this showcase, brings elements of assessment to the lectures as seen in this showcase.
Performance
In 1973, Natfulin, Ware and Donnelly hired a professional actor to deliver a lecture on a fictional topic. Despite the actor’s lack of expertise, this lecture, known as the Doctor Fox Lecture, received overwhelmingly favourable evaluations from the audience of experienced educators, suggesting that confident and authoritative delivery style can create the illusion of educational effectiveness. While these positive perceptions do not translate to actual learning, the Doctor Fox Lecture experiment puts a spotlight on performance techniques in creating enthusiasm and excitement in the classroom as a precondition for learning. The term ‘lecture theatre’ for the physical space where lectures take place implies that lectures are inherently performative acts. The renowned sociologist Erving Goffman (1981) explained that much like actors on stage, lecturers use their presence, gestures and voice to engage their audience, the students. The performative elements, such as the use of visuals, volume and tone of voice, personal anecdotes and controversial examples, are critical in drawing students in and maintaining their attention (Short & Martin, 2011). Appropriate application of acting techniques can also have positive effects on the development of students’ competencies, including critical thinking and problem solving (Yuk-kwan Ng et al., 2013). But performance dimensions in university lectures can vary greatly. Evoking laughter, using metaphors and storytelling can all contribute to the lecture as a performative act and, more importantly, lead to positive group dynamics and learning outcomes (Evans, 1988; Nesi, 2012; Williams, 2015)
Short and Martin (2011) compared ‘presentation’ lecture to ‘performance’ lecture in terms of their effects on students’ learning. Their findings suggest that the ‘performance’ lecture leads to greater retention and understanding. ‘Presentation’ lectures are conventional, teacher-led, didactic methods of delivery where the focus is on the transmission of knowledge. These types of lectures focus on presenting the information as opposed to stimulating the audience. In ‘performance’ lectures, on the other hand, lecturers seek to generate audience interest by openly showing enthusiasm in using body language, vocal inflection and rapport building. According to Short and Martin (2011), there are six dimensions distinguishing between conventional lectures and ‘performance’ lectures: visual presentation, verbal presentation, audience interaction, personal links, humour and controversy.
Example
Gimenez Calpe (2020) merges aspects of traditional lectures with performance art in a German literature class. In this example, students worked in groups to research different topics and then present them through a lecture-performance. Students formed teams and identified a topic they wished to research further. Students assumed specific roles to aid their collaborative work, and once they had done sufficient research, began writing their lecture-performance script. Key to this activity is the transfer of acquired knowledge to a theatrical format. Student performances at the end of the course, were captured by Faculty Audio Visual technicians. The outcomes suggest that this approach engaged students more actively in their learning process. Analysis of the performances and a student questionnaire showed that students had improved their knowledge, performance capabilities and had become active participants in a collaborative learning process.
Flipped Learning
Flipped Learning is not a new approach, but a strategy that tends to be misunderstood or not fully realised in its implementation. The central idea of flipped learning is about moving foundational content out of the classroom and giving learners the flexibility to engage with this content at their own pace, time and wherever they choose to do so. Besides the added flexibility, engaging in foundational content before class frees up time for active learning in a face-to-face, physical classroom environment and allows students to put their learnings from the foundational content into practice through case-based and problem-based learning as well as other types of active and experiential learning. This ensures a development of student-centred learning cultures, where students are actively involved in the construction of knowledge.
While ‘flipping the classroom’ to create flexible environment and student-centred learning cultures, is essential to the flipped learning approach, its four pillars also include intentional content and professional educator (FLN 2014). The pillar of intentional content speaks to the importance of selecting content with a clear purpose, providing context for students and ensuring the connection between the self-paced learning and the classroom activities. This can be something as simple as providing associated questions and context to the set readings or getting students to complete reflections and contribute to online discussions (Lawton 2019). With either example, it is important to ensure that these activities are not simply repeated or recited in the face-to-face classroom, instead using active learning strategies to further enhance students’ understanding and practical know-how (Seery 2015). For example, in a social science subject, the self-paced component can introduce students to the theories, concepts and a set of worked examples of how these theories and concepts can apply in real world; while in class students employ this theoretical knowledge to engage in case-based learning, analysing cases, solving problems and making decisions.
In comparison to traditional lectures, flipped learning requires a careful rethinking of the role of the teacher. The teacher can no longer be the sage on the stage, as their main function becomes the facilitation of active learning in the face-to-face teaching (McLean and Attardi 2023). This aligns with the fourth pillar of flipped learning – ‘professional educator’, guiding the instructor to be responsive to students’ needs, reflect on their practice, proactively seek feedback from students while ensuring a provision of formative feedback to students (FLN 2014).
Video is a common format of foundational content in the flipped learning approach. Despite its popularity, it is important to consider if video is always the best medium. Additionally, in thinking about the general rules of presentation of the online content, in particular, it is advisable to provide diversity of sources and formats to allow for all students to find something personally engaging to them (Kaiser et al. 2023).
Examples
Bowers (2019) describes a flipped learning model adopted in a politics class where traditional reading tasks completed outside of class were followed by show-and-tell assignments. These show-and-tell assignments instructed students to actively engage in the theoretical concepts they were reading about and find examples of them in their local communities. This culminated in a visual assignment where students were required to take photographs from their local communities that represented the concepts they were learning about in the readings. The overall approach created a supportive and productive learning environment, where students engaged with their peers’ visual representations of concepts to extend their own thinking and ideas.
A very different example of flipped learning is spotlighted in this showcase of Associate Professor Kate Macdonald’s subject Business and Government, in which students engage with self-paced asynchronous online modules before coming to class to put their theoretical knowledge into practice.
References
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Brown Wright, G. (2011). Student-centred learning in Higher Education. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 3, 92–97.
Do, C. (2017). The Effect of Lecture Recordings on Lecture Attendance: Law Academics’ Misconceptions and Law Students’ Reality. Journal of the Australasian Law Teachers Association. 10, 41-60.
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