There’s often criticism of lecturing in Higher Education, but often this seems to presume that lecturing involves someone standing in front of rows and rows of students, and delivering a monologue until the session time is up. Yet lecturing can be an effective way of enabling students to learn in a large group if you don’t just provide a speech, but break things up with activities for students. One way of doing this is Think, Group, Share.
You’ll need to use some kind of technology, which enables students to answer questions online, such as PollEverywhere (which is supported by City).
What you need to do:
- Ask a question students can answer individually, using clickers or their own devices, and allow time for reflection and making notes.
- Place students in small groups and ask them each to explain the reasoning behind their answer to their group; the group then vote on the correct answer and one group representative answers the question again.
- Reveal the individual and the group answers and lead a class-wide discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of each potential answer.
The different students’ answers are useful for feedback, and students also feel more confident about participating, as they feel supported by their group.
Advantages:
- When students know they will have to defend their choice to peers, they reflect deeply before they answer
- It measures students’ understanding
- It demonstrates where individuals may be struggling
- It ensures that all students can engage with their peers and lecturer
If you try this out, leave a comment to let me know how it went!
Thanks to my colleagues in LEaD for their suggestion of this activity.