Teaching Tips Centre for Teaching Excellence http://cte.uwaterloo.

ca

Lecturing Effectively in the University Classroom

As long as class sizes continue to increase and university budgets tighten, lecturing will remain a
dominant teaching method (Perry in Perry & Smart, 1997; Brown & Race, 2002). Knowing how to
lecture well, therefore, is a crucial skill to master. Effective lecturing is characterized by enthusiasm
and expressiveness, clarity, and interaction (Murray in Perry & Smart, 1997). Consider using the
tips below to introduce students to—and stimulate their enthusiasm about—your course material.

Structuring the Lecture Clearly

• Show students “the big picture.” Explain how the lecture relates to previously-learned
material and the course themes and goals in general. Begin the class with a short review of
the key points from last class, and end with a preview of the topics for next class (along with
a reminder about any readings or assignments to be completed).
• Tell them what you’re going to say, say it, then tell them what you’ve just said. Before
discussing the day’s topics, provide an overview of what will be discussed. After covering
the topics, end with a restatement of the key points. When speaking, repeat yourself to an
extent that would be redundant in writing to facilitate student note-taking.
• Keep the lecture outline visible for students. Write it on a corner of the blackboard or
leave it up on an overhead. Return to the outline periodically to show your progress through
the material and to reinforce key points.
• Make explicit transitions between topics with mini-summaries. Link current material to
previously-learned content and future lectures. Be explicit about how one topic connects to
the next, or ask your students to explain the connections. By linking new material to
previously-learned content, you help students understand and organize this new information
in their minds.
• Cover only a few main points in each lecture. Plan to cover only three or four points in a
fifty-minute lecture and four or five points in a seventy-five-minute class. Select key points
that introduce, complement, and/or clarify the course readings, assignments, and goals.
Focus on presenting central points or general themes that tie together as many topics as
possible; students will be able to associate details with these main points on their own.
Avoid merely repeating the course readings; instead, elaborate on this content using new
examples and sample exercises or problems. For more information about selecting and
organizing content, see the “Course Content Selection and Organization” Teaching Tips
sheet.

Preparing your Notes

• Avoid writing out a complete lecture script. A script is too time-consuming to prepare,
and it will prevent you from maintaining eye contact with the students. As you read, your
voice will project downward, and you will appear disengaged from the class. Your ability to
be spontaneous will be hindered. Also avoid using visual aids as your notes; your reading
from an overhead or computer screen will not keep the students engaged, since your visual
focus still will not be on them.
Teaching Tips Centre for Teaching Excellence http://cte.uwaterloo.ca

• Do prepare some notes. Experiment to find out what kind of notes work best for you, e.g.,
detailed outline, list of major points, tree diagram. Your notes should include key
definitions, proofs, solved problems, examples and analogies. If you think you might get
nervous in front of a large class, make sure you know exactly what you are going to say at
the beginning of class.
• Be flexible when following your notes. Watch students’ level of interest and confusion to
determine how much time to spend on a topic and what level of explication is required.
Your notes should be flexible enough to let you adjust the depth and order of the content
based on students’ feedback. Your notes are there if needed, but the lecture should arise out
of your interaction with the students, not the notes themselves.
• Include delivery notes. Use wide margins so you can add notes about audio-visual aids,
questions to ask students, last-minute examples, and instructions for hands-on activities.

Keeping Students Engaged

• Design your lecture in ten- to fifteen-minute blocks. Adult attention spans average ten to
twenty minutes, so change pace every fifteen minutes or so to relieve monotony and
recapture students’ interest. Intersperse mini-lectures with discussions or other activities.
For suggestions about alternatives to lecturing, see the Teaching Tips sheet “Varying Your
Teaching Activities: 9 Alternatives to Lecturing.”
• Actively involve students in their learning. Ask them to help you demonstrate an analogy
to explain an abstract concept. Give them practice problems or a writing exercise to do on
their own or in pairs. Have a brainstorming session with the entire class or in small groups.
Show a video clip prefaced by your instructions about what to look for. Give a multiple
choice quiz. Have a question and answer session. Prepare questions beforehand that
promote class discussion and reinforce key concepts. Use such activities to regain student
attention and deepen their learning. The Teaching Tips sheet “Active Learning Activities”
has more suggestions for actively involving students in their learning.
• Be sure to stress why the lecture material is valuable for the students. Relate the
content to students’ interests, knowledge, experiences, and needs as much as possible. Use
metaphors, analogies, and examples that appeal to the students and will help them
understand the material. Making the material relevant is critical for keeping students
attentive, and it will help them retain the information.
• State your key points as learning objectives for the students. Share these objectives with
your students: “By the end of the class, you will be able to ….” State the objectives as
concretely as possible, using action verbs (e.g., draw, solve, explain) rather than vague verbs
(e.g., learn, understand, know). After you have prepared the lecture and again after you have
delivered it, check that you have in fact accomplished these objectives.
• Use students’ questions. While preparing the lecture, anticipate students’ questions.
Incorporate the answers into your lecture, or introduce an activity that allows students to
discover the answers for themselves. During the lecture, use students’ responses and
questions as jumping-off places for your next point or to begin a spontaneous discussion.
• Attend to students’ feedback about how the lecture is going. Watch their nonverbal cues
(yawns, chairs shuffling, whispers, glazed looks), or ask for their feedback informally or
formally. Just because you are speaking does not mean that they are attentively listening.
Teaching Tips Centre for Teaching Excellence http://cte.uwaterloo.ca

Delivering the Lecture

• Check out your classroom in advance. Familiarize yourself with the layout of the desks
and the front of the classroom. Decide where you will stand and how you will move from
one place to another. Find out whether the classroom has audio-visual equipment or whether
you will have to request it from the Audio Visual Centre.
• Practice your lecture beforehand. For your first few lectures, practice to ensure that you
have an appropriate amount of material and activities for the time available. Then record
your timings after class so you can discern the pacing of your style. Students’ questions and
learning activities can take up to 50% more time than you may first think.
• Take along a bottle of water. The water will soothe a sore or dry throat. Taking a sip is
also a good way to buy thinking time before responding to a student question.
• Maintain regular eye contact with your students. By doing so, you create connections
with them, are able to gauge their note-taking, and discourage distracting class noise.
• Use a conversational tone. Think of the lecture as an opportunity to speak with the
students, not to or at them.
• Convey your enthusiasm for the material and the students. Vary your vocal speed and
pitch, as well as your facial expressions. Smile often. Consider using humour when
appropriate.
• Ask the students periodically if they can hear and see everything. Make changes to your
volume and visual aids as necessary.
• Move around the room, and use natural gestures. This movement is especially important
for engaging large classes. Changes help to refocus students’ attention, but remember to
move with purpose so you avoid distracting your students.
• Encourage students to take notes. The process of writing notes helps them remember the
lecture content and stay attentive to what’s going on. To help students make good notes,
provide a clear structure for the lecture, and use a pace that allows them to keep up
(remember not to rush when using pre-prepared visual aids). Rather than writing extensive
notes that students must copy word for word, write key terms on the board or slides to
facilitate students’ own processing of the information, or provide skeletal course notes for
the students to annotate. Pause regularly so that students can ask for clarification.
• Interact with your students to create positive rapport with them. Arrive at class early so
that you can welcome students. Address them by name as much as possible. And plan to
stay after class to chat with students and answer their questions.

Using Visual Aids (blackboard, overheads or computer presentations)

• Use visual aids to stimulate and focus students’ attention. Multimedia aids using sound,
colour, and/or animations have an even greater power to attract and maintain students’
attention, particularly in large classes where the impersonal situation makes students feel
less involved. Visual aids should be a support for, not the focus of, your lecture. They also
should not replace your personal interaction with the students.
Teaching Tips Centre for Teaching Excellence http://cte.uwaterloo.ca

• Make each visual count. If you are using overheads or PowerPoint, aim for twelve to
twenty slides for a fifty-minute lecture. Be conscious of speeding through the slides and/or
overloading students with content—common problems with these types of media.
• Reveal visual information gradually rather than all at once. This keeps students
focusing on your oral development of each point, instead of rushing to copy down the
material. Alternately, you could show all the points, then go back to explain each one.
• Consider creating visual aids during the lecture. Solving problems, showing processes,
or building models in real time is often clearer for students than seeing completed work.
You can also create visuals to reflect the outcomes of interactive exercises, thereby
validating the students’ input. The act of writing also helps you to pace the lecture
appropriately.
• Write down key words and names. Students will try to write down everything they see. If
information does not need to be copied down, mention that to the students, or consider
whether it is important enough to include in the first place. Consider providing handouts
that give an outline of the lecture material for students to annotate.
• Check the equipment before class to make sure it works and you know how to use it.
Electronic equipment can break down or malfunction, so have an alternate plan ready.
Equipment problems will negatively affect your credibility, even if they are beyond your
control.
• For more tips, see the Teaching Tips sheets “Designing Visual Aids” and “Using Visual
Aids.”

References and for further reading:

Bligh, D. (2000). What’s the Use of Lectures? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Brown, S. & Race, P. (2002). Lecturing: A Practical Guide. London: Kogan Page.

Chickering, A.W., & Gamson, Z.F. (1987). Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. AAHE
Bulletin. Website http://www.aahe.org/bulletin/sevenprinciples1987.htm.

Davis, B.G. (1993). Tools for Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Hogan, J. (1999). Lecturing for Learning. In Heather Fry, Steve Ketteridge and Stephanie Marshall (Eds.), Handbook
for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (pp. 83-94). London: Kogan Page.

Lowman, J. (1995). Mastering the Techniques of Teaching. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Perry, R.P., & Smart, J.C. (Eds). (1997). Effective Teaching in Higher Education. New York: Agathon Press.

Young, Suzanne, & Shaw, Dale G. (1999). Profiles of Effective College and University Teachers. Journal of
Higher Education 70 (6), 670-86.