Good practices in teaching large lecture courses

The following list of good practices describes ways of improving the instruction of freshmen and sophomores in traditional lecture and discussion courses.

•Meet with your GTFs before the term begins to discuss course procedures, their responsibilities, grading and the most effective ways for them to spend time in sections; continue to meet weekly to discuss how the course/discussion sections/labs are going and ways of improving it. Be brave. Ask for feedback for yourself and encourage your GTFs to seek the same.
•Get to know your students by learning their names and something about their backgrounds and interests.
•Discover and build on what students already know by giving diagnostic tests or brief questionnaires.
•Give the students a good detailed syllabus and refer to it frequently. Post it online.
•Focus on a few main concepts, themes, or points rather than going into all the complexities of a topic.
•Plan the beginnings and endings of your lectures so that you "open with gusto" and "finish strong."
•Begin each lecture by letting the students know what you are going to talk about and why. Be clear about what they will know and be able to do as a result of that day's class.
•Use the blackboard, overheads or presentation software to outline lecture topics or to list questions students should be asking themselves during lecture and refer to it when making transitions. Make lecture outlines and study materials and guide available online.
•Be sure that all the material you present is legible and can be seen from the back of the room.
•Give students an early assignment or diagnostic test and develop review and support materials for those who may need them. Announce group office hours that will address particularly difficult aspects of the course.
•Organize your lectures carefully and deliver material by engaging students with questions, problems or short case studies to solve, or terms to paraphrase. Check their understanding in a concrete way during each class session. This can be done with classroom assessment techniques (see http://www.ntlf.com/html/lib/bib/assess.htm).
•Give students frequent short assignments and quizzes so that you and they will know whether they are understanding the material. Model the format and level of difficulty with what they can expect to see on midterms and finals. This provides students with a clear idea of your expectations for how they should be approaching their studies.
•Don't make assumptions. Write out and define not only technical terms but other words or expressions with which the students may not be familiar.
•Refrain from comments like, "Now, I know you all know this" (many of them don't). Or "Don't worry, this is very easy to understand." A struggling student will feel even worse when they still don't understand and very likely not seek your help.
•Empathize with the students confronting this material for the first time; slow down and acknowledge the difficulty and importance of certain concepts or operations.
•Leave time at the end of class for student questions. Rather than saying, "Any questions?", refer to the topics covered in the material for that day and then ask what questions may have come up for them. •Encourage the students to form small study groups; help them get to know one another by giving short team assignments.
•Send a personal email to any student receiving a grade of C-minus or below so that you can give early assistance to students having difficulty.
•Drop in on discussion sections/labs to see how things are going and to get to know the students. Try to do this at least once during the term if your class is particularly large. Let your GTF know you are coming.
•Ask TAs to give you periodic written reports on any problems students may be having, e.g., "List the one or two things that caused students the most difficulty in sections last week."
•Keep handouts on your course website on such topics as "how to study," "how to read a difficult text," "how to prepare for an exam." Contact Academic Learning Services (346-3226) for copies of handouts that focus on skill building.
•Relate your subject matter to current events or research which may be of interest to students and give them assignments for which there may be "real world" audiences whenever possible.
•Give students advance study questions to help them prepare for tests and hold review sessions before examinations.
•Have the students write possible exam questions as part of the review.
•Give students the opportunity to do well in your course by giving them several assessment points throughout the term. Weight the earlier assessments less rigorously and let students adapt to your testing style and expectations. Give comprehensive feedback to help students understand what it takes to do well in the course. This can be given as general group feedback in additional to individual comments you might wish to make.
•Return papers and exams promptly and review them at the next class meeting.
•Keep a journal or log of what explanations, techniques, or assignments worked well and share these with colleagues teaching the same or similar courses.
•Get midterm feedback from students. Ask them to write on two or three questions, such as "What is the most significant thing you have learned in this course so far?" "What, if anything, is still unclear?" or "What suggestions do you have for improving the course?" You can also do this through a Blackboard course website. See http://tep.uoregon.edu/services/midtermfeedback/blackboard/blackboard.html Acknowledge student feedback at the next class meeting and indicate which changes you can and which you cannot make and why.
•Sit in on courses taught by those of your colleagues you know to be especially effective teachers to see what other ideas or techniques you can pick up.
Adapted from the Berkeley Compendium, 1983 by the Regents of the University of California