Interactive Lecture

Structure of the lecture

Since the basic concept of this strategy is to combine segment of classic lecture to segment of interactive activity that engage the learner, this technique can be used in many different ways. Interactive activities can be added occasionally to a classic lecture, or be repeated on a regular basis dividing the class in fragments.

If you want to incorporate interactive activities to your lecture on a regular basis you can use different structures for the lecture:

• Start with a Question: After introducing the subject ask the students what they know and what they can deduce about it. For this exercise you can use various interactive techniques. This activity can be used at the beginning of every class period and can be added more often if desired.

• Step and Repeat: In this type of structure a couple of activities are used repeatedly during one lecture time. At first the learners will move slowly because they will have to learn the technique, but after a while they will start being faster.

• Book Ends: In this structure an interactive activity is used to open the session (i.e. question) and another one to close it (i.e. summary). Other activities can be used during the lecture to break it in short segments. This format allows to include different techniques associated to different purposes.

Facilitator’s Role

• To stimulate the discussions ask open-ended questions that do not have a single correct answer. This kind of question can provoke thought and encourage learners’ participation.

• During the discussion walk around and try to listen to some groups discussion to be sure they are on the right track.

• Before and during the discussion ask the participants to take note of their own ideas and of the group’s findings during the exercise. If you need to grade the performance this report can be graded.

• After the discussion find a standard way to gain the attention of the participants back (you can turn off and on the light or raise an arm or use any other signal that you have explained to them before).

• To conclude ask randomly a few groups or all of them to report on their findings and discussions, so that the rest of the class is informed of the ideas discussed by the other groups.^[2]

Job Aid