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. What two or three points do I want them to remember?
. What other points would it be nice—but not essential—for them to recall?
Students come to class with their own agendas—areas of genuine interest as well as topics they expect to be
covered in an introductory psychology class. Asking your students to submit questions periodically is one
way to assess their interests. Zanich and Grover (1989) surveyed student interest in 80 specific topics
typically included in introductory texts and lectures. Each topic was rated on a 5-point scale from very
interesting to not very interesting. According to the students, the five most interesting topics were (1) the
possible function of dreams, (2) why people are attracted to each other, (3) hypnosis, (4) how to improve
your memory, and (5) sexual motivation and variations in sexual behavior. In general, students had the
least interest in natural science aspects of psychology. The five least interesting topics were (76) how the
auditory system works, (77) learning and nonsense syllables, (78) historical roots of modem psychology,
(79) theories of color vision, and (80) the endocrine system. However, it must be noted that for all students,
psychology majors and non-majors, mean topic ratings reflected slightly greater than average interest for all
topics, with psychology majors giving slightly higher interest ratings than non-psychology majors.
BASIC MECHANICS OF LECTURES
The quality of instruction overrides content in determining student reactions to specific topics. Teachers are
more than information dispensers. They put information into perspective, give contexts so ideas may be
better appreciated, offer emphasis and clarification. The task of preparing a lecture is not so much one of
loading as many ideas as possible into the firing chamber as one of carefully packaging a few delicate
thoughts for the difficult trip from mind to mind. You should therefore attend very seriously to
“transportation and delivery” issues when you are preparing your lecture, not only to the load. Sass (1989)
found that students repeatedly cite eight instructor characteristics as responsible for high motivation to
master the material: enthusiasm, relevance, organization, appropriate difficulty level, active involvement,
variety, rapport, and use of appropriate examples.
Within the lecture, use examples—lots of examples—to illustrate the many unfamiliar concepts introduced
in the course. To maintain students’ attention, vary the pitch and loudness of your voice, use gestures and
facial expression, and move. Review your lecture notes thoroughly before class so you will not be glued to
the lectern. Periodically review your delivery method and voice tone by listening to a tape recording of your
lecture—an invaluable and humbling experience!
Use the lecture to amplify and enrich the material in the text, to illustrate difficult concepts, to relate
psychology to personal experience, or to motivate and stimulate students. Avoid duplicating the text. Too
much factual information in a lecture is likely to overwhelm students and result in little or no retention.
Lectures should usually begin with an attention-getting device such as a quick demonstration, personal
remark, question, anecdote, or a clear statement of a theme, problem, or paradox. The balance of the lecture
should have a structure that is apparent to the students as well as to you. For example, begin with a
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preview, in which the central points of the lecture are briefly indicated and reference is made to important
issues or types of evidence related to each; move into main points, each of which is stated and explored by
giving relevant evidence and explaining current controversies; conclude with a summary in which the
central points are again stated and supporting information briefly reviewed. In effect, as a friend of ours is
fond of saying, “You tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em, you tell ’em, and then you tell ’em what you told
’em.”
START WITH AN ATTENTION GETTER
As a guide to lively lecture starters, we offer these suggestions:
. Statement of thesis to be argued: “Today I would like to try to convince you that the greatest feat of
human intelligence occurs when a two-year-old child learns its native language.”
. Question: “Research in the area of attitude change shows that a credible communicator has
more persuasive impact than a noncredible one. Can you think of any conditions when a
disliked communicator can be more effective than a liked one in changing your attitudes?”