Lecturing: Reflections

Published 27 April 07 11:20 AM

I've given two lectures recently (Thursday last week, Tuesday this week) and was struck by the way my approach to lecture preparation has altered over time.

Way back in the beginning (all of three years ago), lecture preparation meant anxiety, over-investment of time and energy and generally wailing and gnashing of teeth. I'd start two weeks or so in advance, reading everything I could about the lecture topic before writing out word for word what I was going to say. I agonised about constructing an incisive and thorough take on topic, and must have bored everyone around me to death by carrying on about it. I organised all sorts of visual material to show (and then, memorably, almost strangled myself on the microphone cord running between the lecture, bank of DVD/video/CD/tape players and overhead in my second lecture). I'd sleep badly the night before and desperately need reassurance afterwards.

My most recently lecture I threw together the evening before, with two sheets of notes full of detailed content like 'plane crash as moment of origin/moment of rupture' and 'mobility (camera as character)'. Part of this change has been the simple growth in confidence that comes from knowing that you can do something because you have done it in the past, but part of it is also coming from my rethinking of what lectures should do. And that rethinking has formed part of a larger change in perspective and self-identity from student to teachers.

So what do I think lectures should do? Lectures should offer a structure to a field of study or area of inquiry. They should model scholarly engagement. They should raise, and not necessarily answer, questions. The emphasis is not on delivering all the knowledge about an area, but giving students a frame to build on in their knowledge of an area.

And so my advice to post-grads trying to put together lectures is (with the proviso that I'm not an expert and this is my opinion only):

  • work out what you need to know, what the important information is
  • plan the structure of your lecture, but leave yourself some space to develop ideas and to think on your feet
  • lecture planning can expand to fit the time you allow it, so limit that time and leave space for thesis work etc
  • if possible, be enthusiastic or at least engaged with your subject
  • public speaking training is handy
  • just keep doing it 


 

by Karen.Hall
Filed under:

Comment Notification

If you would like to receive an email when updates are made to this post, please register here

Subscribe to this post's comments using RSS

Comments

# Tama said on April 30, 2007 9:45 AM:

I think one of the most disconcerting things if to find out that the univeral advice given to new lecturers - "Put in only 20% of the content you think you need" - turns out to be the best advice you'll ever get!  I think my first lecture could have been a published paper, whereas now I take in two A4 sheets of dot points with some spiffy images and a film clip if appropriate and everyone on the receiving end thinks the lectures are much better!

# Karen.Hall said on April 30, 2007 10:42 AM:

Mmmm, I think that 20% rule is good - though, as you say, almost impossible to believe at the beginning. I'm not sure if people think that my lectures are better now, but I am more willing to trust that I'll hit 'the zone' where I can pull out the ideas and put them together. I guess that translates into performing a more engaged response to the lecture topic rather than being insulated by too much preparation.

Leave a Comment

(required) 
(optional)
(required) 

  
Enter Code Here: Required

About Karen.Hall

I've recently submitted my PhD thesis, titled 'Discovering the Lost Race Story: Writing Science Fiction, Writing Temporality', for examination. In the meantime, I'm teaching in the discipline of Communication Studies at UWA and starting a new project on medievalism and media through a Whitfeld Fellowship.