Faculty Development

Plan your overall framework carefully

• Use the ‘Rule of Threes’:
  – tell the audience what you are going to tell them
  – then tell them it
  - then ask something about it that shows you that they understand.

• Avoid making rash assumptions about knowledge retained from previous teaching.
• Don’t try to cover too much material in your lecture.

Get the beginning right

• Introduce yourself.
• Outline your expectations.
• Provide explicit learning objectives.

The beginning of your lecture should do some of the following:

• engage
• prepare
• encourage curiosity
• challenge
• create expectations.

The first five minutes of attention form the ‘Golden Window’ – use it well.

This is where you build rapport and make a meaningful link with your students. Depending on your personal style, some of the following may help you ‘catch’ the audience.

• Start with a story from personal experience.
• Use humour – a joke or cartoon on the screen (not too many and take care over the sort of humour you select).
• Set a challenge.
• Give a two-minute test or quiz.
• Don’t be predictable.

Work on your presentation style

• Your job is not to entertain — but you don’t have to be boring.
• Think about how you use your voice for emphasis, contrast, exaggeration, negation, etc. Your voice is a tool for gaining and holding attention.
• Participants in any part of the room should be able to hear you clearly. Avoid:
  – speaking in a monotone
  – looking or sounding bored
  – using vocalised pauses (‘you know’, ‘okay’, etc.)
  – distracting gestures such as fiddling with glasses or jewelry.

Engage with the audience

• The brain is an analog processor (Sylwester, 1995) – liberally sprinkle your lecture with analogy and metaphor.
• Value the audience: monitor reactions, seek contributions – they are an integral part of your lecture.
• Use impact language to ‘headline’ your key points, e.g.  ‘the vital factor’ rather than ‘the important factor’.

Leave them with a message

Lectures should have a planned ending – not just a last word for that day (or worse, just running out of time). Your ending should include:

• a summary of the main points
• a recap of the key questions posed/answered
• the ‘exit thought’ you would like your students to take with them
• a signpost.