Tomorrow's Professor Msg. #102 USING DEMONSTRATIONS AND DRAMATIC DEVICES IN LARGE CLASSESFolks: The following excerpt on using demonstrations and dramatic devices in large classes, is provided by Elisa Carbone, of the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Maryland at College Park. Additional examples can be found in The Large Classes Newsletter, at (http://www.inform.umd.edu/CTE/lcn/index.html). Regards, Rick Reis UP NEXT: The Role of Higher Education in Helping to Shape a More Inclusive Society ----------------- 976 words ------------------ USING DEMONSTRATIONS AND DRAMATIC DEVICES IN LARGE CLASSES Elisa Carbone In a large class it's easy for students to become passive. They sit. They take notes. Any teaching technique that can increase student interest and involvement can increase retention and learning. Demonstrations and dramatic devices can do just that. Demonstrations help students draw connections between abstract ideas and concrete phenomena. Laurie McNeil calls them " . . . concrete handles for grabbing hold of . . . abstractions." Demonstrations also serve to interrupt the lecture. Attention span studies suggest that student attention can be maintained much more effectively if a fifty or eighty minute lecture is interrupted every fifteen minutes or so with a "different" type of activity (Thomas 1972). John Clarke (1987) says of visual devices, "They break the tedious stream of words, words, words, allowing students to see what they are hearing. . . .they break the pace of discourse, shift focus from the lecturer to the material, and help stem the erosion of interest that occurs when students are fixed to one spot for fifty minutes or more." (A LARGE DRAMA CLASS) In a large lecture hall, of course, passing around a moon rock or inviting students up to view white blood cells under the microscope is not going to work. The room is big, the number of students is huge, the microphone and/or room acoustics make your voice big, and your demonstrations have to be BIG if anyone is going to appreciate them. Demonstrations which are large in their appearance and/or their emotional appeal will be the most effective. Take, for example, Dr. Lynne Greeley's Theater 110 class: students Kate Devitt and Darryl Sampey move around the lecture platform performing a reader's theater of a selection from "A Doll's House" by Henrick Ibsen. After several minutes of marital crisis between Nora and Torvald, Greeley interrupts them and addresses the class, "Now let's change the given circumstances. What do you want them to do?" "Move it up in time-the 1970's," someone calls. "Move it from England to the U.S.," shouts another student. "The south," someone chimes in. The actors continue, with brand new accents and new ways of walking and relating. Greeley interrupts again several times with questions. "How can Nora be more aggressive?" she asks. "Stand up! " a student answers. When the reader's theater has finished, Greeley engages the class in a lively discussion, moving among the students, shooting out questions and pointing at answers. Then, quickly, a screen the size of Rhode Island lowers into the room, the lights are dimmed, and we watch Jane Fonda and and a costar act out the same scene we've just been talking about. The discussion continues during the film, with Greeley's voice piercing both the darkness and students' tendency to fall asleep when the lights are out. (A LARGE ASTRONOMY CLASS) It may come as no surprise that Greeley uses "dramatic devices." She is, after all, teaching drama. But the use of drama in the classroom need not be limited to theater classes. Dr. Grace Deming makes good use of the 32 volumes of Physics and Astronomy demonstrations available to her. It's Thursday and there's the usual hubbub before class starts in Astronomy 101. Students discuss the "sky watch" from the night before (Venus and Saturn were close to each other in the south western sky just after sunset). No one seems to pay much attention to the man on a ladder carefully hanging a black 40 pound weight from a long wire in the center of the lecture platform. Class begins, and students are attentive as Deming presents the basics of the scientific method: observation, hypothesis, experimentation, revision and more observation. She explains how a very well supported hypothesis is sometimes referred to as a law, such as the law of gravity. She assures us that laws demonstrate consistency. She then declares that she will show her faith in the law of gravity, which dictates that a pendulum will not swing higher than its starting position. She grabs the 40 pound weight and backs herself against a makeshift plywood wall which will prevent her from flinching out of the way. She holds the heavy metal plate to her forehead, and amid nervous fluttering among the students, she lets go. As the weight swings out and away, there are tiny cries of "aaah!" and "oh!" As the weight plummets back toward Deming's head, students gasp. Deming, unflustered, uses this teachable moment to its fullest. "You see, good theories have repeatable results," she says. (A LARGE BIOLOGY CLASS) In another science lecture hall, Dr. Richard Racusen (Biology) stands on the platform with what looks like the better part of his home's heating system held high above his head: a long, caterpillar-like segment of silver tubing with splotches of orange paint. The ends snake onto the floor around his feet. He is lecturing about protein structure. "This is what a scaled up enzyme looks like," he explains, before he stuffs the oversized larva back into the large black trash bag which is its home. Racusen says he often brings in a large black trash bag and sets it on the stage before the lecture begins. Students wait expectantly to find out what's in it. Some days they find out, and other days the bag simply serves to keep them alert and hoping, until he ends the lecture, picks up the bag, and walks out. "These devices are better if they look like I thought of them at midnight last night," says Racusen. "That way, they look inspired." The well developed, professional stuff is, apparently, less interesting. In a study of students' perceptions of large classes, demonstrations were specified as a teaching device that significantly increased students' satisfaction in a class (Wulff, Nyquist, Abbott 1987). By incorporating demonstrations and dramatic devices into the lecture format, we can help increase student attention, interest, understanding and learning. REFERENCES Clarke, John H. 1987. "Building a Lecture That Works." College Teaching, 35(2): 56-8. McNeil, Laurie E. 1995. "Challenges for Teaching in Introductory Science Classes: Why They Aren't Hearing What You Think You Are Saying." The National Teaching & Learning Forum, 4(5): 4-7. Thomas, E.J. 1972. "The Variations of Memory With Time." Studies in Adult Education, p.57. Wulff, Donald H., Nyquist, Jody D. and Abbott, Robert D. 1987. "Students' Perceptions of Large Classes" inTeaching Large Classes Well edited by Maryellen Gleason Weimer. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, No. 32.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. |
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