Nine Alternatives to Lecturing

As long as class sizes continue to increase, it is likely that lecturing will be a dominant
teaching method in university class rooms. However, there are many different activities
that can be integrated into a lecture-based course to encourage the students to engage
with the subject material, to facilitate interaction among the students and between the
students and the professor, and to revitalize the course by providing a change of pace.

For brief descriptions of a number of easy-to-implement ideas beyond those described

on this sheet, see the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) teaching tip sheets on
“Active Learning Activities” and “Activities for Large Classes.”

This tip sheet provides more detailed descriptions of nine activities, including a number
of relatively structured activities, along with their time requirements, special features,
implementation procedures, and function in the course. The activities are:

1. Questions
2. Pro and con grid
3. Debate
4. Guided analysis
5. Case study
6. Field trip
7. Role play
8. One-minute paper
9. Ungraded quiz

Activity 1: Questions
Time requirements: Varies

Special features: Questions are the simplest form of interactive teaching tool. They
are useful in any discipline. They can help make students active learners and gauge their
level of interest and comprehension.

Procedure

1. Develop key questions before class. They won’t occur to you on the spot.
2. Decide when you’re going to ask them. Thinking ahead also allows you to plan
your time.
3. Ask questions that can be answered, but favour open-ended questions over
yes/no questions.
4. Vary the form and level of the questions. Questions that have multiple correct
answer or that rely only on general knowledge are good for encouraging
participation. More complex questions can be used to gauge student knowledge.
5. Ask only one question at a time or you will confuse the students.
6. Pause between asking and accepting replies (pausing gives students a chance to
think of an answer, and by not asking the first person who raises his/her hand,
you encourage quieter students to participate).
7. Acknowledge all answers – thank students for participating, repeat their
comments so the class can hear and/or write them on the board. This supports
continued participation.
8. Keep the whole class involved in the question and answer exchange. Move around
the room when trying to elicit participation. When responding to a student
question or comment, split your attention so that you are focused on the class in
general 75% of the time and the student commenter 25% of the time.
Function in the class: Questions are integral to the success of discussion groups.
They can also be the organizing principle behind a tutorial or lecture. During lectures,
ask questions early on to stimulate interest and gauge students’ level of knowledge; in
the middle, to break the pace of the lecture; and/or at the end, to review main ideas and
gather ideas for future classes.

Activity 2: Pro and con grid

Time requirements: 15-20 minutes

Special features: This technique helps students develop analytical and evaluative
skills, and encourages them to go beyond initial reactions to complex issues. It can be
used in any discipline: students can evaluate the pros and cons of a procedure,
technique, conclusion, action of a fictional character, political decision, etc.

Procedure

1. Divide students into small groups, if necessary.

2. Specify how many pros and cons you’d like each individual or group to develop.
3. Allow five to ten minutes for discussion or silent thought.
4. Ask for input: write pros on one side of the board and cons on the other side.
5. Combine pros and cons that are very similar, and count the number of times they
recur to show their perceived importance.

Function in the class: Consider using the pros and cons as the basis for a debate, or
for a discussion/lecture structured around the evaluation of course material.

Activity 3: Debate
Time requirements: 15-25 minutes

Special features: Debates can be formal or informal: what follows is about informal
debates (i.e., debating as a method of class discussion). See Bean (1996) for instructions
for holding a formal debate – a much more complicated and lengthy process that can be
a focal point for an entire segment of course material. A debate is a good way to
encourage class participation in large groups without losing control, and they can work
in any discipline. Instructors can plan debates beforehand, or they can emerge
spontaneously from classroom material.

Procedure

1. Describe the background context, and explain why you are having a debate.
2. Consider establishing ground rules for the discussion (ex. Disagreements are
welcome, name calling and interruptions are not).
3. Decide on the two (or more) sides to the debate.
4. Physically group the class according to points of view: either assign students a
point of view depending on where they sit, or ask people who want to argue each
point of view to move to sit together.
5. Invite someone from one side to begin the debate by stating his/her point of view.
6. Invite someone from the other side to state the opposite point of view.
7. Open the floor to comments that question or expand on the issues that were
raised.
8. For large groups, you may want to have speakers raise their hands while you
moderate, but for small groups, anyone can speak up.
9. The debate will probably start slowly at first, but the intensity should pick up as
the students become more comfortable with the new style of in-class interaction.
 10. You, as moderator, can ask provocative questions, but don’t express judgment on
any point of view or students will hesitate to bring out new ideas for fear of being
embarrassed.
11. After 10 to 15 minutes of debating, end the debate.

Function in the class: Use ideas and conflicts from the debate to lead into your
presentation of course material.

Activity 4: Guided analysis

Time requirements: 30-50 minutes

Special features: This technique helps students develop their analytical skills in any
field by observing your analytical skills in action.

Procedure

1. Select a document (a short review, section of computer programming, poem,

proof, chart, abstract from an article, news item, etc.) to analyze as an example.
2. Make enough copies of a similar document to distribute to all class members or
to small groups (depending on your preference).
3. Perform an analysis of your document in front of the class, making clear the
procedure you use to reach your assertions, and using visual aids and
supplementary material as necessary.
4. Give students five to ten minutes to analyze their document: the conclusions they
reach will be their own, but they will have learned rigour and analytical skills
from you.
5. Depending on class size, have students (or representatives from small groups)
present their analysis, and respond to each one.

Function in the class: An entire 50-minute tutorial or lecture can be structured

around this exercise. Consider leading into the exercise with a mini-lecture on the type
of document you and your students will be analyzing.

Activity 5: Case study

Time requirements: 20-50 minutes

Special features: The case-study method was pioneered at the Harvard law and
business schools. Business and law cases tend to be very detailed and long, and take
several classes to analyze, but instructors can apply a simplified case-study method
(described below) for teaching in many disciplines. Applying theory to an instance as
described by some source material can demonstrate the applicability of the course
material beyond the classroom. A good case study:

 Presents students with a situation they can relate to from their own life
experience.
 Includes realistic information. Examples can include scripts of exchanges that
took place between key parties, news articles about situations of interest,
background information about the organization of interest, etc.
 Has a conflict that students can resolve.

Procedure

1. Get source material (short story, news articles, account of a decision or

procedure, video, role-play script, etc.) to use as the basis for the case study.
2. Provide students with a focus or framework to use in doing their analysis.
 3. Give students time to analyze the case individually or in groups, and to write
down their analysis.
4. Begin a discussion of students’ analyses.
5. Act as a mediator of the discussion. Don’t offer your own opinion except to
provide guidance on the process (remind students of the framework if discussion
becomes unfocused).
6. After analysis has been completed, show how the case study illustrates
application of theoretical or background concepts in course material.

Function in the class: Use a case study to lead into a discussion or lecture of course
material, showing its relevance by referring back to the case study.

Activity 6: Field trip

Time requirements: At least 50 minutes; preferably a couple of hours

Special features: A field trip can be especially interesting for students and instructors,
and it facilitates some types of learning that cannot take place in a classroom. A field trip
to a professional institution can show students where their studies may lead them. A
field trip for the purpose of gathering data can give students practice with research
techniques and show them the relevance of course material to the outside world. Some
courses or departments require field trips which you will have to lead. In other courses,
you might be able to consider short field trips during your discussion groups or tutorials
to locations on or near campus. For example:

 For an engineering course, consider arranging a tour of one of Waterloo’s lab

facilities
 For a sociology course, consider sending students to observe the working
conditions of various jobs on the Waterloo campus.
 If leaving the classroom is not feasible, consider using media such as videos or
computer simulations as "virtual" field trips.

Procedure

1. Prepare for time constraints, bad weather, and other misfortunes.

2. Look at past course outlines or notes to gather ideas for where to go.
3. Communicate a clear “mission” of the field trip to the students.
4. Research shows that students learn more from field trips in which they are not
simply observers: encourage students to participate in their surroundings by
giving an assignment that must be accomplished using data from the field or
notes from a visit.
5. Taking effective field notes and identifying the key points of a field trip can be
hard: consider giving students a worksheet allowing them to do a self-guided tour
– include questions to be answered.
6. During the class before the field trip, have a preparatory session: discuss practical
matters (dress, safety, equipment to bring) and the academic background to the
field trip.
7. Very important: allow enough time for debriefing (discussing and processing data
obtained on the field trip) as soon as possible afterwards.

Function in the class: Generally, an entire class will be spent on a field trip. Classes
before and afterwards can be used to prepare for and process the trip. A field trip can
provide a good focus for a segment of course material.
Activity 7: Role-play
Time requirements: 20-30 minutes

Special features: Role-plays can be used to allow students to experiment with

different styles of interaction, practice new communication techniques or explore
complex issues. They are generally used in classes dealing with social issues (social
sciences, management sciences, etc.) or communication strategies (interviewing
techniques, conflict management, etc.). If possible, participate in a role-play yourself
before trying one in class. Essentially, a role-play is a form of interactive case study
where the experience of participating in the role-play is the basis for further discussion.

Procedure

1. Get scenarios and characters for role-plays from news stories, history books,
generic business situations, or by writing them yourself from scratch.
2. Explain why you are using a role-play to cover course material.
3. Describe the background context or setting to the role-play.
4. Give roles to “players”: hand them a card with a brief description of the character
they’re playing, their point of view, characteristics, etc.
5. For groups with more students than possible roles, you can either assign
“observer” tasks to non-players (e.g., taking notes on a particular player), or
assign identical roles to subgroups of students (e.g., one student can play a city
council member, and a sub-group of four or five students can play a homeowners’
coalition).
6. Ask for volunteers for certain roles or observers: you may use this as one way to
allot bonus points to students.
7. Allow a few minutes for students to prepare for their roles.
8. After 10-15 minutes, end the role-play.

Function in the class: Debrief and discuss the role-play. Use players’ perceptions and
observers’ notes to lead into discussion of course material. Pay special attention to
conflicts, ambiguities, etc.

Activity 8: One-minute paper

Time requirements: 3-5 minutes

Special features: The one-minute paper and the ungraded quiz that follows are both
examples of ungraded, written, in-class activities (see Davis, 1993 p. 209-212 for more
options). These activities are a flexible way to acquire candid feedback on the course
material and your presentation style. The one-minute paper can be done especially
quickly and it shows students that they can write quickly and spontaneously, and
enhances general writing ability.

Procedure:

1. Give a prompt for the paper such as “what was the most important concept of this
lecture?” or “what was the muddiest point of this lecture?”
2. Give students one or two minutes to think about the topic without writing
anything.
3. Give students a short period of time (1 minute?) to write as much as they can.
4. Collect papers (depending on the class atmosphere and the types of questions
used, you may ask students to put their names on them but generally these
ungraded assignments are left anonymous to encourage open responses to the
questions.)
Function in the class: Assign one-minute papers at the end of a class to gauge
comprehension, provide general writing practice, and give students an incentive to
absorb and comprehend course material. Consider using the content of one-minute
papers to plan content of upcoming classes: when students see that the instructor
responds to their concerns, confusions, and questions in future classes, they will be
motivated to participate.

Activity 9: Ungraded quiz

Time requirements: 5-10 minutes

Special features: An ungraded quiz encourages students to pay attention during

lectures by presenting them with a short-term, non-threatening learning objective. It
can be done very quickly, and also provides you with a source of candid feedback on
students’ knowledge level.

Procedure:

1. Write question(s) on the board, overhead, or handout

2. Give students five to ten minutes to respond on a blank sheet of paper
(depending on the atmosphere in the class, you may keep the quiz anonymous or
ask students to put their names on papers)
3. Collect papers and report on responses next time the class meets
4. One variation: Prepare multiple-choice answer options and present each one in
turn, asking for a show of hands
5. Another variation: Before (or instead of) collecting quiz papers, have students
exchange and "grade" each other’s quiz papers based on the answers you present.
This grading is to allow students to provide the students with timely feedback so
that they can gauge their understanding and should not be used as a formal
assessment.

Function in the class: Use ungraded quizzes at the beginning of a lecture to

determine the level of knowledge, or at the end of a lecture as a review and incentive for
students to retain and comprehend information. Alternatively, use an ungraded quiz at
the end of a lecture to gauge how successful you’ve been in teaching the material.

References
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pp. 43-50.
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