Suggestion 41. Outline your lecture on the blackboard as it develops

IF YOU WANT TO:

• Give lectures that are easy to outline

• Reinforce student learning

• Keep yourself from going through the material too rapidly

Outlining your lecture on the blackboard as it develops.

One professor in the biological sciences says that she always outlines her lectures on the board as she goes along, using colored chalk to differentiate major and subordinate heads or points and to diagram relationships. On a separate section of the blackboard she also writes down any technical terms or names of scientists that the students might not know how to spell.

"The outline serves to reinforce visually what I am saying," she explains. "Furthermore, it makes clear to everyone where we have been and where we are going. An added bonus is that writing the outline on the board as I go along slows down my lecture pace: it serves as an automatic `brake' and keeps me from racing through the material."

"I prefer to use the board as I go along," an engineering professor says. "I think this emphasizes the importance of major ideas better because they are revealed in the context of the discussion."

Limitations on Use of Suggestion

  Discipline:  None
Course Level:  None
 Course Size:  None
        Mode:  Lecture

Copyright 1983 by the Regents of the University of California

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