Read the following short case study:

"Lecturer X is a popular lecturer amongst students. Students often choose X’s lectures as they are understood to be passionate, entertaining, and make learning fun. The lectures feel like a performance for many students.Jing is a studious student but finds live events such as tutorials, brief introductions and lectures difficult as she misses out on content. She often discusses lectures with her peers as a strategy to catch up on information. She chose X’s lecture as her peers recommended them but finds them a lonely experience. She understands much of what is being said but there are parts of the lecture when she doesn’t understand the relevance of what is being said, and when she loses track finds it difficult to re-engage."

Consider the following questions and propose some responses in relation to your own teaching practice:

What are the key issues the student is facing within this learning situation?
How as a teacher can you respond to support the student?
How could you adapt your teaching practice to pre-empt some of the challenges the student is facing?

Once you have thought through each question move on to the next page to explore some suggested strategies from the literature.

Reflections

The following audio provides some reflections from the session leader and a colleague discussing particular aspects of the case study.

Drawing upon the wider research literature the following strategies have been identified as good practice examples for responding to the issues highlighted within the case study.

Suggested strategies:

“Your lectures are likely to be more effective for international students (and all students) if you focus on: Transparent structure, Essential content, Improved understand ability..”and to create a lecture environment that encourages students to understand and be able to employ “..Effective note taking”[1]
The provision of lecture notes for students is essential. Lecture notes should be available in advance on the VLE to encourage second language students (and all students) to become familiar with new ideas and vocabulary. Think about the presentation slides on the VLE, are they useful for self-study or do they only include the headings without explanation? Is it possible to annotate images to explain the significance of what is being shown?
Listening in lectures requires high levels of concentration for all students. Would it be useful to include headings on slides to signpost what section of the lecture they refer to:- Introduction, context, example of…, quote related to… This will help students to re-engage or re-enter listening when they lose track.
Try to reduce introductory clauses in sentences – it can be difficult for students to identify meaning. Instead of saying ,“Through the introduction of a patented blue colour, Yves Klein was able to create signature works across painting, sculpture and performance” Try instead,“Yves Klein introduced a patented blue colour to create signature works across painting, sculpture and performance”
Glossary – this does not need to be all inclusive, focus on key terms.
Work effectively between abstract and concrete words by linking examples to abstract ideas. A lot of discussion and topics in lectures tend towards abstract ideas like ‘representivity, or ‘binary opposition’. Group concrete examples under abstract headings.

If second language students have the option to self-study topics prior to lectures, their understanding of new vocabulary and ideas will improve. Structured written materials available on the VLE, that are referenced during the lecture will improve student engagement and students’ ability to process meaning from lectures. New ideas linked to examples, with accompanying visuals, will improve understanding and preparation for listening.

To return to the case studies please click: Exploring Your Practice

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[1] HEA Teaching International Students Project, Lecturing. [23/1/17]