Improving Student Motivation through Interactive Lectures and Seminars

1. Improving Student Motivation through InteractiveLectures and Seminars John Sloman

2. Tell me and I will forgetShow me and I will rememberInvolve me and I will understandStep back and I will act (Chinese proverb)

3. I said that I'd taught him, not that he'd learned I've taught Snoopy to whistle I can't hear him whistle

4. Lectures andLarge Workshops

5. What makes a good lecture? What would make a bad lecture for your students?

6. What makes a bad lecture?

7. What makes a good lecture? • Problems with traditional lectures • Medium for conveying information • Means of developing student learning • Focus on student learning • A lecture exercise!

9. Lecturing and student learning • Student learning in lectures . • What are the intended learning outcomes? • Are popular lectures good lectures? • Entertaining? • Spoonfeeding? • Learning styles • Visual, aural, conceptual: encourage variety • Active and passive learning . • Deep and surface learning

10. Lecturing and student learning • Surface learning encouraged by • Heavy workload • Lack of independence • Passive learning • Assessment encouraging recall • Lack of interest • Deep learning encouraged by • Active involvement • Relating to experience • Choices • Progressive subject development • Applications

12. Student preparation • Getting background information • Data • Case material • Revisiting previous material • Start with a test • Getting students to identify issues • Use of the VLE • Assigning prior reading • Again, start with a test

13. Lecture structureand content • Clear structure • Mapping / overview • Issues to be addressed • Not too much material . • Examples • Mixing presentation with student activities

14. Lecture structureand content Lecture session plan

16. Activities and breaks • Do not talk for the whole hour! • Diminishing returns • Attention wanes • Comprehension and learning declines • Give students things to do that aid their learning • Don’t worry about not ‘covering so much’ • Even give them a break

17. Activities and breaks • Activities • Tests/quizzes (use of PRS?) . • Brief discussion with neighbour • e.g. policy implications • List of advantages / disadvantages • Doing a calculation / completing a diagram • Worksheets • Hybrid between lecture and workshop • Break • Watch video • Compare notes • Tidy up your own notes . • Entertainment

18. Building on the lecture • Note takers • Post on discussion board • Use for seminars • Post questions on discussion board • Use it as FAQ • Start debate going with students • Directly link to seminars/workshops • Material covered • Activities in the lecture • Online study guide: your own or published • Think of incentives for use • Preparation for next lecture

19. Workshops in Lectures • Can be used with large lecture groups • Use worksheets • Useful for technical and other closed-ended questions • Student work through questions in pairs • Lecturer goes through them at front • Other considerations • Layout of room • Use of GTAs • Use of audience voting system

20. Rethinking the Seminar

21. Traditional approachesto seminars • Pre-prepared worksheet / problem sets • Nature • Pre-set questions • Students assigned to present answers • Clarification by tutor as necessary • Strengths • Structured study by students • Can reinforce material in lectures/reading • Chance to ask questions of tutor • Chance to evaluate progress

22. Traditional approachesto seminars • Pre-prepared worksheets / problem sets (cont.) • Weaknesses • Largely passive for students • Students are poor tutors • Problem when students have not done the answers: question of incentives • Answers?

23. Traditional approachesto seminars • Giving a paper • Nature • Individual (or two), possibly with respondent • Discussion (with pre-prepared questions?) • Tutor steered • Strengths • Gives students opportunity to present(key skill) • Helps develop research skills • Useful for further work (e.g. essay), helpedby tutor feedback in seminar

24. Traditional approachesto seminars • Giving a paper (cont.) • Weaknesses • Poor learning experience for other students • Can degenerate into dialogue between presenter and tutor • Other students may not prepared for it (being solely concerned with their own presentation) • May encourage overspecialisation by student • Answers?

25. Interactive Teaching • Almost always appeals to students • Increased involvement = increased responsibility for learning • Improves understanding • Improves motivation • Often leads to higher pass rates(lower referral rates)

26. The first seminar • Establishing expectations • Student expectations of • Tutor • Other students • Themselves • Informal contract • Revisit contract in subsequent seminars

27. Seminar activities • Reporting back on pre-prepared work • Individual work • Reading • Calculations • Preparing answers to questions • Working in pairs or threes • Preparing answers to questions • Clarification of ideas • Comparing and agreeing on answers • Composing essay plans • Marking each other’s work; deciding marking criteria

28. Seminar activities • Working in fours or fives • Debating topic and arriving at team view • Preparing answer for plenary (use flip-chart / OHT) • Project team with division of labour • Pyramid • Bring together small groups which do preliminary work • Fishbowl • ‘Fish’ discuss issue, others observe and note • Envoys • Individuals change groups to inject new ideas

29. Seminar activities • Formal debates • Individuals assigned roles in advance • Given topic in advance: small groups prepare one side and then tutor chooses presenters • ‘Your Witness’ / ‘The Moral Maze’ • Panel to ask questions of pre-assigned witnesses • Presentation with primed respondents • One presenter, one respondent, others have to bring pre-prepared questions • Two or more presenters (different aspects) • Group presentations

30. Seminar activities • Role playing • Pre-allocated roles and scenario • Pre-reading; roles allocated at time • Games, simulations and experiments • Whole class • In groups • Single session or over long time period • Videos • Followed by quiz, debate or small-group work • Computer lab sessions (individual or pairs) • Virtual seminars

31. Classroom Experiments Learning by doing

32. Games, experimentsand role playing in PBL • Strengths • motivation, involvement, empathy, fun! • encourages active and deep learning • illustration and contextualisation • Potential weaknesses • over-simplification • not taken seriously

33. Games, experimentsand role playing in PBL • Overcoming the drawbacks • clear guidelines • feedback and reflection • drawing on concepts in later classes • linked to seminar activities • The Exeter FDTL5 project (link)

34. Game 1: A trading game • Students divided into buyers and sellers • Students given cards • Black for sellers of the item • Number on card gives cost of item in £s • Want to sell above value of card • Red for buyers of the item • Number on card gives value of item in £s • Want to buy below value of card • Trading takes place • Individual buyers and sellers agree prices • Mark their gain on their sheet • No deal gives no gain or loss

35. Game 1: Reflections • Students get considerable insight into the working of pit markets • Equilibrium prices rapidly emerge • Can vary the cards to see the effects on equilibrium • Easy to demonstrate producer and consumer surplus • Can discuss information issues • Can introduce a tax of £x on suppliers

36. £2 tax imposed on sellers (b) Potential gains (b) One we tried earlier An 18 player game

37. www.whystudyeconomics.ac.uk

38. www.whystudyeconomics.ac.uk

39. Game 2:Expected value game • TV show: Deal or No Deal? • Channel 4, six days per week (45 mins) • US version playable online (link) • 26 people each with a suitcase of money, the amount not known to them • Sums of money vary from 1¢ to $1,000,000 • One contestant us selected to play • … who eliminates suitcases in batches, whose contents are then revealed • After each batch, the contestant is offered a ‘Deal’ by the ‘Banker’, based on the values yet to be eliminated • The contestant chooses ‘Deal’ or ‘No Deal’

40. Game 2: Reflections • Virtually all students will be familiar with the game • Easy to set up: • It can be played online • Or with envelopes and the sums of money on the whiteboard • Illustrates decision-making under risk • Expected value; risk premia; probability; risk attitudes and what affects them

41. Game 3:Production function game • Activity • Production runs (2) in a factory, involving moving balls from one place to another • Extra workers are added one at a time • Equipment: • About 30 balls (e.g. tennis balls) • 4 buckets (or baskets or cardboard boxes) • Students divided into two teams • Object to get as many balls from one end to the other in 30 seconds

42. Game 3: Reflections • Easy to set up and fun to play • Can bring alive a potentially dry subject area • Flexible: can be played with 1, 2 or more teams • Can demonstrate • Diminishing returns • TP, AP and MP • Can derive TC, AC, MC, TR, AR, MR and Profit • Shifts and movements along product and cost curves from technological change • Effects of changing fixed and variable costs

43. Game 4:Public goods game • Aim • Aim is to make as much money as possible, irrespective of what others make • Activity • Each person (or pair) is given four cards of the same value (e.g. four threes or four queens) • Each person plays two cards each round • Scoring • Black cards have no value • Red cards are worth £1 for everyone if played and £4 just to the individual if not played.

44. Game 4: Reflections • Very easy to set up and fun to play • Can easily be played in a seminar • Flexible: can be played with up to 13 individuals or pairs • Can demonstrate • Public goods and external benefits • Prisoners’ dilemma and Nash equilibrium • Collusion versus competition • Motivation and altruism

45. Game 5:Auctioning a pound coin • Activity • This is a simple auction of a pound coin • The only difference is that both the winner and the next highest bidder have to pay • At the end • The money earned can be returned to students (but don’t tell them this at the start). • A discussion can then take place about the issues raised

46. Game 5: Reflections • Simple and flexible • Simple equipment: a pile of pound coins and a sheet for recording results • Can be played in a seminar group • Can demonstrate • Sunk costs and marginal costs • Risk attitudes • Collusive bidding • Concepts of equity

47. Game 6: A ‘Keynesian Beauty Contest’ • A game about investor expectations • predicting share prices based on what you think other people will do • Simple to play • No equipment required other than: • a calculator for the tutor • a whiteboard/flipchart for recording results • The game (each round) • Students have to select a number from 0 to 100 • A prize is given in each round to the student who selects a number closest to 2/3 of the mean

48. Game 6: A ‘Keynesian Beauty Contest’ • Each person of N-players is asked to choose a number from the interval 0 to 100. • The winner is the person whose choice is closest to p times the mean of the choices of all players (where p is, for example, 2/3). The winner gets a fixed prize (e.g.a chocolate). • The same game should then be repeated for several periods. Students are informed of the mean, 2/3 mean and all choices after each period. • Students should write down each time (or at the end) a brief comment about how they came to their choice. • Time to think in each period: about 3 minutes

49. Game 6: Reflections • Link1Link 2 • At the end • Students can be asked to explain their decisions • Can demonstrate: • Expectations formation • Iterative thinking / progression • Movement to Nash equilibrium

50. Game 7: TradablePermits Game • Six teams • Each represents a polluting firm • Each team is given a worksheet and a marginal abatement cost (MAC) curve • Each team is given an emissions allocation • The same for all firms (1480 units) • Round 1 • Establishes cost of abatement with no trading • Round 2 • Teams can now trade allocations • Price is adjusted by tutor until demand equals supply • Establishes the cost with trading at market clearing price