William E. Cashin in his Idea Paper titled, “Improving Lectures,” provides several suggestions for effective lecturing and presenting of material. First, the appropriateness of the lecture format is dependent on the goals of the course, and the instructor should evaluate the course aims before determining whether a lecture-style course will most effectively achieve the course goals. The strengths of the lecture are that it “can communicate the intrinsic interest of the subject matter, and it can present the newest developments” (Walker & McKeachie, 1967).

Other strengths of lecture formats include their ability to restructure information into a unique manner, relevant to the course directions. Lectures are also useful in that they provide a large amount of material to many students at the same time. Finally, they can also be used as examples for how professionals approach an intellectual question.

The negative aspects of lecturing include the lack of feedback that students receive, the presumption that all students are learning the material at the same pace, and the problem that lectures are not well suited for higher levels of thinking, such as what is involved in synthesis and application. To overcome these hurdles, Cashin offers several recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of lectures:

• Fit your lecture to your audience, by gathering information about your audience beforehand.
• Prepare an organized outline with 5-9 major points, and decide which minor points you will
  include. Present this outline at the beginning of class.
• Present multiple sides to an issue, to make your audience aware of the various viewpoints,
  or to help strengthen an argument you are making.
• Repeat the points you are making in two or three different ways, and stress the points you
  deem most important.
• Look at your audience, include discussions, and solicit questions.