TEACHING HUMAN-SEXUALITY - PERSONALIZING THE IMPERSONAL LECTURE

Helping students to see the personal relevance of course material is a n important instructional goal, especially in the human sexuality cour se. How one achieves this goal depends on characteristics of the stude nts and the instructor, and on whether the course includes discussion groups. We discuss issues in each of these areas. We then describe fou r strategies that can be used to personalize the information presented in large lectures. These strategies are 1) self-report questionnaires , 2) journals and alternative writing assignments, 3) simulations and demonstrations, and 4) analysis of sexual themes in popular culture. S trengths and weaknesses of each strategy are considered.