The evaluation of a workshop to promote interactive lecturing

Background: The lecture is the most widely used method of teaching in medic al education. Although effective lecturing has been described in the litera ture, many question whether problem-solving skills or attitudes can be tran smitted using the traditional lecture. Introducing interactive techniques c an promote learner participation and, as a result, can lead to a higher lev el of learning. This article assesses the effectiveness of interactive lear ning. Description: A 4-hr workshop has been offered for 4 consecutive years to fa culty members in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University to allow part icipants to explore interactive techniques and incorporate them into their lectures. For this study, an evaluation was conducted of the workshop given in Spring 1996 The experimental group consisted of the first 60 faculty me mbers to register for the workshop, and the comparison group comprised the 40 individuals on the waiting list. Three instruments were used in the eval uation. An immediate postworkshop questionnaire was completed by the partic ipants. Six months after the session, a 6-month postworkshop questionnaire was completed by the experimental and comparison groups that explored the u se of interactive lecturing techniques since the workshop. In addition, 23 individuals from the experimental group and 14 fr om the comparison group w ere videotaped 6 months after the session and were scored on a videotape ob servational grid by an independent rater Evaluation: Overall, the workshop was deemed very useful by the majority of the participants. On the 6-month postworkshop questionnaire, the only diff erence found in the demographic data between the 2 groups was in the number of years of teaching experience. The experimental group had given more int eractive lectures over the past 6 months and had used more audience respons es, certain types of questions, audience surveys, live interviews, verbal a nd written cases, and study guides. From the videotape observational data, the experimental group scored higher in questioning and engaging the audien ce, and in using nonverbal gestures. As well, this group received higher ra tings for their interactivity and for the students' responsiveness. Conclusions: Interactive lectures can increase student participation and in volvement in the large class lecture. This 4-hr workshop, designed to promo te the use of interactive lecturing techniques, can be considered successfu l based on self-reports from participants as well as from observational dat a. Copyright (C) 2001 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.