Lectures: Common Mistakes to Avoid

10 Quick Tips from http://teachingcenter.wustl.edu/tips-teaching-lectures

Common Lecture Mistakes

1. Trying to cover too much material in one class session.

2. Not including opportunities for questions or active learning.

3. Waiting until the last two minutes of class to ask and answer questions.

4. Not asking a mix of questions, i.e. questions that test comprehension and questions that require more complex levels of thinking or that have more than one correct answer.

5. Answering your own questions or asking more than one question at once.

6. Assuming students are learning the material if they are not asking questions.

7. Assuming that students will identify and understand the important points of each lecture.

8. Reading your notes or the content of the slides when using PowerPoint.

9. Not looking at the students when you are lecturing; looking only at your notes or the chalkboard.

10. Filling the chalkboard or PowerPoint slides with too much information.