Teaching in three hour blocks
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Block learning sessions permit the implementation of many interesting and educationally valuable variations on the traditional University teaching formats. The passive learning of the traditional lecture can be interspersed with complementary active learning such as reading, discussing, or problem solving. This helps students concentrate and acts as a positive aid to understanding as opposed to memorisation.
The following are some real examples from UTS teachers on how they break up some of their three hour teaching sessions:
Second year Economics:
- 5-10 minutes overview and summary of previous lecture
- 40-45 minutes new material in two 20 minute blocks separated by questions or a 5 minute activity
- 10 minute break
- 20 minutes new material
- 10-20 minute problem solving, discussion or buzz group activity, followed by 10 minute summary or analysis
- 5 minute content summary
- 10 minute break
- 40-50 minute tutorial, practical or CML individual or small group activity, including 5-10 minute summary if appropriate
First year Engineering:
- 50 minute tutorial session on assignments set the previous week, consisting of small blocks of questions, problem-solving demonstrations and student problem-solving activity
- 10 minute break
- 50 minutes new material, in at least two blocks separated by questions
- 10 minute break
- 30-40 minutes examples and problem-solving demonstrations and student problem-solving related to the new material
- 10 minute summary
The existence of a three-hour block on the timetable does not make it compulsory to keep your students in a room on campus for the full time, if they can be engaged in independent learning activities outside the classroom.
One lecturer has approached the three-hour block as follows, and has found it particularly effective for evening classes:
- 50 minute lecture, with question breaks and usually one buzz group session where students work on a question in pairs
- 10 minute break
- 40 minute tutorial/discussion
- 10 minute review
- 10 minute break
- 60 minute computer assisted learning task, to be done at any time within the following week, with evidence of completing tasks forming part of the course assessment. (Students were also able to complete this on home computers.)
Other staff have abandoned the traditional classroom format for most of the semester and negotiate individual learning contracts with students, use individual or group projects, or use UTSOnline for presentation of materials and asynchronous discussion.