Using PowerPoint presentations in Teaching

You may have many years of classroom experience, as a student and a teacher, which

guides your teaching. However, you are less likely to have had similarly rich experiences

with instructional technologies, as these tools have become available only more recently.

Additionally, we are only beginning to understand the capabilities and possibilities that

emerging technologies have for teaching and learning.

There are many tutorials, books and other resources for using presentation

technologies, like PowerPoint. However, most deal only with the mechanics of creating

slides and presentations and the general principles of good design from a graphic design

and business perspective. There is very little about effectively teaching with PowerPoint.

Most people seem to simply convert their lecture notes and transparencies into

PowerPoint slides. Though the research indicates that this may be slightly more effective

in terms of student achievement, this approach does not exploit the possibilities this

technology has for education.

Some example slides can be found in a presentation to support a workshop offered by

the Centre for Academic Practice, which can be accessed from the web at:

http://cap.warwick.ac.uk/powerpoint/Teaching_with_Powerpoint_4.ppt

A number of educational models could be applied to the design of a PowerPoint

presentation for teaching and its integration into a classroom situation. Applying an

explicit model provides a framework on which to base the design and a checklist of

issues that the presentation should cover. We use Robert Gagne’s Events of Instruction

here as an example.

Gagne’s Events of Instruction

1. Gaining Attention

2. Informing Learner of the Objective

3. Stimulating Recall of Prior Learning

4. Presenting the Stimulus

5. Providing Learning Guidance

6. Eliciting Performance

7. Providing Feedback

8. Assessing Performance

9. Enhancing Retention and Transfer

Gagne identified nine events of instruction corresponding to these learning processes.

Although providing for each of these events will enhance learning, an instructor does not

have to provide for each one. Students sometimes will supply these events themselves,

especially more mature and successful students. Also, each event does not have to be

supported by a presentation slide.

In the workshop, we examined each of these events of instruction and viewed example

slides that support that event.

1.    Gaining Attention

When students arrive at class, their attention is directed toward many other things. One

student might be thinking about an assignment from a previous class. Another student

might be struggling with a personal problem. Some students might be discussing

weekend plans. The purpose of this instructional event is to gain student attention and

arouse interest.

One way to do this is with an abrupt stimulus change, such as gesturing, speaking

loudly, or providing an interesting visual.

A title slide, sometimes called a splash screen, can be used to gain attention.

Depending on the audience, photographs, pictures, and sound can be combined to gain

attention and interest as well as set a mood or tone for a lesson. However, overuse of

multimedia can be counterproductive as students may anticipate your next dazzling

effect rather than participate in the class. In most design, restraint is important— less is

more.

The example slides gain attention and arouses interest in a novel, dramatic, and

entertaining way. It says, “Hey, this is going to be interesting.”

2. Informing the Learner of the Objective

The next event of instruction is Informing the Learner of the Objective. This event

focuses on the expectancy control processes in the Information Processing model.

Making the lesson objectives or unit goals explicit influences selective perception. Your

students will have a better understanding of what they should attend to. It also may

improve performance and feedback processes since students will be able to better

access their learning achievement as instruction proceeds. Additionally, this event may

affect their choice of storage and retrieval schemes. For example, I study differently for a

course that includes objective-type exams than for a course that requires a long paper or

project.

3. Stimulating Recall of Prior Learning

Often, understanding new information requires an understanding or application of

existing knowledge or skills, sometimes called prerequisites. Before presenting new

information, Stimulating Recall of Prior Learning makes that knowledge more accessible

in working memory.

4. Presenting the Stimulus

This is where many lessons begin. However, Gagne’s work indicates that instruction will

be more effective if we first gain attention and interest, inform the learner of objectives,

and recall prior learning.

Although we may believe everything we say or do in class is important, this instructional

event helps students focus on important ideas, ignore unnecessary details, and avoid

distractions.

5. Providing Learning Guidance

“

This event of instruction supports the internal process usually called semantic encoding.

In familiar language, the instructional technique may be described as follows: Make the

stimulus as meaningful as possible,

Throughout a lesson, you can suggest meaningful organizations of the material, such as

presenting examples, relating new information to existing knowledge, providing images,

and offering mnemonics. However, this can be provided near the end of your lesson,

after the new material has been presented, as well.

6. Eliciting Performance

7. Providing Feedback

The previously described instructional events focus on the acquisition of new

knowledge.In the second part of this model, the learner uses and demonstrates these

newly learned capabilities. Also, the instructor provides feedback about the correctness

of this performance.

A shortcoming of some lessons is that no opportunity exists for learner performance and

feedback. This is often reserved for homework or exams when no one will be

immediately available to assist with problems and questions. However, including a few

minutes of in-class practice, tied to the lesson objectives, can help both the instructor

and student identify and correct misunderstandings.

8. Assessing Performance

At this point, the students have demonstrated that learning has occurred. However, a

single performance does not ensure that the new capability has been reliably stored.

Additional practice and performance are needed. This additional practice is often

homework and culminates with a graded test or project.

No examples slides for this instructional event are including in the presentation as the

previous slides on performance and feedback also illustrate this event and presentation

slides may not be the best mechanism for supporting this event.

9. Enhancing Retention and Transfer

Once we are reasonably sure that the new capabilities are reliably stored, we can

increase the likelihood that these capabilities will be retained over a long time period.

Providing practice and spaced reviews is one way to enhance retention.

Additionally, transfer of knowledge and skills to new problems and situations is a goal of

most instruction. Because of classroom time constraints, we often are not able to

examine new ideas in a variety of contexts. Consequently, students may not recognize

these ideas in new situations. Providing practice variety may enhance the transfer of

learning be increasing retrieval cues.

Vishal Jain / Bindu Sharma