Interactive lectures combine the structure and control of lecture presentations and interest and interactivity of games. Here's an interactive lecture activity that requires participants to work individually and in pairs to logically analyze, organize, and prioritize items related to workplace violence.
Purpose
- To review the content of the presentation from different points of view.
- To logically categorize and rank-order different elements of the presentation.
Participants
Any number
Time
10-15 minutes for each round of the activity.
Flow
Brief participants. Before your presentation, advise participants to pay careful attention to your talk and to take ample notes because you will be conducting a review exercise at the end. Make your presentation at a fairly brisk pace.
Identify a superlative. After the presentation, ask participants to review the notes and look for the most important point from the presentation. Encourage them to refer back to their notes.
Elicit a response. After a brief pause, invite any participant to announce what she considers to be the most important point. After the response, ask the participant to explain the logic behind the choice. Add your own comments to support the participant's choice.
Ask for alternative responses. Point out that there could be more than one correct answer to the question, “Which is the most important point?” Elicit alternative responses from different participants, one at a time. Invite other participants to comment on these choices.
Identify a new category. Ask participants to review their notes again and identify the most useful point from the presentation. Pause briefly while participants review their notes.
Ask partners to discuss their choices. Ask participants to find partners. Ask each pair of participants to share their answers to the question “What is the most useful point from the presentation?” If both partners have the same answer, ask them to discuss the reasons for their choice. If the partners have different answers, ask them to come to an agreement about which of the two answers contains the most important point.
Ask participants to present their choices. After a suitable pause, ask a pair of participants to announce the most useful point and the reason for its selection. Comment briefly to reinforce the selection. Ask for alternative choices from other pairs of participants.
Identify more categories. Repeat the procedure with other superlatives such as these:
- Most confusing
- Most controversial
- Most difficult
- Most surprising
- Most amusing
- Most unusual
- Most credible
- Most trivial
Conclude the activity. Congratulate participants for their in-depth analysis and understanding of characteristics and events associated with workplace violence. Explain that their choice of items that fit different superlatives may change from time to time depending on the situation.