Three Common Student Learning Challenges with Lectures

How often have you heard a student say, “I studied really hard, and I knew the material. I don’t understand why I scored so low” when discussing an exam they did not perform well on? Part of this may be because students today are taught to focus on what to learn but not how to learn. They continually use ineffective study strategies (Sickler, 2019) and equate time studying with effort; the more time spent, the better the grade. Students are also commonly overconfident in their judgment of their knowledge (Foster et al., 2017; Nevid, Cheney & Thompson, 2015). The truth is the most effective and valuable tool a student has is their brain, not digital devices or other study hacks. 

The reality is, and despite the continued controversy, lecture is still a viable teaching option. When there is a lot of information to present quickly, lecture is one of the best teaching approaches (Weimer, 2019). With that said, I think we all recognize that droning on hour and hour and day after day is ineffective. There are ways we can engage students during a lecture to make it more interactive (Is Lecture a Good Teaching Methods - https://www.dremilywhitehorse.com/blog/is-lecture-an-effective-teaching-method-update). However, with lectures, it is essential to recognize why students don’t seem to retain much from these classes so that we can make some suggestions and adjustments to foster better student retention of the material presented. 

Lack of context

For many of our students, the material we teach is new. Even if they have some medical experience, they have never been or practiced as a PA. During lectures, students often try to learn something without context, meaning they don’t have any prior learning or experiences to connect with this new learning. Given the pace and length of the lecture, this can lead to students feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, which can lead to avoidance of studying when the test comes around (Sickler, 2019). Without context, students are just memorizing, and we all know that, eventually, this will not support their success.  

Therefore, we must consider how to provide context for what we are teaching when we know most students do not have it. One way is to have students do short pre-class assignments that introduce them to the topic or content (He, 2022). These assignments could be a 5-20 minute video they must watch before class so they have at least been introduced to some of the core concepts that will be presented in the lecture. The goal is to provide a foundational layer we go deeper into and solidify during the lecture. Further support for material retention would be having students apply what they learned to a situation in class or as an assignment. Of course, there is the issue of students not doing the pre-assigned work. However, if it is kept short and students realize from their classmates who are doing it how helpful it is, they may change their minds. 

Another way to help build context is to help students connect the dots by encouraging and exploring, either in or outside of class, how what they are learning is related to something they already know, something they have previously learned, or in some way experienced. For example, faculty can help students by intentionally making cuing statements about how the current material is building upon something they learned in a previous semester or another course. Or students can be asked to think about whether they know someone with the disease, such as a family member or someone in a similar situation. We are trying to build connection and meaning, which creates relevance and increases retention (Willis, 2010). Lastly, we can share a clinical case we experienced because students commonly remember the story or the emotion that emerged from listening to it, which helps them remember the material.   

Overconfidence

Research has repeatedly shown that students lean toward overconfidence regarding what they know for an exam (Foster et al., 2017; Nevid, Cheney, & Thompson, 2015). This overconfidence commonly comes from their assumption that the more they see the information, the more confident they believe they know it. What they actually develop is familiarity with the information from reading and rereading it, but this does not equate to genuine understanding (Sickler, 2019). As we know, reading and rereading is passive studying and does not provide the students with the depth of knowledge and comprehension needed to be successful, nor does it get the information into long-term memory (Sickler, 2019; Willis, 2009). Thus, students who are shocked by their low grades commonly report that they “studied” for hours and felt sure they knew the material. 

One way to address this situation is to recall how the brain works and how learning occurs. Information retrieval is essential to help students build the neural connections needed to move information into long-term memory (Sickler, 2017; Willis, 2006, 2010). Therefore, encouraging students to use retrieval methods as part of their study habits could be helpful. Retrieval activities include any task that requires a student to ‘retrieve’ the information from their brain with little to no cues. For example, flashcards that contain a single word or question for which they need to provide the rest of the information. Explaining concepts in their own words, either orally, typed, or written. Using quizzes is another activity. Critical to this practice is that students go back and review their answers with the source to ensure the accuracy and correctness of their responses.  

There are also ways during class that comprehension checks can be done, such as using the classroom assessment tool of The Muddiest Point or The One Minute Paper at the end of class or after finishing a topic to assess where students are in terms of their understanding of the material. Another way is to employ instant polling-type apps (such as Poll Everywhere, Kahoot, or Socrative) during class. If you find many students are not comprehending the material, this is helpful information for you. 

Stress and Emotion

I believe we are all acutely aware of the impact of stress on our students and their learning. We know that stress and negative emotions literally inhibit learning by taking the higher cortex offline (Immodino-Yang & Faeth, 2010; Willis, 2006, 2009, 2010). If a student feels unsafe in the learning environment, is dealing with stress related to school and outside of school and/or is feeling really defeated and pessimistic about their ability – they are not learning. They may be sitting in class, but nothing is going in. 

So, what can we do? Although we can’t manage their stress or what is happening outside of the program, we can do things within the classroom that may help. First, we need to notice those students who seem disengaged during class. These students may appear not to be interested, but commonly, they are stressing out about something and cannot be present. Taking the time to touch in with this student individually can be helpful so you can offer some suggestions or resources for support. You could start each class with one minute of quiet and simple breathing with the intention of having students land in their seats, get settled, and bring themselves present and ready to focus on learning. Or this first minute can be used for students to do a mind dump onto a piece of paper or document on their computer to get all of what is going on in their mind out and on the page so they can put it to the side during class. Using calming music during these activities can also be helpful (Sickler, 2019). 

What I have noticed over the decades is that students seem to struggle to quiet their minds and let those things that are stressing them just be instead of consuming them. It appears that this now has become something we need to help model and teach them so they can successfully navigate the challenges and stressors of PA school, their future clinical work, and their life overall. We all know that managing stress is essential to our work as clinicians, and it is important that we consider intentional ways to include helping students navigate stress in ways that foster resilience. 

References

Foster, N. L., Was, C. A., Dunlosky, J., & Isaacson, R. M. (2017). Even after thirteen class exams, students are still overconfident: the role of memory of past exam performance in student predictions. Metacognition Learning, 12(1), 1-19. DOI: 10.1007/s11409-016-9158-6 

He, Y (2022, January 18). Quasi-active learning: An approach to blending active learning and lecture. The Teaching Professor. https://www.teachingprofessor.com/topics/teaching-strategies/active-learning/quasi-active-learning-an-approach-to-blending-active-learning-and-lecture/ 

Immodino-Yang, M. H., & Faeth, M. (2010). The role of emotion and skilled intuition in learning. In D.A. Sousa (Ed.), Mind, Brain & Education (69-83).Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press. 

Nevid, J. S., Cheney, B., & Thompson, C. (2015). “But I thought I knew that!” Student confidence judgments on course examinations in introductory psychology. Society for Teaching of Psychology, 42(4) 330-334. DOI:10.1177/0098628315603181 

Sickler, A. Z. (2017). Study strategies for before, during, and after class. Faculty Focus https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/study-strategies-class/ 

Sickler, A. Z. (2019). Classroom cognition: The science of learning in lecture. The Teaching Professor. https://www.teachingprofessor.com/topics/student-learning/self-regulated-learning/classroom-cognition-the-science-of-learning-in-lecture/ 

Weimer, M. (2019b, February 1). Lectures and prior knowledge: Helping students make sense of new material. The Teaching Professor. https://www.teachingprofessor.com/topics/for-those-who-teach/lectures-and-prior-knowledge-helping-students-make-sense-of-new-material/ 

Willis, J. (2006). Research-based strategies to ignite student learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curricular Development (ASCD). 

Willis, J. (2009). How to teach students about the brain. Educational Leadership, 67(4). 

Willis, J. (2010). The current impact of neuroscience on teaching and learning. In D. A. Sousa (Ed.), Mind, Brain & Education (69-83). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.