Lectures and demonstrations are the most common teaching methods in adult education. They are sometimes referred to as an economic way of teaching because they do not need almost any technician or administrative support. As a teacher, use these methods thoroughly:
- First, keep them short. Lectures should take fifteen or twenty minutes and limit for demonstration is even shorter, five minutes.
- Second, your talk should have a clear beginning, middle and end; it means that it is clear to your students and if it is clear defined, it can help students to know what the objectives are before beginning.
This technique has a lot of possibilities how to be used. You can introduce short intensive presentation, which is followed by practicing. You can immediately see if your students understood your lecture. Adults learn best through participation and activity, so your lecture or demonstration can be interspersed with group discussion, individual projects, and audio-visual material. In the lectures or demonstrations try to keep to simple main points. A lot of adult students need to have a written support of a new piece of learning, but it is known that adults do not take notes very often. Making notes during presentation can be a diversion from understanding; therefore it is better to instruct your students not to write only listen to you. Prepare well-designed printed handouts for them, not very long because it could discourage your students from reading it. It is better to distribute handouts after a lecture than before; it is less distracting. If you are demonstrating, be certain that all learners are able to see from your point of view. If the demonstrations are seen from the front, the student must mentally reverse all the processes.
In general, lectures and demonstrations are probably best used in short sections, with frequent recourse to discussion, individual practice, project work etc.