ACTIVE LEARNING TECHNIQUE 8
Preview Guide
| Complexity involved in | |
| Planning | HIGH |
| Developing Materials | LOW |
| Implementing in Class | LOW |
Description and Purpose
In this variation of a prediction guide (Barkley & Major, 2016, LAT 11), students state their beliefs about whether statements related to the lecture topic are true or false. At the end of the lecture, they reevaluate the statements and reconsider their assessments.
A Preview Guide helps students activate prior knowledge and schema. It also sets a purpose for the lecture, which can help students focus their attention and remain alert; students simply will want to know if their responses were correct. A Preview Guide can also increase student interest in a topic to come, which can in turn improve their motivation for listening to the lecture. Finally, a Preview Guide helps to point students to the most important concepts of the lecture.
Preparation
- Prepare a set of statements about the topic that students can rate as true or false. If the statements are complex, aim for about five to seven. If they are fairly direct statements, aim for ten to twelve.
- Create a handout of the statements in which you leave space for students to mark true or false before and after the lecture (see the following example).
- Think through how long it will take students to respond to the questions. You will typically want to provide just a few minutes for them to work through the handout at the start and end of a lecture.
Preview Guide Template
| Directions: Read each statement in the following table. Write whether you believe the statement to be true (T) or false (F) in the “Before” column. You will revisit your responses at the end of the lecture and record new responses in the “After” column. | ||
| Statement | Before | After |
| 1. | ||
| 2. | ||
| 3. | ||
| 4. | ||
| 5. | ||
Procedures
- Announce the activity and provide students with the handout.
- Ask them to read the statements and record whether they think each answer is true or false in the “Before” column.
- Proceed with the lecture.
- At the end of the lecture, provide students with time to complete the handout.
- Collect the responses so that you can gauge students' prior knowledge and whether they understood the information in the lecture.
| Video Lecture | Large Lecture |
| Provide students with a questionnaire as a quiz prior to releasing the video lecture or offering the lecture through VoIP. After students have completed the lecture, readminister the quiz. Consider the difference between the first and second quiz administration. Alternately, provide students with a handout as a Word document and ask them to record their responses prior to the lecture. Ask them to record the time that you answer the question in a video lecture (e.g., at 5.35 minutes into the lecture). Ask students to record their answers at the end of the lecture and then submit the Word documents to you for review. | You can use this activity in a large class by using clickers or software such as Socrative. Administer the guide as a true-false questionnaire before and again after the lecture. |
Examples
Introduction to American Government (Lecture)
In an introductory course that satisfies one of the college's general education requirements, a course goal is for students to learn about foundations and bases of American government and democracy, including the Bill of Rights. The professor had been surprised over time to realize how little college students actually know about American government and how little they seemed to want to know about the topic. She was concerned that students were not paying attention to her lectures because of an apparent lack of interest. She decided to use a Preview Guide as a way to stimulate student interest in the topic and to help them focus during her lectures.
At the beginning of class, she handed out the Preview Guide. She told students that she would not grade the “Before” answers, but she would grade the “After” answers. She provided students with several minutes to complete the “Before” section of the guide; following is a sample of her questions.
Preview Guide
| Directions: Prior to the lecture, record whether you believe the answer to each prompt is true or false by marking T or F in the “Before” column. At the end of the lecture, you will put T or F in the “After” column. You are welcome to work on this sheet during the lecture. At the end of the lecture, I will give you a few minutes to complete your “After” section, and then I will collect the guide; your grade will be counted in your weekly participation grade for the course. | ||
| Before | Statement | After |
| According to the Supreme Court, some rights are more important than others. | ||
| Antifederalists believed that the Bill of Rights was unnecessary. | ||
| Jefferson supported the idea of a Bill of Rights. | ||
| The entire Bill of Rights applies to both state and federal government. | ||
| The Bill of Rights does not give a person the right to criticize a government official. | ||
She proceeded to lecture, and she noticed that students were following along with her on the Preview Guide and that they were recording their answers in the “After” column. She felt that the activity increased student attention and interest during her lecture.
Global Communications (Large Lecture)
In a large global communications lecture, the professor believed that in past sections of the course, many students were not engaging well with the lecture presentations. She decided to start using the classroom's clicker system in a variety of ways to help students focus on her presentation. For example, she decided to use the system to implement an adaptation of the Preview Guide. In a unit on multiculturalism, she posted a series of true-false questions prior to the lecture presentation and asked students to indicate their responses based on their pre-lecture understanding. She informed students that she wouldn't be grading their responses but that she would use their responses as a way of taking attendance.
She then informed students that they would be hearing the correct answers to the questions as the lecture proceeded and that at the end of the lecture, they would be asked the questions again, and this time their responses would be graded. She felt that this new approach helped students to pay more attention and also helped her monitor attendance and gather additional pre- and post-assessment information. Following is a sample of the kinds of questions she posed.
Sample Clicker Questions
| Statement | Before Lecture | After Lecture |
| People in high-context cultures place a high value on productivity and direct communication. | ||
| English is the primary language used in conducting multinational business, so businesses should use English to shape their marketing strategies. |
Multiculturalism in Student Affairs (Video Lecture)
A goal in this blended course was that students should gain an awareness of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to be a multiculturally competent student affairs practitioner. One learning module in the course addressed the issue of privilege and how it affects students' chances of success in higher education. The professor decided to use a Preview Guide to build student interest in the topic. She posted a survey quiz and asked students to rate their agreement on a five-to-one scale with statements such as the following:
- You can tell a lot about someone by the way the person dresses.
- Most people who want to go to college can, as long as they get good enough grades in high school.
- Diversity and social justice are the same.
- College and universities are fairly well integrated due to affirmative action policies.
The professor then asked students to do the reading as well as watch her video lecture about privilege, in which she focused on college students specifically and considered issues such as race, class, and gender. She followed this with a discussion on the various topics and invited students to share their own relevant experiences. To conclude the module, the professor asked students to retake the quiz and then go to the class discussion board and post about whether their responses changed, where they think their responses changed the most, and what made them change or not change.
Variations and Extensions
- Have students pair to discuss their responses. Ask student pairs to come to a consensus.
- Consider using this as a full-class activity. If you have access to clickers, students can register a vote prior to the lecture and again after. If you don't have access to clickers, simply ask students to raise their hands to indicate whether they believe the statement to be true or not.
- Instead of having the “Before” and “After” in a single handout, do the activity in two steps. Students complete a handout prior to the lecture. Students also complete a separate handout after the lecture.
- Have students create their own statements that they believe to be true. Have them reevaluate their own statements at the end of the lecture.
Observations and Advice
It is important to write clear and concise statements so that students focus on the content or concept. If the sentences are overly complex or convoluted, they will spend too much time decoding them rather than trying to make a prediction.
Students may be concerned that they will be penalized if they answer the “Before” section incorrectly. This can be demotivating for them, and it can cause them to try to change their answers so that it appears that they knew the correct answer all along. Consider emphasizing that they will not be graded on the “Before” section but that you are trying to help them—and you—assess the value of the lectures in terms of improving their learning.
Particularly controversial topics can cause student discomfort when responding to the statements, especially if they believe their views will be unpopular. For such topics, you should consider whether the discomfort is desirable, and you should consider how to best allow a safe space for responding so that students have the freedom to change their minds, rather than feeling like they have to defend their views. Instant polling slides may be helpful in that they enable students to answer anonymously.
Key References and Resources
- Barkley, E. F., & Major, C. H. (2016). LAT 11: Prediction guide. Learning assessment techniques: A handbook for college faculty (pp. 148–152). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
- Duffelmeyer, F. (1994). Effective anticipation guide statements for learning from expository prose. Journal of Reading, 37, 452–455.
- Frederick, P. (1981). The dreaded discussion: Ten ways to start. College Teaching, 29, 109–114.