Since the goal is to help students understand our subject and not just to have them memorize discrete facts about it, the whole question of how we can increase coverage is misbegotten. Instead, we should focus on the question of how we can assist students in the difficult an time consuming process of thinking through and understanding the material. During my undergraduate days in teacher education, our curriculum professor would never let us talk about covering the material. Teaching to the Multiples Noted author and educator Howard Gardner discussed his theory of multiple intelligence during a conference that was co-sponsored by ACES and others last summer. Gardner has studied extensively the phenomenon that we call intelligence and is a major critic of the notion that there exists only a single human intelligence that can be assessed by standard psychometric instruments.
Teachers can call upon different intelligences within their students to bring about learning.
The Theory of Multiple Intelligences and his recent book, Intelligence Reframed. Here is another idea to help keep students actively engaged. After 20 to 30 minutes, design a lecture break that asks students to elaborate on information from your lecture by thinking about it, writing it down, discussing it in pairs, and sharing it in a total-class discussion. Now teach them in a semester. Because college campuses are being faced with a growing need for their graduates to be prepared as team members, many instructors are being challenged to use Learning Teams.