The following questions can be used to fuel a class discussion about giving effective presentations. They are based on a list of characteristics of effective communication derived from discussions with more than 30 mathematics educators.
Questions for class discussion
Based on mathematics presentations you’ve seen,
- what presentation strategies help you to understand the content?
- Follow-up question: When should ideas be presented informally? formally? why?
- what presentation strategies make a presentation interesting to you?
- Follow-up question: when should details be included?
- even if all previously identified strategies for giving an understandable and interesting presentation are followed, what technical (or other) problems can prevent understanding?
- Follow-up question: what strategies could you use to avoid or overcome these problems?
