Help for the Anxious Lecturer

Abstract

their ability to cope with the previously overwhelming situations. The concept of "demoralization" may be generalized to the area of academe. Many lecturers, particularly when recently appointed, find it an overwhelming, frightening experience to stand before large classes of students and lecture to them. King's (4) study of staff at eighteen United Kingdom universities revealed quite clearly that the problem most frequently raised by academics in their consultations with staff development personnel is that of the anxiety they feel about the for mal lecturing situation. As Harding and Sayer have pointed out, training in specific lecturing skills is unlikely to solve this problem, for the underlying cause of poor classroom perform ance, the anxiety or "demoralization," remains un