Purposes of student presentations

There are many reasons why students are asked to give presentations and these will be influenced by your academic course and situational and organizational factors.

Student presentations may be given for the purposes of:

• Advocacy/persuasion

• Training

• Teaching and learning

• Informing

• Assessment

第一个目的：

倡议或说服 Advocacy/persuasion

说服听众采取行动

This presentation usually involves persuading members of the audience to take some action or make a decision. Examples could include:

• support a cause

• join a student society

• vote for an individual to take up a role on a committee

• buy a product or service

• choose the best candidate for the job

提供相关事实的内容

This type of presentation will need a combination of relevant factual content delivered ina convincing and confident style.

语言简洁明了

You will need to communicate clearly and succinctly.

调动和处理情绪反应

Some emotions such as enthusiasm or passion may be used in your delivery if you think this is appropriate, but you need to make sure that you do not embarrass yourself or the audience. You may also have to deal with some emotional reactions from the audience such as anger or ridicule. You will need to give a confident performance and deal effectively with their comments, manage the crowd and limit any negative reactions.

控场

As with all types of presentations it is crucial to keep control, especially when there are contributions and responses from the audience.

第二个目的：

培训 Training

为观众展示使用某种设备的技术

This type of presentation includes examples where students may demonstrate their skills in the use of equipment and also their skills as a trainer or teacher. These types of presentations may be used to practise, demonstrate and eventually assess the level of these skills and techniques. Examples include:

• Demonstrating the use of a piece of equipment

• Demonstrating a medical procedure

• Training someone in the use of a software package

• Training a novice to use a piece of first aid equipment

• Demonstrating your communication skills as a trainer

• Demonstrating professional practice such as an interview technique, counselling skills

or classroom management techniques.

在演讲中熟悉各种操作流程，为实际运用打下基础

In many vocational and professional courses,  students have to learn the skills to use a range of equipment  to demonstrate their communication skills. 

Presentations can also be used on these courses  as opportunities for practice and rehearsal  before the student is formally assessed  and expected to perform in real life situations such as during their placements or probationary periods in employment.

If you can think of presentations as opportunities for your own development,  they may seem less daunting to you and indeed,  this approach may help you to gain more benefit from preparing and delivering your presentations.

即时反馈促进进步

Immediate feedback can be an integral part of this type of presentation  especially on the occasions when no formal assessment is given. 

The tutor may interrupt the session toask for clarification  or suggest an improvement  that could be rehearsed several times  until the student becomes more confident. 

Members of the audience may suggest ideasand changes for improvement. Role playing may be used so that students explore the skill or issue 

from a range of perspectives, then share ideas in a plenary session.

第三个目的：

教育和学习 Teaching and learning

对特定领域更深的理解

Almost all presentations should have some elements of teaching and learning as part of their purpose. However for the purposes of this book it is useful to explore this as a specific purpose and to do this we have chosen a few examples where presentations are used for:

• Developing a deeper understanding of a topic or text

• Covering specific areas of the curriculum in more detail

• Explaining an experiment or cooking process

• Inviting a visiting expert to speak on a given topic

演讲内容要集中于所涉及的领域

The content of this presentation is usually focused on a topic area relevant to a course or module being studied. This may involve new research and knowledge that extends how the topic has previously been taught by the tutors. It may also involve ‘repackaging’ knowledge already covered or further exploration of the topic by looking at different perspectives.

以全球化为例

An example of this could be where a group of students are asked to

present on the topic ‘Globalization’ from the different perspectives of a farmer in a

developing country, a small manufacturing organization in England and a multinational

organization that has offices on four continents. Sometimes, these types of student presentations

are used to explore areas of a curriculum in greater detail than has been covered

in lectures. This helps the presenters to develop deeper knowledge and the

audience to broaden their understanding of the topic and may be the reason why the

academic has included presentations in the module.

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第四个目的：

通知 Informing

描述新政策，设定规章制度，呈现研究报告。

In some circumstances this could be seen as similar to teaching but the aim of this type

of presentation could be to communicate as much information as possible in the time

available. The purpose of the presentation may be to:

• Describe a new policy

• Outline a set of instructions

• Give a progress report on some research or development

This type of presentation is used in many organizations where students or employees are

expected to report progress at key stages of a project. It provides evidence of ongoing work

and can be used as a subtle measure of control where individuals work to meet deadlines

set for the submission dates for these progress reports. Many employers expect academic

courses to have provided opportunities for students to develop their presentation skills so

that they could communicate effectively in the organizational environment.

For a student situation, a Viva could have this purpose where the function is to present

your research aims and results then answer questions from the audience.

第五个目的：

评估 Assessment

演讲当做评估学生的手段

Student presentations are frequently assessed and may be awarded a percentage of the

marks that contribute to the overall module mark and credits. However, some presentations

may not be assessed but used as an opportunity for students to practise and further develop

their presentation skills, without the anxiety of earning marks for the quality of their

performance.

演讲当做评估学生的手段的缺陷

There is a tension here for students, as most presentations need quite a lot of

preparation time. This time may only be seen as worthwhile if it earns marks towards the

completion of a unit or module of study. Equally, it can influence students to withdraw from

non-assessed presentations or use a minimum of effort for such events, seeing them as less

important for their learning and achievement. This focus on marks earned, rather than experiencegained, may influence some tutors to only use assessed presentations.

演讲当做评估学生的手段的优点

Use of assessment can have a positive advantage. For some students, presentations

offer opportunities to earn a higher proportion of marks than they might achieve for the

written part of their assessment. They may be better communicators and presenters in

their use of speech, visuals or technology than in a written mode. These students may

feel they need this book less for the general ideas about presentation skills but can use

it more for the suggestions about content development.