Barry Westling

Richard, I believe the ealier an instructor begins to conduct some form of evaluation the better it will be for students, especially the ones that may be struggling or performing lower than desired. With a conscientious effort early on, there is time to offer suggestions, and for the student to begin making changes to their study. I also think there should be frequent evaluations throughout the course (unless the course is only a couple of weeks) so that progress from prior discussions can be measured. Barry Westling

Richard, Yes, these are good strategies. Variety and frequent change ups help keep a flow of information without becoming a longer session, where students begin to lose their focus. Instructors can develop a sense of their class and determine if everyone is fully engaged. When not, that is a time to vary the activity, which doesn't mean mean changing subjects, just switching to an alternate way of presentation or delivery. Barry Westling

Gracie, Yes, students like stories and games (we're all kids at heart!). The hidden secret about games is they often require critical thinking and problem solving parts of the brain and as a result, better retention and long term memory is improved. Having more (vs. less) prepared material is just good planning, as lots can interfere with our scheduled lesson and related activities. Also, sometimes it's just beneficial to take a break from the routine to help keep students engaged and interested. Barry Westling

Melvin, I like to share class information early on and frequently because I understand students are very anxious to know their progress, especially after major tests, at mid-term, and as the term nears it's completion. I try to personalize my discussions to build trust and credibility, and offer support and encouragement along with advice and suggestions for improvement. Barry Westling

Melvin, Very rational perspective. But it makes sense the more information we know about prior learning can only positively contribute to assessing what to plan for maximum learning and time usage. Barry Westling

Gracie, I agree. Students (and most people) can think a lot faster than an instructor can talk, so it takes effort and planning to try to keep students engaged. Variety, using different media and activities are examples of good ways to keep anxious minds learning! Your examples are good ones too. Barry Westling

Melvin, I believe all students use all their senses most of the time, some just have a preference or one is a bit more dominant. Nonetheless, instructors ought to strive for adding as much variety anyway, to keep the students attention and focus, engaged, active, and involved in their learning. And the variety should be mixed up into short segments which turns out helps with retention of course information. Barry Westling

Richard, Nice. Over nearly 35 years, our program has undergone multiple changes, versions, models, policies, and we possess a variety instructional resources. All of these are archived or present in a shared file that is accessible by all faculty to take, use, cut and paste, or use as reference material as they see fit. Old doesn't mean bad, we just have to be selective to make sure a given resource is the best we have to offer for a given teaching segment. Barry Westling

Richard, My best enjoyment and benefit is remembering how I viewed situations and observations about how I dealt with students and curriculum years back. This is really a valuable asset to use the past as a guide to future events. Barry Westling

Melvin, Self awareness also contriubutes positively to an insrtructor's confident, which in turn creates credibility and trust. Barry Westling