As a baking and pastry instructor, I have a lot of material to cover. It is not an option to leave any of the content out.
So, for me, it is not a question of making a mistake when selecting course content but rather to be creative in my covering of it.
Sometimes, I may unable, because of time constraints, to fully cover a topic - instead I may create a poster or power point to cover the material. Posters are my favorite back plan - I post them on the reach in refrigerator door - as every student goes in there for ingredients they are impossible to miss.
Micheal,
After I examine the course objectives, I try to think about what is the the best way I can convey this material to my students. For instance, I will only use PPT slides if I feel there is no better way to assist getting my point across. As you allude to, our job should be to help students understand.
Barry Westling
that hard to decide there are slide that confuse them more then help them so I do understand what you mean
Bo,
As an author, I have an obligation to cover many topics within the scope of my subject matter. But as an instructor, there may be whole chapters, different sequence of information, or just a page or two that is used from a chapter. The instructor needs to be able to choose what resources (or portions thereof) they feel is necessary to teach the material.
Barry Westling
I agree. It is very hard to cover all the topic in the textbooks, and sometimes there is more things to cover than textbook.
As fashion design instructor, we have to have a lot of lab time.
Joseph,
I have been teaching a long time. But I stay current by visiting the sites where my students are in clinical training, talking with their preceptors, conducting 2-3 advisory committee meetings each year, reading current journals, and attending continuing education seminars, conferences, and webinars. I also stay active in our state and national professional organizations.
Barry Westling
The biggest mistake I see instructors making when selecting course content is not gathering input for the working force. The vast majority of students are in class to get a good or better job. Unfortunately, by not asking the working force what knowledge and skills they need their workers to have the students may not be prepared to work after graduation.
david,
It's frequently a challenge to determine what will work best for a new class to maximise the instructors time while assuring students will receive the best learning opportunities. Pretests can help. Hopefully there will be more hits than misses.
Barry Westling
I find pretests help gauge where you can take the class
Jonathan,
Classes do run smoother when students possess the necessary prior learning to begin the next level of study. Sometimes a brief pretest can help identify where the class is at as a whole
Barry Westling
The biggest mistake is when instructors select course content without explaining the basics of the content they have selected.
Amandeep,
Good point. It's great when an instructor is able to take the course objectives, and break it down into digestible parts, using variety and different activities to make it interesting. Students are much more likely to retain information delivered this way.
Barry Westling
Teaching is a dynamic process. Staying on track is crucial but also hard if the intsructor is trying to cover everything in the book. it to manage course contentin a carreer college because the instructor wants to keep the students focus on the topic making sure she/he does not go overboard on the topic or give too much information to the student and amke them confused or nervous.
Dr. Fu-Sen,
Yes, and this is great example of the need for and importance of being student-centered instructors. The more we can individualize our instruction, dealing with specfic student needs for understanding, the better the students will respond to our instruction, and in the end, be able to apply and incorporate their learning to the real world of work.
Barry Westling
One mistake made by instructors selecting course content is not being able to differentiate between what he thinks the student should know versus what the student wants to know. Oftentimes instructors think the subject he is teaching is the most important subject and that all topics within the subject are important. This causes the instructor to believe the student needs to know everything within the course which causes instructors to cram all the topics within a short duration. This causes the students to learn all the topics at a mediocre level. Instead, instructors so think from the student's perspective and realize what the student wants to learn. That way the instructor can provide students with useful material that the student can apply in their lives. Furthermore, this will also give instructors time to delve into the topics of importance to the student so that students can learn those topics well.
Janelle,
I agree this can happen without careful planning. Like you, I approach a class with what is most important that I want students to get, planning that material might take half the class time. But if class does not go as planned, interuptions occur, more student questions, or I need to explain more or review, I know I will have planned for enough time. With experience, these events become easier to plan and map out the day's activities.
Barry Westling
Probably the most common is over estimating the amount of material that can be effectively covered in a given unit of time. The number of learning objectives should be distilled down to the most salient and pressing for the course and the program outcome, and the didactic plan centered around these.
Thor,
I view textbooks as one resource of many. I am the main resource and I use what I need to convey the information I feel is important. For some textbooks, whole chapters are not even used, and other chapters, there may just one small section I'll use. That's OK, as the student learning is the measure I use.
Barry Westling
I agree with Arlene. Textbooks cover too much information.
I teach culinary and really have to pare down the content that students take from the text just to keep them on track on a fundamental level.
I do this by managing the content on Blackboard- it helps remind students what to read for class and what to read on their own.
Some publishers will also create "custom" books for you with only the topics required for the specific course.
Kimberley,
Teaching is very dynamic and it's wonderful there are so many ways to get the job done. Of course there needs to be a plan, and sometimes the plan gets disrupted. As long as the objectives are sound and a suitable textbook(s) are in place, this should work fine.
Barry Westling
