I think there have been many great suggestions shared here in this venue. For me personally, I think exposure to other presenters/instructors either via web broadcast or live in a class room would be the most helpful.
Just in this recent presentation, I really benefited from the recorded videos of the Harvard instructors, both in the content and in the delivery.
I can take additional professional developmental courses to assist me.
I believe that students can be advocates for their own learning style. Therefore I feel as though as instructors we should learn how to teach in different ways. Such that we can adhere to visual students, verbal studnets, and tactile students. Give students surveys and find out what they prefer. Either lectures, course work or even more hands on activities.
I will spend time taking these courses and evaluating the material given. Once I have evaluated and established a good teaching format I would like to try and implement it into my daily teaching capabilities and see what transpires within each of my students actual learning.
I can sit in on classes being taught by other instructors to get ideas and techniques to incorporate into my own teaching style.
Jason,
Right you are because it is our obligation as learning leaders to provide the latest content to our students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
In technical fields it is helpful to develop lesson plans based on emerging technologies.
Virginia,
Thank you for this voice of experience from a veteran instructor. I know this will be valuable information for new instructors that are striving to find their balance in their educational setting.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
During my first year of teaching I experimented with different types of instructional techniques, which mainly centered around my overall attitude towards my students. I am grateful for those first year students, because they were essentially my "guinea pigs". Needless to say, there was plenty of troubleshooting of my way of teaching since I also wanted to incorporate my personality, but not so much that the students didn't take me seriously. There is such a delicate balance that needs to be maintained.
Cindi,
Being a life long learner is an essential part of being a learning leader. You are doing such by staying current in your field while expanding you instructional delivery knowledge and expertise.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
There are numerous techniques that can be employed to improved my instructional style. The most important way for improvement is to continue to keep myself up to date on the different areas of study that are encountered by my students. I have found that as nurses we can never stop attending school or educational opportunities. As long as I keep abreast of the new evidenced based practices I will be able to benefit and enhance my students educational experience.
I prefer to use a variety of styles and I look for what motivates individual students. Keeping them interested is key.
I can talk with students to find out their learning styles and try to incorporate that into my style.
Courtney Cole
One of my favorite ways to develop my own style is to glean ideas from listening in or auditing my coworkers/peers/contemporaries classes.
John,
Good strategies to follow. Each of these experiences will give you insight on how to become a more effective and efficient instructor to and for your students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Techniques I can employ to further develop my instructional style are to look back to past instructors who challenged me, observe collegues and use what they are doing that is successful and prepare a professional development plan.
LaWandra,
Good point about how to stay current in your field while refining your instructional expertise. This is what professional development should be about.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Gary,
Thank you for sharing this example of how you can integrate humor and instruction together to create a learning opportunity. We have all had these types of experiences as we started our career areas. These stories show the students that they to will make mistakes and have to work to improve their skill sets. This is what learning and growing is about. The key is to benefit from these experiences as you demonstrate to your students so they to can become expert in their field.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
James,
Good start on developing your classroom/lab persona. This is important as you find your professional demeanor and the behaviors you are going to model for your students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
The far most important technique to develop, refine and enhance my instructional styles would be to continue reading, visiting the field areas, converse with other instructors that are in that particular field of interest and engage myself in conversations, seminars, on-line course training and actual on hands experiences from other instructors.
Then compile all that information and revisit some of my techniques used in lab settings and lecturing that would keep the student engaged and allow them room to expand or grow utilizing those skills.
And for future references,monitor how it worked with each class and then try application skills or lecturing another way.
