The course states, "The average attention span of an adult is 12 to 15 minutes and the retention starts to drop off dramatically after 8 minutes". I teach technology courses and often use the 3-5 second pause in the classroom to refocus the students - even though it can be awkward. Besides using short periods of silence what are some other methods to refocus the students?

if the beginning of the course es the day when you have to let them know the golas and what the class is going to be about, so at the end they will not have surprises.

The fast paced world that we live in has truly influcened education. Having a accelerated learning system in place, enables us to get students trained into the work for expiditiously.

Although I've enjoyed participating in active learning, it does take up more class time. This makes it a better fit for certain courses. Some of our courses require mostly memorization of information jammed into limited class time. You just have to get very creative and organized!

corse content I feel should be a mix of new material and review through out the entire corse.

my feild allows for both uniform and business attire, what is best to model for them in the classroom

is it best to have a new class introduce themselves in a group to feel more at ease

How can we as instructors motivate the lazy student?

I have a class with half the students at various levels of competency. They lack the basic skills needed for my class. How do I deal with this knowledge gap?

I tend to be as informal as I can in the classroom. I find that it helps me relax and also puts the students at ease, but it isn't always easy to know where to draw the line. What experiences have others had regarding this issue?

Hello, I teach a course in Biology for non-science majors and we often look at all types of life, from bacteria all the way up to humans. Students learn a great deal during lecture and will be exposed to various organisms with the help of a microscope and prepared slides. Towards the end of the semester, we conduct a frog dissection and students seem to love it. In order to reinforce proper lab techniques and safe handling of dissection tools, I require that each student complete a virtual lab dissection at home. This serves as a practice session before they enter the classroom to conduct the actual dissection of a frog. By combining a virtual lab dissection with a hands-on one, students will get the most bang for the buck.

How long is a good time to show a video? Without boring the students or them taking naps.

I would like some more ideas on breaking the ice on the first day of class.

I have started to adopt a 'scavenger hunt' process for my students. I have found that many feel a lot of pressure during exam taking and as a result, I believe they aren't performing as well as they could. Instead, I break them into groups and allow them to explore the why's of the information. One thing is for sure, the attitude of the students has improved a great deal about test taking. It is cool, the more of these classes I take the more I understand that some teaching methods can really be enhanced by following instincts. Before this class, I was unaware there was a name for what I was doing.

I have using multiply choice test since my students will be sitting for a national board exam that is all multiply choice. My thought is I want to get them used to how they are set up. My question is are my student missing out on learning without using other testing methods?

I believe each Professor/teacher/instructor is different in that they have their preferred way to test but at the same time may not have their option. Their institute may have a standard. Here where I work, I've seen all types of ways to test to include a system where the test is put up on a screen and each student answers the question from their seat like playing the game jeopardy. I believe a combination of true/false and multiple choice are significant but as you climb the ranks in education/college they should turn inturn essay type questions.

I don't always feel that a test does any good. Some folks like myself hear the word test or final or quiz and I go into a panic. I don't want a student that is in class for 10 days going through pure panic for 9 days just thinking about the last 10. You will loose them right up front. Other ways to test are oral or put the questions on the board and pick and choose students to answer them. After all, we are not here to fail students, we are here to educate them.

I work at the Joint Special Operations University, when we see the class list we break the students out into groups. We seperate them from branch of service and origin of country. When put into working groups, they tend to break their shell so to speak and start participating more as they all have different areas to draw from with their back ground and experience. Then on day 3 when then are all set, we'd change their seating assisgments after they left for the day and make them sit somewhere else in the class on day 4. They never know what is coming next. Keep them guessing and they will respond/participate.

I would like to get more information on realistic goals for cosmetology program

How can I teach a class that don't show up on time then be disruptive when they do get their?