Public
Activity Feed Discussions Blogs Bookmarks Files

Ask a question from your peers to help you in your professional work. Seek different points of view on a topic that interests you. Start a thought-provoking conversation about a hot, current topic. Encourage your peers to join you in the discussion, and feel free to facilitate the discussion. As a community of educators, all members of the Career Ed Lounge are empowered to act as a discussion facilitator to help us all learn from each other.

Exams/tests

I have found in my experience that many faculty like to use test banks due to the amount of time it can take to write test questions. I too have been guilty of this. This particular lesson gave me information that I can use to write some of my own test questions when I teach some of my future courses.

Course Development

I notice that when teaching my courses I always have students who are at very different academic levels. For instance some are very advanced while some are slower to learn. How do you appropriately develop a course that is stimulating enough for your fast paced students yet slow enough for your lower students to keep up?

Head, Heart, Gut

I especially enjoyed the "Head, Heart, Gut" point made by the Harvard Business School lecturer when he pointed out that a succussful class is one where the instructor hits the head, heart, and gut of the students thereby creating an extremely valuable learning experience in each student. I look forward to reflecting on this principle and applying it in my class tomorrow.

Probing Questions

These questions are great to spark class discussion and to get alternative viewpoints.

Learning methods

I am relating to this material on a personal level and as it relates to my varied student population. If my lectures, which I think are facinating(!), start to put some students to sleep, I had better switch up my delivery with some hands on activity or power point delivery!!

Using Students to help

Using Students to help and work with students with learning disabitilies is also instrumental. They tend to support those from their generation and know where they should be in a course.

Found this module extremely helpful

As I am a "new" instructor, I found this module extremely helpful. I have a better understanding of how to use questioning in the classroom. I found the Harvard video regarding "The Three Characteristics of Questions" particularly useful. Moving forward, I will utilize more of these techniques in the classroom.

pair them up with other bilingual students

Best way to help an ESL student is to pair them up with other bilingual students to assist students with esl

Group Work

What If Group Work Is Difficult To Arrange?

Gathering Student Evaluation and Feedback

We have precious little time with our students. Each minute is valuable for learning, but some must be budgeted for other needs. Given a class of twenty students, meeting four times for three hours, how much time would be appropriate for gathering student evaluation and feedback? Thanks Stephen

Techniques for Efficient Debriefing

My classes average close to 20 students. We meet for four times for 3 hours, with a thirty minute break. How long would you suggest I spend on debriefing each student? Should it be done as a class discussion? Or on a more individual basis? What tips do you have for maximizing the value of the debriefing process (against time)? Thanks, Stephen

Examples of Music By Target Brain State

I am intrigued by the idea of using music in the classroom. The guidelines provided seem too general to implement efficiently. Can you please provide some specific examples of music that is known to be very effective for eliciting specific brain wave activity? Thanks, Stephen

Balance of Burden

Hello, I appreciate the essence of the "learning facilitator" approach (versus "teacher"), but I am frustrated by what appears to be a culture of "do it for me". When I draw a picture of myself as a learner, there's nothing in it that resembles a learning facilitator who is responsible for helping me learn. My experience as a student was one of being fully responsible for my own learning - if I failed to progress, blame was put on my not having done the work or not having studied well. In contrast, the large majority of the students in my classroom seem to believe that their failure to progress is always and entirely -my- fault. They regularly disregard assignments and suggestions - anything that asks them to work on their own is entirely dismissed. Do you have any experience with a similar challenge? Any suggestions about how to encourage students to take fair responsibility for their own progress? Thanks, Stephen

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

I foound this to be very true, especially with students who hae struggled in school beofer. I have a lot of students who did not succeed in HS, and they feel that no one has faith in them, which causes them to fail. When I get these students and remind them that they can do it, they usally meet and/or exceed my expectations. I think that a little encouragement really goes a long way.

Instructional feedback

I find that it is very important in enhancing the learning experience of the class to give feedback at the end of activities where the students are demonstrating learned competencies and skills. As an instructor, it is critical to give (as well as receive) effective feedback in these instances. I use the following format to process a learning activity: 1> I always ask how they think they did overall in terms of the assigned task. 2> Then I ask "If they had a chance to do it over, what would they do differently?". This takes the focus off of what they may have done wrong directly. 3> Lastly, to minimize learning roadblocks (defensiveness or behavioral justification) to the feedback that I give them (noting that this only takes place AFTER they are giving a chance to decompress and say their peace), I preface the process with two simple rules: 1) This is meant to be a learning experience...take from it what you will. There is no need to be defensive or take the feedback personally. This is simply what one person observed and I will always offer you suggestions for improvement. 2)In the spirit of #1, you are only able to respond with "Can you be more specific" or "Thank You". Class participants seem to have fun with this last rule and it disarms the defensiveness and removes the barriers to learning.

Competencies for Allied Healthcare Workers

I have found that it helps to develop clinical skills when an instructor uses real life experiences to teach the do's and don'ts in caring for their patients. For instance, I recently had a physical therapy technician student dismissed from a clinical site. He turned his back to a patient in his care who was on a treadmill. The reason he did this was to use his cellphone. He had been taught patient safety guidelines in his course but the real life application had not translated into commonsense. Without using his name or clinical site, I used this experience in my next class and asked the students why this was an issue with the supervisor, what could have happened because he breached his duty,and what would have been the legal considerations.The students became very engrossed in the conversation which led me to again go over patient safety guidelines.We then demonstated appropriate care and modalities for patients undergoing physical therapy. It was a very effective strategy to emphasize patient care and safety. Do others have similar stories to share?

Questions from Students

As prepared as a lecturer may be for the podium, he/she may receive a question (related to lesson content) in which they don't quite know the answer to. What's the best way to handle this type of situation?

Expectations

Why are student expectations important to a course's learning objective outcome?

Knowing Your Topic

It sounds too much like common sense, but it's important that an instructor is very knowledgeable about the subject he/she is teaching and that they are able to clearly define any terms used that may be foreign to the student.

learning enviroment

this area is very important to the adult learner the need for them to be comfortable in the classroom enviroment is very important