I believe you must adapt to the different learning strategies of the individual student. I also find that students appreciate and are more willing in the class if you teach them as individuals and not as a whole. Some can be taught with humor were as others need visual or more one on one explanation.
Laneita,
You have a good idea of about helping your tactile students to become involved a little more beyond just listening to the lecture. These students respond well to movement and since your format is lecture you might want to do small group discussions or role playing or something like that to get movement. As you say they will get the hands on technical skills in lab so you are offering hands on in terms of movement to help them to connect from a cognitive standpoint.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I always look for more and better visual aids for the visual learners. The audio learners hear me during lectures and they also have textbook aids for word pronunciation. I encourage them to use an online learning aid that is used for another class but has a great audio-visual reference area. It is harder for me to take care of the "hands on" students as they get these skills in their lab classes. I will try to use different techniques in class to try to help them visualize and feel certain physiological aspects that lend themselves to this classroom setting.
Because most of the courses I teach are basic foundational nursing courses and they require a great deal of technical knowledge to be given in a very short time frame, I rely a lot on power points for the information and I supplement these with explanations via textbook pictures, other pictures to illustrate points, tables, work book assignments, and personal experiences.
use more hand on with the students and have a understanding in how each student learn.
Robert,
This is how you serve your role as a role model as well as a learning leader. Good advice for all instructors to follow.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Lead students by example of being organized, on time and prepared for the training day.
Cell phones what a great idea.
I think this is a great point of when and where to use cell phones.
If cell phones can advance student engagement and increase learning I think I may incorporate them into class at some small level and monitor results.
I fined as an instructor you need to feel your students out the first day to fined out what kind of a student he or she is as far as learning this is also important to me to know so I can be better equipped to their needs.
Giving real-world examples of a time you used the skills you are discussing makes the subject matter more "real". It makes them feel they are learning something useful.
David,
The more they share the more they become invested in the course. As instructors we need to look for ways we can get them to start sharing no matter what the content might be. This way they start to own what is being taught. Keep them sharing.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I am always looking for ways to improve and I feel visiting other classes in progress may offer some good insight on new ways to improve.
I like this approach also. I have students give examples of what they worked on for assignments in the front of class. Might be a bit easier for me, I teach technical classes, so they are pretty willing to share their "geeky" knowledge with everyone :)
Tammy,
You do have a challenge since it is the same group of students over and over. I know you have to be creative in your planning and approach as a result since it is easy for them to slip away in terms of attention since they know how you operate. Change things up and have fun with new activities and it will be like a new class for these students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I basically teach the same set of students for every class.I have had to find ways to keep them interested in what I am teaching and motivated. i am struggling with finding other methods to use to convey the knowledge they need to learn the material. This has posed a challenge.
Edward,
Good strategy to use the cell phone as a teaching tool. I do the same but still have my cell phone addicts that will abuse the use of the phone until I call them on it like you would junior high students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I agree with your response. Students today are more engaged with cell phone use, so I allow them cell phone time for problem solving and research. this does lead to less unauthorized cell phone use in class.
Jason,
The more real world examples you can use the more valuable the course becomes to the students as the start to see why you are teaching the content you are. Keep up the sharing.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Employ real world examples that are relevant to the class
George,
How do you learn what the styles of your students are as you prepare to work with their learning preferences?
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
