With teaching effectiveness a thought came to mind and that thought is to 'Capture Lesssons Learned'. Capturing lessons learned often entails stepping back and taking into account those things (good or bad) that can make a difference with progress. To make a mental note of a situation or issue when it actually happens will allow for immediate recall and fresh details to highlight. Unfortunately, lessons learned are often not captured because there is a limited time to do so.
Ideally, such efforts as those involving the further development of an instructional style can be assimilated to the phases of development with project planning. Mainly the focus is completing work(s) in progress; rather successfully - completing work in progress. Thus, further development of an instructional style for me will include continuing education (workshops, seminars and continuous enrollment in courses like this one) to remain abreast of new technologies and the best practices being promoted in industries and the educational arena. Additionally to take practical approaches and consideration of activities that allow for opportunities to observe others or those that allow for other ways of learning/knowing by way of discussions and self-reflection.
I observe other instructors on my break to see what they are doing that I want to incorporate into my classroom.
I always found it helpful to pay attention to what others are doing.
Hi Jayasree,
Good ice breaker. This gets the students settled into the course and feeling comfortable about being there. As you know this is so important on the first day.
Gary
Hi Jayasree,
Good plan. I do this as well and I am always amazed at how much I can learn from my fellow instructors.
Gary
Hi Felecia,
Good strategies all. The key is what you are doing searching for strategies you can use in your classes to be more effective and efficient as a teacher. This is what professional development is all about.
Gary
I will attend as many seminars and work shops I can on motivational and content areas in my instructional discipline.
Work on arriving 15 minutes before class begins so that I can interact with my students before class starts.
I can take heed of students' comments and criticisms about my instructional style and also take advice from my superiors when they observe my classes. I can use seminars like these to learn new techniques and styles to enhance my teaching skills and abilities.
At this time I don't know if I have a defined style. What I do know is that I watch faces in the audience and look to see how engaged they are. I live for flexibility because what works for one group of people might not work for the next. Learning and what I call getting it takes observation of other instructors, research of what works and investigation/research into a subject and long hours of planning. The audience is so dynamic that, you are constantly looking for ways to make the light bulb go off and connect the dots. I hope that when students walk away from me, they talk about our class room conversation and not me.
One of the ways I can further develop, refine and enhance my instructional style is to observe other facilitators in their classroom settings. Often times I am able to find something new that I can implement in my own classroom to become more effective. Another thing I can do is to enhance my technological skills. Using different mediums to help my learners grasp concepts is extremely important, otherwise, you 'lose' them and it's hard to get them back.
I find that sitting in on classes of other instructors helps me to come up with new ways to instruct and motivate my students. Like anybody, I fall into my "comfort zone" without knowing it and become predictable in the classroom. Borrowing other teaching methods helps me mix things up and keep the students engaged.
I believe that being open to student needs and learning styles will do nothing more than enhance my styles. When we were growing up, we all had to deal with the teaching style of the teacher rather than the learning style of the student. Now I believe that perhaps my learning could have been better had the teacher used a variety of learning styles.
On the first day of class, I introduce myself to the student and then ask for self-introductions. After the self introductions, I give students time to mingle and then each student will have to say something about another student. This technique warms up the entire classroom and encourages the students.
I take time to prepare the syllabus and lesson plan as I like to cover everything that I will be teaching and covering in a particular class. This way, I am also preparing students of my expectations of them.
Good strategies and students participation will encourage further participation. For the past two days, I have been using different techniques in the classroom and they are working. I asked the students to come up with games, puzzles, tic tac, unscramble, etc., for the anatomy and physiology class that I am current teaching. I got 100% participation and attendance for the past two days.
I share my instructional techniques with other instructors and also encourage them to share their techniques with me.
I can be more prepared with my notes, examples and learning objectives. My instructional style would benefit from knowing my students better so that I can direct it towards their learning style.
Listing to my students and doing and assessment of where they are and what they bring to the table. I have also been working with other instructors to see what facilitating techniques they employ. Today I found an interesting article to use with a subject I'm teaching on note taking, just through the simple use of technology. Asking for feedback from their perspective also helps.
Hi Dinesh,
Right you are. The key is the development of those examples so the students will see both relevancy and application of the content.
Gary
