Different styles?
What are some different instructional styles everyone uses?
Melody,
Learners thrive on variety and change of pace. With your strategy you are giving both to your students as well as appealing to their learning preferences. This is a win win for everyone.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I apply different styles as the week goes by. I give lecture from text or powerpoint and immediately after lecture i follow up with asking questions from the lecture. Next demonstration and hands on exercises be it on paper or modeling, role play. Have student who get it work with students who are struggling. Games groups competing against eachother. Yet im constantly trying to change it up and find new ways. I definately peek into or ask my coworkers for tips on how they brought the subject.
Alicia,
This is a great example of adapting instruction to engage students and increase content retention. Thank you for sharing what you did and the results you achieve with us. This information will be helpful to other instructors especially those just starting their teaching careers.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I instruct technology courses, Microsoft Office, Keyboarding and Dictation.
The first week, I had the class work from the book and would walk around answer questions. That was kind of boring for ALL of us. So, I found a projector and I began doing the assignments along with the class.
They would ask questions, and see what I am doing as well as doing it hands on. Time flew by and everyone understood what was going on.
Personally, I prefer to combine multiple styles into each presentation ("lecture").
I use multimedia, such as a topical video, as an introduction to either the concept or skill (if in the laboratory environment). I find that this establishes a base to work from, and also maintains consistency across the same course offered during subsequent terms.
I follow the "video" with a brief lecture (10 min) covering the topic and highlighting the "key points" that the students should be focusing on.
I then involve the students directly with either an open discussion (if in lecture) or a practical application (if in lab).
Finally, to "wrap it up", I close with small group discussions or activities designed to put all of the pieces together, often based on a case study or clinical example (medicine based here).
I find that by using multiple modalities and mixing it up (as the above is an example) the students are better engaged and interact more positively.
