Krystal,
Good strategy. You are gaining so much insight into how your students prefer to learn with this assessment. This information let you customize your instructional delivery to meet the learning preferences of your current students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I actually give my students a learning style quiz before class to see how they learn and what teaching methods i can employ.
Rochelle,
Students really like hearing stories and examples from their instructors. These stories help to make the content come alive and you are doing such with your stories and how they connect to the content.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Interactivity and personal experiences proved to be very effective for me personally when I deliver my courses. Students are able to relate well with personal experiences and adding interactive activities during the lecture also breaks the monotony and keeps them engaged.
David,
I like both of these approaches because they help the students to expand their critical thinking and problem solving skills.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
One of the ways to deliver effective lectures is to use an interactive lecture where the format is based upon "brainstorming" ideas from students around a central theme or subject. Another way is to use a problem-solving format where you start with some challenging problem within the field. you then work through a solution to the problem by encouraging input from the students to solve the problem.
I try to do this daily.. It does help and you can tell when I miss a day.
Larry,
Well said. This is what good instructional preparation should be about. With all of these elements in place you are going to have engaged students and great class sessions.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
You must first make sure that you understand the material that you are going to present. Be a subject matter expert. Then be 150% prepared for the lecture and you need to avoid a slow start. Start off with a startling content opening statment,show your students that you are a believer in the subject that you are introducing and just have some fun with the lecture. Always keep your students engaged in the lecture by asking questions.
Prepare your classes before hand never show up to teach a class unprepared.
Start your class with a quick summary of the last lecture
Ask the main question, the main idea that you want the students to take from the lecture.
Be organized, prepare your class with powerpoint slides, include graphics and videos within the powerpoints
If possible demonstrate what you are trying to relate
Be enthusiastic, seek participation and involve/engage the students.
Donna,
Students of all ages and in all kinds of classes like to play games and be competitive. Using games to review content and increase excitement in the class are great motivators.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Thanks for this suggestion. I've never watched game shows on TV so I don't know how this works, but I'm going to look it up. I know the feeling of being "mind-numbed" and I don't want to do that to my students!
Freda,
This is an important outcome of a well prepared and delivered lecture. This is why effort needs to be made to include as many different examples and real world experiences in the lectures as is possible.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Yes, this method helps to motivate them to think, make inference and draw conclusions. It helps them to become active and retain the information that they received.
I feel that mixing lecture and hands on helps keep the students engaged because it gives them an opportunity to use what they have just learned in the lecutre in an actual scenario.
Adding real world experiences.
Tavia,
These additional insights really help you with your own instructional planning. The more you know about the current group of students the more accurately you can meet their instructional needs and provide them with needed support.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I ask questions about what methods are used in there other course that they find to be effective in there learning. I found that some students are more visual and other are written word type of students. So I try to incorport all type to give each student what they need from me as an instructor.
Tamatha,
This is such an important part of their career development. Keep up the questioning as well as the mental challenging you are posing for your students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Gina,
It is good to visually to remind students of what is going to be covered. By having the objectives on the board you are showing them how many of the objectives have been covered and how there are yet to work toward for each class.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
