Get Your Students Hired
I believe that we all-at least for me with adult learners-come to class prepared to use whatever method of delivery we instructors feel most confortable with. However, just by "feeling" the classroom and reading body language of students, it's almost inevitable that we have to adjust the method to reach all students not just the ones who are fine with your preferred method of teaching. Thus over the few first classes one can develop other methods that can be used in conjunction with your preferred method and apply for the continuation of the program to try to be more effective and perhaps plan more effectively the need of different learning styles in a given classroom.
make sure I have visual aides, adaquate handouts, demonstrations, and sufficiant texts.
GERAR,
Good example because it is so true. Students need to be able to see relevancy and application to what they are being taught if it is to have value to them.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Kathleen,
I support your efforts to make the material come alive. Some of my greatest memories as a student are based upon professors that made their subject area come alive.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
The relevancy of the material is just like good and bad music. Good music can be herd by all, while bad music does not appeal to many. The material needs to be relevant to the course and the field it will be related to.
I agree by making the material "come alive" this also help motivate the student, help them become engaged in the material
Kimberley,
I think things like this are so valuable for the reasons you list. The more we know about our students the more accurately we can plan for their learning.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I us the questionnaire/survey to learn what type of learning style my students are. I think more than anything it helps me to recommend additional resources that will help them study and prepare outside of class.
When teaching a concept, I give the class examples as to how this concept can be applied out on the field.
Adam,
Like your list of different instructional deliveries. These will appeal to the different learning preferences you have in your classes and will help to keep your students engaged.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I try to diversify my instructional style as much as possible. I combine mini-lectures, group discussions, individual activities, and labs together.
I plan to try to use several different teaching tools to help meet the learning needs of several different types of learners.I will use lecture, visual aides, demonstrations, hands on, group projects, and anything else necessary to try to reach my students.
In technical fields I believe it is important to expose student to most current material as to transcend generation perceptions on a subject.
TC,
Well said. Students need to be able to apply the content and skills that are being taught along with seeing the relevance and value to what they are learning. If they do they will be engaged and focused as students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Demonstrate clearly, and show where and how it works in the "real world". Theory, while important, should be shown with a clear relevance to aid learning.
Yes, sometimes students can get bogged down in details and can't see the forest for the trees.
Sarah,
You are doing a service to your students with this approach because you are helping them to expand their abilities to take in content beyond just their preferred way. The reality of the workplace is going to require this so you are helping them to develop this needed skill.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I try to cover al kind of techiques like CD's, Power Points, ilustrations, books, internet, etc
My teaching area is in a specialized healthcare profession that encompasses content knowledge and clinical application of that knowledge. It is imperative that each student is flexible enough to learn in multiple ways while maintaining the cognitive complexity to adjust to different case scenarios. Building clinical competency must rest on a solid foundation of content knowledge in my field. I imagine that just about every learning preference is represented in the curricula.
I certainly hope so. I think it is important for them to understand how the theory we teach in the classroom actually is applied in the real world.