Since the courses I teach are mostly medical based, I've utilized many hands on strategies such as having them create their own patients' charts, and maintaining them throughout the course. This method allowed them to combine the book knowledge with more tactical skills.
My class is divided into a lab and lecture. I plan my day with the lecture first. I cover the material with the students and I demonstrate a "how to" guide in the assessment of the disease. During lab the students are prepared and excited to practice on one another in the assessment of the disease.
As a massage instructor, I will do a lot of mini-lectures and than break the students into multiple groups. When the students break into groups I will give each group a different activity that addresses a different learning style. For some students they will do a hands on activity, others a reading activity, another will do a drawing or coloring activity. After a certain amount of time the groups will switch to a different area and this will continue until each group has done all of the activities. I find that this really helps keep the students interested and it also help address each of the students learning styles.
Be incorporating maybe the top few of how my class lerns in one coarse and then try another for another coarse.
Nannette,
Changing the pace and flow of the class is important. You are doing such with your method. This variety helps to keep students engaged as they move through the content.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Basically I like to give variety to my lessons by seeing which student is better at which way of learning and I have different types of things for them to do, but they all learn the exact same thing which is also pretty cool.
I try to only lecture for about the first half of class and then the second half I divide them into groups and have them do group work, such as critical thinking exercises.
Samantha,
They sure are since they have the students applying their new information. This increases the retention of the material for the students as well.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Robert,
By using your approach you are offering different opportunities for students to use their learning preferences. In addition, they get to learn how to use different preferences with different materials. So you are offering engaging instruction in different modes.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Hypotheticals and real life scenerios are an effective way to meet the needs of my students.
I work in the feild that I teach, so I seem to always have something to share with my students that directly related to the course.
I was so intrigued by the example of the TREE DIAGRAM. I will implement this flow chart style in terms of my lecturing. I find I fall short when it comes to coming back to the main point. I will practice this style. In terms of Learners Prefrences. I will always keep the different learning styles in mind as I prepare for my next class. I really enjoyed the section of training. I learned so much. thank you
In each of my lectures, I also include some kind of case study/problem-based learning as well as stop periodically to have students diagram or outline the lecture up to that point.
Sometimes when a student is having difficulty understanding a concept, I ask their classmates who DO understand to come up with a different way to explain. I never cease to be amazed at the brilliant analogies or other teaching methods that they come up with!
I simply don't. The demographics of my students are wide and varied. Accommodation quickly becomes exclusion. I work at varying the pace, content and presentation styles of each lecture
At the begining you need to incorporate each of the learning prefereneces. Once you have presented a couple of classes you can modifie to the actual styles of your students.
I try to incorporate visual training aids to pass around the room as I'm lecturing. I will lecture briefly and then draw diagrams on the white-board (and only because I've been told I have a knack for art... my collegue instructors use powerpoint diagrams). I will also often break up lecture by citing real world situations that relate to the course content.
Since the attention span of most students is short, I engage students with a variety of methodologies. I engage them with "real-world" industry stories, ask them to provide their own experiences, deliver case studies, take them on field trips, and when available, involve guest speakers.
Jennifer,
This is a great way to keep students engaged and involved in the learning process. Your strategy really keeps the students focused on the content that has just been covered.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Hello everyone,
The strategies that I have used are taking mini breaks within the chat session. For example if I have lectured for about 12 minutes or so I give a question to be answered or I ask for the students to find a fact on the subject by going to a certain website and they have three minutes or so to come back with their responses. While they are researching the fact or answering the question, I give a few examples so that there is no silence during the recording of the chat. I also try to change up the material as well, because this helps me to keep the delivery fresh to each of the classes.
Jennifer
Being a Medical Assistant instructor, I am able to use lectures, videos/pictures, practicals to teach my classes. All these methods are used during my class sessions which most of the times cover the entire class poulation's learning styles.
