know your students and be prepared with alternative methods of presenting info
This is a great teaching tool. It really shows the sudent application as well as importance.
I always use a multimedia appraoch.
i teach psych 101 for vet tech students. i have used pbs documenaries to put faces to intellectual concepts (ie, Freedom Riders for concepts in social psych like prejudice and working together.) i have used role playing activities for psychopathology. i also use handouts so that the students are working out problems or questionnaires instead of listening to me talk the whole time. also, i assign papers where the student has to apply the concept to their life. students have been incredibly open and poignent discussing their issues in these papers.
The faster that you learn the individual learning styles of your student the more successful you will be.
Utilizing different learning preferences is even more critical for our school's students. In many cases English is not their first language, so expressing the points through various learning preferences gives them additional opportunities to grasp the concept.
Glenn,
You are hitting on the different learning preferences throughout the course. With variety of instruction you are offering content in their preference areas at one time or another during the course session.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
To accommodate different learning styles, I sometimes incorporate having students read from the text during class time prior to responding to questions from that section. I also use props during my lectures to reinforce specific concepts. For example, I use dice to reinforce certain math concepts. Of course, lecturing is an important part of my instruction.
As a staff member of a registrar department, I do not deliver instruction; however, I understand that our instructors utilize past and future end-of-course surveys to better manage learning gaps and improve instructional delivery.
I speak about different learning styles. I do teach the way I learn. Visual and auditory are the strongest styles that work. I do use sometimes kinesthetic styles as well. I've received very good feedback.
Lima,
You have developed a very ladder system for learning. The students are going vertical and well as lateral as they progress through the course. In combination this gives them a lot of new information to internalize and make a part of their knowledge development.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Leonard,
Great to hear about your expertise expansion. I know you are going to enjoy the results of engaging your students even more with these different delivery strategies.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Margeaux,
Great question about cognitive processing of written material. The answer from my research on cognitive processing the past 30 years is it depends on the individual. My work in the area of multiple intelligence assessment has shown me that a person that has input via written word, may do an internal auditory perception, may do a visual perception (turn words into pictures) or tactile perception (words into mental action). This is why it is important to offer content in a variety of ways so that the students will learn how to receive information in different venues and then be able to internalize it in their memories in such a way that they can retrieve it as needed.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I would like to t6he best strategy to motivate my students.
I find it sometimes difficult to address all of the learning preferences depending on the lesson being taught. However, the main reason for my deficiency in the past was failure to branch out and learn techniques to address it. I have since gathered knowledge from other instructors regarding addressing learning preferences and have noticed improvement in the area. Actually, I didn't realize how much it affects the volume of an individual's ability to learn and retain what's learned.
Gary,
I have more of a question for you than a comment, really: Why is it that Auditory Learning and 'Reading/Text Material' are grouped separately in terms of learning style? Perhaps this is a misconception on my part, but at least in my own reading, I find that I convert written word into an 'internal' auditory perception as I read. Is this atypical for most? If my students are gaining knowledge on different levels when I ask them to focus on a particular section of text versus when I quote the text to them, then I may want to make a point of performing both these actions in the future.
I believe you must meet all three learning styles at every class meeting. we do mixtures of lecture of materail, handson with materail and expereince telling with material. Lectures are kept short so that you don't lode the interest of the students, worksheets or a group activity to get them interacting with each other and having them do/listen is very importatnt for a well rounded class.
One important issue to implementing important course content, is making sure the content is being tought at the correct taxonomy level. This is very important in programs that students sit for credentialing. They have to be able to apply what they have learn in the advance courses.
By breaking things down so that the students have a better understanding.
It takes me a long preparation time but the end result is great. I prepare a 5-10 minutes presentation on the subject using powerpoint. I also prepare a step by step lab that each student completes according to her/his pace. At the end of the lab, the student is provided with two exercises.
The first exercise requires the learner to apply the knowledge acquired in resolving a similar problem. I call this step a lateral transfer of knowledge.
The second exercise requires the student to apply the knowledge acquires in resolving a different problem that requires some modifications of the steps. I call this step the vertical transfer of knowledge.
I also have optional problem solving exercises for students who complete their tasks faster than their peers to challenge them while keeping them busy. It also keeps them from distracting the class.
