Wow Charles - what a great teaching plan you have for your complex discipline! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Hi Regina- Thanks for your post to the forum. I am so happy that you have gotten some useful information to use in your classes! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
This sounds like a great way to reach a variety of learning methods. The Kinesthetic Learner is learning by doing, the Visual Learner is learning by watching the demonstration, and the Auditory Learner is learning by hearing the student and also, the instructor feedback.
This is also something to keep in mind in interacting with students of all ages.
I am a new instructor and will keep this in mind as I start preparing for my upcoming courses.
I'm an instructor where most of the students (including myself)are kinesthetic learners. Lecture is certainly a challenge. I prefer demonstration and my students learn best that way. Regardless, there is just some information they must receieve via lecture so I make it as fun and interesting as I can. I tend to teach in pictures, since that's how I recall information. I think it's good for the students to know we are all in the same boat. I do have to remember, however, that although there are a large number of students who learn like me, there are other students who favor other learning styles.
Most of my students are hands-on learners,and I realized that they can grasp new information a lot better.I usually give them some brief information about a new procedure they need to learn,and then I demonstrate this new procedure and then they start performing it.I give them constant feed back on their performance .I don't forget my auditory style learners,so after ahands on ,I do a short lecture about the new procedure just presented,and encourage discussions on this new topic.
I teach a very complex computer modeling program. I start by discussing and showing a project. Then we do it together with me creating it on the whiteboard. Then we do a similar project in class and I go station to station working with the students. Finally I give them a take home project. I firmly believe that the only way to be comfortable and effective in this package is to work with it...as much as possible creating objects. The trick is to keep the objects diverse and interesting while slowly increasing the degree of difficulty over the 10 week term as I increase the number of tools available to them.
Hi Thomas - Thanks for your post to the forum. you are doing a great job running an interactive classroom! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Yes, this is a great form of instruction. This works really well for a class with a lot of technology.
PowerPoints with 70 slides per chapter for a Computer Hardware class can be really boring. Talking about different pin layouts and connector types for different ports or cables is meaningless unless you actually pass examples around in class. By having the students actually hold, manipulate and plug in the different types of cables and connectors, you appeal to kinesthetic learners as well as the visual and auditory learners you may appeal to by just using the PowerPoint presentation and lecture alone.
It varies by subject matter. I teach many IT classes and I feel most students tend to like "hands on" lesson plans.
For networking and computer hardware courses nothing beats actually building and troubleshooting the actual components.
For programming courses I often teach theory, then do a "follow the leader" type programming exercise where the students type along with me while I explain what each line of code does. I then give them their own programming exercise where they have to apply the skills they learned in class to a new problem.
Hi Tricia- Thanks for your post to the forum. You shared some good suggesting for teaching kinesthetic learners! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
I try having them show me or demonstate the information. Many time I have these individuals come to the front and use them as models while demonstrating a concept or subject material. This gives them tactile information along with visual and auditory input
Offer hands on projects, utilize cooperative games, encourage active participation, allow multi-tasking (classroom tasks while listening to instructions), use a variety of options to demonstrate learning.
Hi Stewart- Thanks for your post to the forum. Lecturing as your students complete a task is very effective.Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
I have found that majority of my students are Kinesthetic learners ( I am a dental assisting instructor) I incorporate lecture as we are doing hands on lab assignments. Usually I go through the book- show them the materials and allow them to mix, handle, manipulate the material- then explain it function- then apply with a patient setting. They enjoy it much more and have told me they dont learn unless they see the procedure and actually participate in it. Its very important in my classroom I incorporate both methods simutaneously...
One approach I use in my classes when dealing with kinesthetic learners is as I'm lecturing we as a class are doing the hands on assignment at the same time. This way the students receive the theory lecture information and are able to relate it to the hands on assignment at the same time.
Hi John - Thanks for your post to the forum. You are doing a terrific job of running an active learning classroom - Great work! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
In a residential class setting, I use kinesthetic activities for nearly half of my time with students. Whether it be a business, marketing, or music business course, I like to have them practice "real-world" simulations on each objective we cover. One example would be the Artist Management class that I teach. Assigned activities in the class include: drafting management contracts, preparing concert flyers, and contacting actual performance venues in the area. This all leads up to the major project of the term, which is booking and promoting a concert in the metropolitan area. I find that learning by doing is the best way to retain information, as well as gain valuable resume' worthy experience.
Thank you for sharing your idea of creating a "puzzle". I am going to try this in my next head & neck anatomy course; I think it would really help my students learning the muscles of the face and oral cavity - matching the muscle with it's description and location. Also for learning how to recognize medical/dental emergencies; signs, symptoms, treatment, etc.
The students need to have this approach to retain the materials. It is a use it or lose it situation
Hi Elizabeth- Thanks for your post to the forum. I really like your idea of sending students into the community to work on relevant projects. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
