Hi Tiffany, Thanks for your post to the forum. Yes, students really get engaged in discussions when they get to share personal experiences. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Susan Polick
Hi Patricia, Thanks for your post to the forum. Stopping to review followed by some questions pulls students out of the lecture coma that we often encounter! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Susan Polick
I tend to use open ended qustions or cirlcle question which helps the student find the answer. But the style changes depending on class size and student make up.
Ask students questions about real-life situations that I now that they have been through causes them to get engaged and share and discuss, which eventually leads to questions that they come up with.
After lecturing for 10 to 15 minutes I stop and recap and ask review questions on what was just talked about. After they understood my review on leacture I noticed more students were paying attention and were able to answer my questions with ease
I find that this works almost every time
I have found that if we are on a topic that seems to be more difficult, and I am not getting a good response to questions, then I will give the class two choices of answers to the question and the response rate increases dramatically.
Hi Maryellen, Thanks for your post to the forum. Good ideas for increasing student participation. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Susan Polick
I have used the technique of letting them ask each other questions. It gets them involved and I put them in teams for a competition to make it more fun
Hi Lavern- As I have been teaching for 25 years, I echo your response! As teachers, we must do more than dispense information. We need to set the stage that will cause our students to be engaged and excited about their own learning! Thanks for sharing your heartfelt post to the forum! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Susan Polick
Hi John, Yes, using open-ended questions will almost always lead to expanded discussions. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Susan Polick
I'm told I must participate in a forum to pass this course so here goes.
I've been teaching for 22 years and have had over 5000 students. I've trained teachers so feel qualified beyond the scope of ED 103
I will make this statement. The most difficult part of teaching is creativity in designing learning materials that engage students, meet the course objectives, and which are relevant to the world we live in today. Such materials rarely if ever exist with a text book, which themselves are dated before they are ever published.
If you can create these materials, then ask questions related to them you will solicite questions from students that are likewise relevant. The connection between the world they live in and the context of the course in itself generates genuine interest, which in turn helps the student retain the material.
One must gain the students trust that you actually know what you are teaching and that the content has meaning. Otherwise it becomes an exercise in acadamia where the student plays the game to get the grade, to get the degree.
Open ended questions help me insure that the student was paying attention to the subject matter being discussed.Additionally they can possibly build more onto the subject being discusse
I have used the Socratic method, not knowing the term at the time. It is very helpful when going through our diagnostic section of our courses.What components can effect certain areas and why or how certain areas effect other systems then can create the same effect.If that makes sense on how I stated the process.
Hi Migdalia, Thanks for your post to the forum and for sharing a good idea to get students participating! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Susan Polick
I like making up questions about the lecture. I break them up into groups so they can work on them together. I give tham at least 10min. Then we go around the room so they can ans. the questions. This way the students That don't want to ans. questions because they might not have known them, know them now because they had help from other students.
I have used comparison methods to challenge more critical thinking. I am an avid Socratic method user to challenge students to think about their answers. I further use games like Jeopardy, Hangman and Hollywood Squares.
I agree with the rest of my classmates. Open-ended questions can be effective. I like to use them in order to build their critical thinking skills and help them to develop a method for solving problems.
Hi Ana, Wait time and rephrasing are essential pieces of questioning. Students want to participate and its up to us to help them do so. Susan
I ask the students questions that are open ended and then drill down to some closed knowledged based questions
