Hello Dr. Ryan,
While I am confident in my ability to deliver speeches and address agenda items for various departmental meetings, I am interested in learning more about how body language plays a role in the classroom setting. As an associate registrar, I do not deliver instruction; however, I do visit the classrooms to present material and advise students on a daily basis. Using strategies like floating, maintaining eye contact, and actively listening to the students may keep them engaged and help me to develop a better rapport with the study body.
I would like to improve my lecture skills. I tend to be conversational and open during instruction time, which creates approachability for my students. I try to keep lectures to 15-20 minute chunks so my learners don't get restless. During these times of straight lecture I sometimes feel I am losing my students to the dreaded text messaging and social media.
I learned that I need to pause more and give students more time to absorb and formulate questions. That information in ED106 was very vaulable to me. I don't pause enough. I have already implemented it this morning in class! The 3-5 second pause after questions give other students time to finish the thought that they were on so that they can pay attention to the new question being asked.
My ability to be able to communicate ideas clearly and concisely to the students. I have a tendency to ramble on when in class. I am getting better at not doing that, but I still need to improve on it.
Also, how to get objectives across to the students in a shorter amount of time. I spend more time then I should on trying to explain something. I need to get better at explaining more with less.
I often find myself lacking patience while waiting on students to respond to my questions.I rush to help them with the answer and that does not give them enough time to formulate their response.I am learning now that a longer pause is needed after a question has been asked and hope to improve in that manner.
Mitchell,
to be honest the first step really is awareness. Now what you need to do is try to become self-aware & realize when you are doing this. This can help you pinpoint more of the "why" you might be doing this. You might want a peer to observe you & he/she can help you pinpoint better. Best wishes with this!
Dr. Ryan Meers
I have been criticised that I tend to lapse into "lecture mode" to the extent that I am focused upon what I am saying, and losing some of my audience. How can I avoid that?
Renea,
this is great. I'm assuming that this not only helps your communication but generally helps all aspects of your teaching as it truly demonstrates life-long learning.
Dr. Ryan Meers
James,
so true that the more technical information can cause us to get bogged down or can bog our students down. Just keep working on those variety of skills.
Dr. Ryan Meers
My Communication Deficiencies:
I generally feel that I am a pretty good communicator. However, I am very much annoyed when I have to repeat instructions to students who are doing other things, instead of listening. My annoyance shows in my nonverbals.
Maybe it’s better to be nonverbal than verbal.
I wish to improve on everything concerning my communication skills, not saying that my skills are unacceptable or negative, but there is always room for improvement. Every term I use a different communication skill or a different lecturing skill and they seem to work, I am always ready for something new.
Anything I can do to improve communication skills for the class is very helpful,discussing technical applications can be confusing to students.
Nisa,
This is definitely a good goal to have. One thing I try to stress with my speaking students is to strike that balance between preparation/professionalism & having a nice conversational tone as we talk to our audience.
Dr. Ryan Meers
after small lecture i used to do demonstration owhat i just explaned to make them more interesting in material
Sometimes I feel like I am too reserved and "professional" and I'd like to create a more vibrant and less tense of a lesson by adding some color and liveliness to my voice while lecturing.
Laura,
So glad you picked up these ideas & also that you view lectures this way. I sometimes ask them to repeat back to me what they heard & this helps identify the gaps, they may actually understand more than they think, I just need to point that out.
Dr. Ryan Meers
Jim,
This is always a challenge. A couple of things that I try to do to get the questions flowing. I'll ask what questions they have. This is a small difference, but sometimes it makes it more comfortable to ask questions as I am acknowledging that they have questions & I want them to ask them. Other times I'll have a couple common questions that have been asked or that I would ask & I'll throw them out to prime the pump for questions.
Dr. Ryan Meers
The communication skill I would like to improve on is explaining complex topics clearly. After presenting a complex topic, I sometimes get the "deer in the headlights" look from students. By completing Module 1 - Delivering Clear Presentations, I plan on using following suggestions:
- Give the number of points to be covered
- Present general statemens followed by specific examples
- Move from simple to complex (familiar to unfamiliar)
As will anything else, this will take time and practice. I always view each classroom lecture as a learning experience for myself.
It is crucial that an instructor have exceptional communication skills. I wish to talk a bit slower for the students who have language barriers.
I would like to improve my question and answer period at the end of each class. I always ask "Are they any questions?" at the end of each class session but students seldom if ever ask any questions. I know, based on feeedback at the next class, that they had questions about the last session that they did not ask. Sometimes I direct questions to a specific student and they will say they have no questions and then, at the next session, they ask the question that they should have asked at the last session.
