Reinforcing content
While alot of this unit's content was familiar, it was supported by good research and was a great reminder of some important steps for getting students to remember content. The suggestion to reinforce content through review (what's been covered) and preview (anticipate what's to come) was familiar and, I thought, apt. In public speaking, we say "preview, view, review" for your audience - that look back and look forward allows students to download previous content, reboot their attention spans and prepare for new material.
I particularly appreciated the concrete tidbits of research - eg, 2-4 topics in 30 minutes - that offer practical "on the ground" reminders for improving student success.
Patricia,
these are all great statements & are great examples of why this is so important to do these activities.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I can agree with the method of reviewing and previewing when covering class material because it helps students' retention. It also gives a sense of connection and relevancy.
I really appreciated the point about using simple examples to explain something that may appear complex to the students.
When I teach beginning audio sometimes basic audio signal flow can overwhelm students. I break it down to simply being like turning a hose on and off. It works every time!
I agree that a pretest is a very effective way to determine if the students are learning the concepts. This forum has motivated me to pretest in class this week, actually!
The class I am currently teaching builds off the prior subject matter. That being said if my students do not understand the prior information they are going to have a hard time as the course goes on. I ask questions durning and after my lectures to review and make sure that the students are putting the concepts together. I have found that by asking questions to the students they feel more free to ask me questions. Questions help to reinforce the content. I have also found that having to answer questions help to teach the concept in a new way, becaus that student didn't pick it up the first was it was presented.
I too try to review with students over the material that was covered from the previous lecture. I find that my students do not ask very many questions during the initial lecture but wait and ask questions when we review the next class time. I think this allows the students to go home and process the information that was discussed and then ask good relevant questions during the review period. When I implemented the review process before starting the new lecture I feel that a lot of the "unnecessary" questions were eliminated because the student was able to go home and process the information more thoroughly knowing that they can still ask questions regarding the material the following day. I would like to know if the "pretest" that people are giving is an actual written test or is it more verbal questions with students answering randomly?
Thomas,
this really is a great little technique that can save a lot of time & frustration for you & the students.
Dr. Ryan Meers
I love the use of pretesting to help me determine what content may need the most reinforcing. It allows me to predetermine what I want to focus the most attention on.
