I find that using different teaching strategies and mixing up the assignments help students.
Hank,
I would agree that the instructor always should consider him/herself first regarding teaching & delivery.
Dr. Ryan Meers
The index card is a great idea! Thanks for sharing, I can see this as real asset in breaking the ice and getting to know your students quickly.
Observing students is one way, you can usually tell if a student has grasped the concepts or not based thier questions, body language, level of interest, etc. Now how can we determine the learning need of these students that don't grasp what we have so elequently delived to them! The one piece this section left out is maybe its the professor that needs some help in delivering the concepts. One answer may be to bring those students into a teaching role. Find a topic they understand and ask how they would teach it to others.
Kelsey,
these are great check in points to gauge where all of our students are in their learning.
Dr. Ryan Meers
Pre-quizes or questionarres help me assess what the student alread knows and how I may help them learn better.
Dr.PAVAN,
this is a great strategy for digging deeper with each of your students & really engaging them in the learning process.
Dr. Ryan Meers
By asking them thier views about the topic and how they relate to their lives and world around and uses they can think of
Edward,
these are all great ideas & I think the key is to be engaged & listening to our students.
Dr. Ryan Meers
Eddie,
this is a great strategy & one that is relatively easily & inexpensively implemented; communication between instructors.
Dr. Ryan Meers
Before the class starts I give them a pre test about the course. Based on that pre test I can assess how much information they have at that time. After the course content is taught, I give them a post test to compare how much knowledge they have gained and to assess if learning took place.
There are many ways to assess student learning needs. A pretest prior to new concepts is one way. Quizzes, tests and worksheets would be another. I like reflective journaling and discussions to assess learning needs. It has a little less structure and not so threatening to the student.
Pretests help identify educational shortcomings, while listening to the student talk may provide some insight as to his language ability.
Asking questions and listening to content of the answers may also help in the evaluation. The answer may be somewhat correct but may yield some insight into how the question was recieved.
I have also found that a students ability may vary in terms of how well the different senses take in material. I had a student that learned very well when content was verbal but the same content presented in text format provided extreemly poor results.
Bottom line, students are individuals. As an instructor you must strike a ballance in class between all levels of student capability and spend time with all students to keep them involved and excited by what they are learning.
In some of our classes we use quizzes at the start of a class to get a sort of baseline for students. One of the best tools we have is communication between instructors. We have workstations set up to promote conversations both positive and concerns about students and curriculum.
I find that learning their backgrounds and speaking with them daily about what you learned helps you to continue to learn what they know and what they lack. It's easy to be wrong after just one conversation. Many talks give you a better and a much more whole picture.
Thomas,
I think this is a great strategy to help get the needs out in the open.
Dr. Ryan Meers
Pretesting can help in assessing student learning needs. Another approach is to have students take a reading comprehensions and vocabulary test which provides feedback, such as the grade level they are reading and comprehending at. These results followed up with remedial training on the deficiencies can go along way in improving a students proficiency. I think the important thing is to let them discover the learning need and then coach them and provide a way for them to overcome the learning need and improve.
I teach Broadcast Journalism and I always try to determine as early as possible, which students need the most help. By engaging the students in non-threatening writing exercises before actual graded materials, I can identify their needs and then plan a course of action. We focus on expanding their vocabulary by first exploring words they may not know. But when we discuss how to pronounce various words, I always explain how to apply those words by identifying definitions and then having the students try using them in a sentence.
Through identification of concerns in the initial interview process, pre-enrollment exams, individual meeting with the potential student, including discussion of possible intervention methods
Observation and monitoring stradegies are good tools to use. It has been my experience that there are two types of students with learning needs: 1. Those that make themselves known for always trying to be funny or in other ways seem to become a classroom management situation or 2. Those that you never hear from at all, they never ask questions, they don't engage in anyway with anybody or about anything.
I find that the 2nd is usually harder to deal with because you have to penetrate the barriers they have created to be able to identify what the learning need is and how then to engage them in a learning process.
The 1st is usually easier to identify that there is some type of problem, but to identify what it is can be tricky in that they have become proficient in masking it.
Either way, a good instructor can identify and create a success plan to engage them acedemically within the first few days of class as to not have to play the ever constant catch up game that seems to follow if not identified early.
Lastly, I have each of the students pick a colored index card and fill out their name, what they preferred to be called, telephone number, answer "Why are you here?", and list 3 strengths and 3 weakness they possess. Then I can assess them by their own standard and work with them on their own identified weakness instead of guessing what they might be. It's amazing how candid some of them are. How they write, their penmanship, and their spelling allows me to assess whether I have any reading/writing deficiencies as well. It also, indirectly, helps to build repoire with each student on an individual basis. It works very well for me, so just thought I would share.
