Hi Terry,
The student dialogue approach is a very good way to reinforce what has been taught. The students get to internalize and then verbalize the content. This helps to store it in their working memory for future use.
Gary
Being that I teach Psychology, this is a topic I am constantly learning myself! I LOVE trying to find new ways of teaching the subject. Auditory teaching applications may involve students teaching a topic or a group discussion or Socratic seminar; Visual teaching may involve a Power Point or creation of a mobile, chart or drawing; Kinesthetic teaching may involve a field trip, activity or personal experience.
I try to break any of those activities down into the smallest parts then build on them. I like to build my lessons from the end ot the beginning rather than beginning to end. I try to anticipate the student questions along the way, possible outcomes of discussions and then work my plans around those ideas while still leaving room for tangents, so to speak.
I think also, realizing that every student and every class is a different challenge each quarter allows me to practice using my own learning style as well.
Understanding brain function will help me alter my teaching approaches to the students in my classes. By understanding the students prior difficulty with formal education has already given me ideas for classroom activities that engage the students more actively. One idea is to spend some portion of each class in student driven dialogues about how they can apply the topic to their work and home environments.
Episodic memory which includes life experiences assists students in the learning process, especially at college level.
It is important to offer class discussion after lecture to draw on their own personal experiences. This will encourage strategies for them to become lifelong learners.
I often see this as a challenge in my Introduction to Advertising classes to help get students to think more creatively. For instance, using an executional framework to develop an idea (for example: a metaphor, or analogy, or slice-of-life). Before they can create an ad campaign say using a metaphor, I try to take them back to their episodic memory. Once they understand the use of a metaphor from their own lives, I then use semantic memory to get them to use it in the real world towards creating ideas.
I agree that teaching the class term after term allows for a better understanding not only of the understanding and passion for the material, but also to adapt teaching techniques to different learning preferences.
Mariann U
I find that I am constantly learning new ways to adapt to different learning preferences in my classroom...I feel that their preferences are almost as unique as each individual student. Also, as I have taught the class term after term, I have aquired a better understanding of & more passion for the material, which seems to create more interest from my students.
Hi Scott,
I know some work has been done with these types of deliveries on the elementary level. You might want to look at that research and see if there is a possibility of moving those applications to the adult setting.
Gary
I have not necessarily had any luck delivering my lectures in musical format, but I do often break into a little vocal percussion or dance to assist my students who have different learning styles in remembering certain key items. For example, in my basic design class, when I am teaching them about the different colors, I want them to remember that we call it "violet", not "purple". I do what my students call "the violet dance" and have a little song with the dance. This way, they will always remember their instructor, who alas, could not dance, and they will never call it purple again.
Has anyone had any success delivering their lectures in musical format (for the auditory/musical learners), or having the class break up into small groups and to choreograph interpretive dance numbers on the subject at hand (for the kniesthetic learners)? It seems to me like this would be a good way to engage the different learning styles, breaking through the "gridlock" of the students' information-overloaded day, and really transfer the delivered information from short-term memory to long-term. Unfortunately, I'm a pretty lousy dancer.
Neural networks are indeed a fascinating subject, but one that is not without its potentially frightening long-term implications. The intelligent machines we have created thus far are quite simple compared to the marvelous 3-pound computer that is the human brain; however, if Moore's Law holds (and at present we have no reason to expect that it won't), then we will see computer processing speed and power double every two years. Where artificial intelligence is concerned, this exponential rate of increase could allow the creation of computer brains more efficient than the human brain; these could create yet more efficient and intelligent machines without the aid of humans; these machines will beget yet more efficient and intelligent machines, leading to what has been dubbed the "technological singularity," a point at which the machine brain becomes incomprehensible to us, and the changes it will inflict on the future will be unpredictable, unknowable. But with the value we place on efficiency, what place is there for humans in this new computer world? I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords.
As for how this can be applied to students learning in the classroom, well, I think that a healthy appreciation of the human brain, with all of its power and all of its limitations, makes the instructor better able to encode information in the students' brains, and therefore makes him a better teacher. (Also, a healthy respect for the computers of the day could put us on the winning side when the singularity comes.)
In my work experiences prior to becoming an instructor, I found that application of new skills through experience helped my junior designers learn more in a short amount of time. Understanding the connection of adult learning within the sociocultural context helps me to plan my classroom activites and content for better retention and learning.
Thanks for the tip Dr. Meers - I have had some success with games (primarily, Telecom Jeaporday) but I think I need to come up with more games to add to my tool kit.
Thanks again,
-James
I agree with this approach. I use case studies and small group projects so students obtain the necessary information and content needed.
Mariann U
Hi James,
Coming up with creative ways of delivering content is one of the fun parts of teaching. Talk to other instructors, go on line and look at different delivery strategies (Hint: Look at elementary deliveries--you will surprised at how many applications you can get from elementary teachers and use with adults). Soon you will be using games, small groups, cast studies, etc. to help your students get the content needed for your course. Have fun with it and they will to.
Gary
As discussed in this module, a good instructor will mesh long term memory with short term memory to create a base for working memory. One can use mental images, pictures and applications. Also since I am a clinical nursing instructor I use alot of hands on demonstration and repeated demonstrations and follow-ups along with quizzes to reinforced all the skills and knowlege bases needed for successful completion of the nursing skills.
Marian n U
Hi Erin,
You make a very good point in relation to helping students to see the big picture. An instructor needs to have the big picture in mind and then break it down into bite size chunks of content so the students can gain the foundational knowledge and skills need for the career area.
The intent of the basic content is to assist instructors to be able to do the breaking down of the content into learning segments leading to the big picture.
Gary
I definitely now have a better understanding as to why it seems like even when I am giving one of my more interesting lectures, I still sometimes have a student or two that look like they would much rather be eating a sawdust souffle.
I may need to find a completely different approach to getting the material across to those students.
Many of these courses have focused on student learning processes, and it almost feels as if the readings focus on the minutiae of the learning process. Part of the learning process has got to be the big picture. Studies continue to show that more learning takes place within the classrooms of certain teachers for reasons that cannot be explained by anything other than talent. I find these readings interesting from a psychological/scientific perspective, but I do not know that it makes me a more efficient or "better" instructor. Learning about learning (Meta-learning as it is) doesn't make any instructor better until they learn how to apply it.
Refreshing your skills with a review of the learning basics is important. In each class, I usually have a couple of students who have a special needs accomodation. Also, I may have students that are taking the class for the 2nd time and they need a different learning approach.
