You have to have a feel for the audience that you are teaching to. Older students respond to different stimulus.
Younger student are more high tech. Mixeed classes ae tougher. older tend to be more creative in their writing skills
sometimes it takes 3-4 times
Found this to be my most challenging concept to teaching...
You must understand the characteristics of each learner in order to reach them. Each student is different with their ability to learn. Repetion is the key to reaching everyone. If you repeat yourself more than once if they do not get it the first time they will get it eventually.
Hi Tonya,
I like the idea of the multiple choice questions then getting to see how other class members responded to the questions. This gives opportunity for all kinds of discussions as well as valuable information for you and your instructional planning.
Gary
Hi Jennifer,
You have good approach because this way you are appealing to the diverse learning preferences among your students. The more you know about the students the more accurate you can be in customizing your instruction. Good point.
Gary
AGE IN TODAYS STUDENT BODY IS A GREAT SOCIAL CHALLEGE. WE NEED TO WORK HARD AT UNDERSTANDING THE NEW ECONOMY OF TODAYS STUDENT
I teach online so I do not get to see my students face to face. In my chat sessions I use multiple choice questions that students can click an answer and they can see the percentage of the class that chose each answer without anyone knowing who answered correctly or incorrectly. I also try to do the same kind of math problem a few different ways to help each kink of learner understand. I try to have pictures of formulas to help student remember them more easily.
I believe if one has a good understanding of the positive and negative characteristics of their class and its individual students, one can better develop a teaching strategy to cater to the diversity. For me the trick is to maintain a level playing field when it comes to some of the cognitive challenges some students face each class.
This will give the insructor a head up about the class composition.
various people learn differently.Adults learners want to draw their experiences during discussions and want to know what is in for them in regards to the course they are being taught.Many a time they want a hands on approach to what they are learning.They are kinesthetic
young adults also learn differently they absorb more through auditory and visual aids.
They get board easily and constantly need stimulation and motivation.
This help the instuctorto use various approaches in reinforcing learning behavior.
It is so important to understand how your students learn best. This is the key to retaining their interest and making sure that they are able to ingest and digest what they are supposed to be learning.
Ensuring that you are able to reach all your students means sometimes completely changing your teaching style to reach that one or two who learn in a manner that is alien to you. These circumstances have truly created opportunities for me to grow as an instructor!
Each person looks at things different. Along with learner characteristics. The first thing I ask myself what is it going to take me to get that student were he need to be to success.
Every student is different. Some learn very fast.
Some need to hear things repeated a few times and some need the extra one on one help for them to get a good understanding of the subject.
The main thing that I have learned is you have to spend time with the brighter students at least some of the time even if they dont really need it to keep them not feeling left out or start getting bored in your class.
Understanding the learner characteristics of students in your classroom gives you an idea of how to better present information, and may actually allow you at times to reevaluate the way that you yourself perceive the material that you are required to teach by viewing and preparing it from a slightly different method or angle in order to better accommodate certain students.
Over the years I have found that students possess multiple motivations that tie into their characteristics. Whether this is their age and relative experience, cultural background, or current work status, the unique person in class filters information through their lived reality.
Richard
Be able to identify certain age groups as opposed to experience and previous training and younger age groups basic learning in the classroom enviroment as well as hands on type training and well as study skills. Also being aware of support from fellow classmates and family & friends.
Hi April,
Good point. Instructors need to be aware of and plan for the different learning preferences they will encounter with their students. This will enable them to more accurately target their instructional planning.
Gary
If you can understand how a student learns, visual learner for example, you can better the environment for that learner and optimize their learning capability.
Hi Timothy,
Good approach. You are customizing your instruction to meet the different learning preferences in your class. This is a good way to keep the students engaged and earn their respect as well.
Gary
Hi Ian,
A case is a story/example/situation that the students work through and come up with solutions. The kinds of cases depend on the course you teach. You might have a case that has students trouble shooting a car engine and another might be a medical case involved working with a challenging patient. The cases can come from your own experiences and you put them into case study format. I have a number of them that I have put together to use in my classes. They are two pages in length with a list of 10 questions at the end. The students take them home read them and write up their answers to the questions. The next class meeting I put them into groups and they discuss their answers. Then the groups report out on their consolidated answers. We end up with a wide variety of possible solutions and a lot of discussion about how viable the solutions are.
Gary
