Hi Ian,
Way to go in reading your students and then adapting your instruction to support their learning preferences. This is what good instructional planning is all about.
Gary
It gives you the opportunity to maximize the students learning potential when you understand and adjust your teaching for their needs. It also helps them to learn better.
I have about 4 or 5 students with many different mechanisms of learning. I agree it is very challenging to be able to reach each student but I also find it fun. I allow my students to sit through my other classes and I teach them each differently.
The student can find personal meaning and value in the course
The better I understand the characteristics of a student, the better I can teach them. If I find myself with Kinesthetic learners then we will do more physical activities Auditory, then more lecture,pictures,discussion. Book Learners are obvious, they have their text marked up. They goal is getting the information in their heads not getting through the subject at hand.
Dr. Meers,
what is a Case? the videos in the course mention them a lot, but they never define what one is. A law case, a lesson plan(they are calling a case) what?
Understanding the student’s skill level helps instructor set appropriate expectations and guide decision making about the use of prompting and
reinforcement strategies. When learning a new skill, all of us require more support and assistance. During this stage, the
instructor should be careful to provide enough prompting to reduce errors and encourage successive
approximations.
Just knowing how the individula learns will allow you as a teacher to develope learning strategies to be able to get the information to the student.
I feel we all learn in different ways. If you can incorporate real life experiences students can relate and retain it. It always seems to be a strong point in my courses.
Hi Krisy,
Well said. The key is to see yourself in the content. So the more activities we have and discussions we hold to show students how they fit into the field and the course the greater the completion rate is going to be.
Gary
As many instructors mentioned, understanding our students background and their characteristics can help you plan the types of activities that will benefit the class. Group activities that involve life experience and book knowledge can help students feel represented and heard. If students believe they can relate to the information being presented they will pay more attention and put forth an effort.
Hi Theresa,
Good observation about listening to and observing students while they are working in the class. I know you are going to have more interaction with them as a result of knowing more about how they are working through the material.
Gary
I didn't notice that listening to students really mattered during certain portions of the class time. For instence when they were working in groups. I recently got hearing aids and now I can hear what is really going on between the students and how they access these portions of the course work.
The instructor can not really on thier own confort zone or thier own personal learning charasteristics. We have to branch out to reach all types of learners within each class session.
By understanding the learner characteristics helps in determining an instructors lesson plans. When you know your students it's easier to plan which medias to use, field trips that interest all of your students, and case scenerios that will contect with the students
I work in a hands on educational experiance and the differnet types of learning really play a role in creating effective lessons that stimulate and challege the many types of students we have, from the just out of high school to the change of career ones. Hands on seems to mose effective for the largest swath of students.
Identifying student's needs help Instructors to select appropriate lesson plan adaptation and modification in order to improve student achievement.
I believe that being aware of the different learner characteristic is necessary to create a learning environment for all types of learning styles. When creating a daily lesson, I try to include visuals through either Power Point or a video, lecture with examples, and then assignments / projects associated with the lecture and visual aspect of the subject. I also find when lecturing on a complex subject it is essentially to stop and give examples that the students can relate to. This helps to make the lecture more interesting and understandable for the students. Sometimes I question the student during the lecture to see if they can give examples as well, which helps me to monitor their understanding.
Hi Krystal,
Good points about how to impact the learning of your students. Preparation leads to effective presentations. We need to dynamic and excited about what we are teaching and deliver it in a way that engages the students.
Gary
It’s one thing to understand the information that’s being presented, but you must also have an understanding of how to present it. In order to do that, you must understand your audience. Knowing your audience’s educational and professional backgrounds, learning styles, and personalities could help you in many ways.
- It can assure that you are speaking to them on the correct level. If it’s an introductory course with students that have just graduated from high school, you would spend more time explaining terms to give them the understanding they need.
- Time can be saved by not repeating information to them that they already know. If you are teaching a master’s level course, it wouldn’t be necessary to explain basic information to them. That time could be better used by delving deep into theories and application.
- If there are more visual learners in your class, it could help to have handouts for them or multiple slides. Not presenting the information in a way that is familiar to the student, will lead to frustration. This frustration stunts their potential growth in the course and could cause them to consider withdrawing.
There are many things that must be considered prior to creating the lesson plan for a course. It’s up to the facilitator to reach out to the students to get a basic understanding of them and determine the best method in which to present.
Hi Franklin,
If you can get some basic information about the students you can build from there. You don't have to have a lot of depth about the characteristics but just some idea on why the students are enrolled and the challenges they are facing as they move through the class.
Gary
