Michael Laughy

Involved in the process

I found that students, both active and passive learners, definitely want to be involved in the process; however, academic insecurity can prevent them from doing so. What works well in this case is to ensure the instructor ends each class with a list of items from the students that they feel they will need more help on tomorrow (written on the whiteboard for all to see). This accomplishes several things. First: It is an immediate indicator as to whether or not the instructor got through to the students. Second: The student knows that his/her questions will be answered as part of tomorrows review (providing a reason for them to come to school, rather than feel lost). Third: Chances are that the shy students had the same question(s) and were afraid to ask for help. You might want to limit the questions to between 6 & 10 but make sure they are covered the first thing.