I totally agree with having a variety of teaching/learning methods and engaging in the class. No one wants to be lectured at for hours. Having interactions between teacher and students during demonstrations and case studies help break up the lecture.
I loved the refresher course on the different teaching styles and how students learn. It is important to vary your teaching style to accommodate all of these different learning styles. As a new instructor, I tend to default to standard lecturing and this helped me see how I can improve.
We generally only remember about 25% of what we hear.
We generally only retain 40% of what we read.
We can listen 4 times faster than we can speak.
Humans are wired with the ability to comprehend 5 to 7 items and after that the retention rate starts to drop dramatically.
When you build rapport with your students, they are more likely to connect with the content you are sharing and retain it better.
Utilize mini-lessons where possible-this will keep students focused in spurts of 15-18 minute increments.
Comment on Laura Hogins's post: I have found it very helpful to have plenty of backup resources and activities. Sometimes it seems that there isn't enough time to finish all the work and other times the goals and objectives were met sooner than I expected. Having backup activities and plans has been very helpful.
The amount of information retained when delivered verbally versus being read.
I have learned that I need to get to know my students and try to cater my teaching style to their learning style. I need to be personable and clear in my teaching and ensure that I stay connected with them to be able to teach them in a way that will be clear, understandable and effective.
I learned about different instructional methods and how important it is to pick the most effective method to use while lecturing.
Varying your teaching style is helpful to your students, and learning which style benefits your students the most can make you a better instructor.
Changing tactics helps to promote engagement of students and keeping the period of time broken into 10–15-minute segments of each teaching style allow each student to resonate with different points of the lesson.
You try to use different methods to keep the students engage and interested in the material they are learning. You can use surveys, different videos from other professors, to help keep the students engage.
you should always practice any demonstrations before class
I heard many years ago to teach in "chunks" and that is what I try to do. I do not lecture very long, but will always have some other activity to do to keep students actively involved.
Making sure lecture doesn't exceed 15-18 minutes at a time secondary to majority of learner's attention span is within that time frame. Also making sure not exceed 5-7 steps per objective to ensure student success.
It is important to use various tools to transmit information to students, with this we can maintain the interest and curiosity of students to see what new things they will learn and handle tomorrow.
Delivering course content that is engaging and interesting for the students to remain focused is key. Setting up lectures (in varying methods and styles) into 15-minute blocks helps to keep attention spans focused. Using an ice breaker or something to grab the student's attention at the beginning of each class is important. I like the idea of handing out 3x5 cards to the students to write their questions down and then collecting them at the end of lecture to answer. I will definitely use this technique.
I learned a lot about the different types of lectures that there are. I am planning on using several of them.
Lesson plans help keep you focused on how to prepare for each class session, including the content and materials needed for the students.
