I find active learning activities vital in teaching applied science subject matters. When using small groups, I try to pair some of the aggressive learners with less aggressive learners. My hope is that the stronger personality will help the other, however, this may not be the best approach. Sometimes I notice some students will sit back, not because they have less desire to learn or participate, but they allow others to dominate. Do you have any suggestions to overcome this situation? I have attempted to pair the less dominate personalities together as well, but it is a great feeling when the students seem to pull one another out of their shell. I want to provide a comfortable environment for these students, but I fear they may not get the best experience based on the pairing.

Sometimes my plans for active learning activities gets thwarted by too few students in class or absences. Anyone have any ideas for planning around this? Sometimes I only have a few students in my class.

The way we carry ourselves has a definate impact on the student. I pride myself with leaving any personal matters at home, and enagaing the the student the most positive body language and mamerism's.

What if i choose not to have a lamp lighter in my class? Is it against policy?

The course states, "The average attention span of an adult is 12 to 15 minutes and the retention starts to drop off dramatically after 8 minutes". I teach technology courses and often use the 3-5 second pause in the classroom to refocus the students - even though it can be awkward. Besides using short periods of silence what are some other methods to refocus the students?

if the beginning of the course es the day when you have to let them know the golas and what the class is going to be about, so at the end they will not have surprises.

The fast paced world that we live in has truly influcened education. Having a accelerated learning system in place, enables us to get students trained into the work for expiditiously.

Although I've enjoyed participating in active learning, it does take up more class time. This makes it a better fit for certain courses. Some of our courses require mostly memorization of information jammed into limited class time. You just have to get very creative and organized!

corse content I feel should be a mix of new material and review through out the entire corse.

my feild allows for both uniform and business attire, what is best to model for them in the classroom

is it best to have a new class introduce themselves in a group to feel more at ease

How can we as instructors motivate the lazy student?

I have a class with half the students at various levels of competency. They lack the basic skills needed for my class. How do I deal with this knowledge gap?

I tend to be as informal as I can in the classroom. I find that it helps me relax and also puts the students at ease, but it isn't always easy to know where to draw the line. What experiences have others had regarding this issue?

Hello, I teach a course in Biology for non-science majors and we often look at all types of life, from bacteria all the way up to humans. Students learn a great deal during lecture and will be exposed to various organisms with the help of a microscope and prepared slides. Towards the end of the semester, we conduct a frog dissection and students seem to love it. In order to reinforce proper lab techniques and safe handling of dissection tools, I require that each student complete a virtual lab dissection at home. This serves as a practice session before they enter the classroom to conduct the actual dissection of a frog. By combining a virtual lab dissection with a hands-on one, students will get the most bang for the buck.

How long is a good time to show a video? Without boring the students or them taking naps.

I would like some more ideas on breaking the ice on the first day of class.

I have started to adopt a 'scavenger hunt' process for my students. I have found that many feel a lot of pressure during exam taking and as a result, I believe they aren't performing as well as they could. Instead, I break them into groups and allow them to explore the why's of the information. One thing is for sure, the attitude of the students has improved a great deal about test taking. It is cool, the more of these classes I take the more I understand that some teaching methods can really be enhanced by following instincts. Before this class, I was unaware there was a name for what I was doing.

I have using multiply choice test since my students will be sitting for a national board exam that is all multiply choice. My thought is I want to get them used to how they are set up. My question is are my student missing out on learning without using other testing methods?

I believe each Professor/teacher/instructor is different in that they have their preferred way to test but at the same time may not have their option. Their institute may have a standard. Here where I work, I've seen all types of ways to test to include a system where the test is put up on a screen and each student answers the question from their seat like playing the game jeopardy. I believe a combination of true/false and multiple choice are significant but as you climb the ranks in education/college they should turn inturn essay type questions.