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Ask a question from your peers to help you in your professional work. Seek different points of view on a topic that interests you. Start a thought-provoking conversation about a hot, current topic. Encourage your peers to join you in the discussion, and feel free to facilitate the discussion. As a community of educators, all members of the Career Ed Lounge are empowered to act as a discussion facilitator to help us all learn from each other.

ED 114

Greetings, Questioning in classroom encourage students engagment and help them understanding subjects,try to redirect them ,give them chance to find answers by themselves and praise them verbally and extracredit.I like to ask them individually,then reinforce them.

Standard Syllabus

Our General Education curriculum has a set of standard Syllabi that we use for each course. I have not yet considered this document as a contract between myself and the student. I tend to quickly gloss over the course objectives because they are usually lengthy and unnecessarily wordy for the students on the first day. I know this might not be a fair assessment, but the objectives read quite complicated. So, what I am considering doing during my next class is writing, in my addendum, my own set of goals and outcomes that I expect from the students that add to the select syllabus and present a personal touch. Has anyone tried this method? Is it recommended?

Positives & Negatives

I have at least 3 or 4 former instructors who made a huge impact on my own teaching style. One, whom I remember very clearly, I remember for the wrong reasons. Although it was clear he enjoyed the subject matter, he never moved from behind the podium. Now, whenever I walk into a classroom, the first thing I do is take the lectern and move it to the side of the room. If I have passion, the students should see it. Another I remember because he made us recite lines of plays at the beginning of class, as a group and as individuals. I hated those moments. It scared me to death. But, I still remember the lines! And I try to incorporate that challenging aspect of recitation, only without the fear. How? Well, I always go first!

Questions

I frequently ask questions in class in an attempt to get interaction with the students. Often times the students give me blank stares. After completing this topic I think my questions are too broad and the students are unsure of how they need to answer or what type of response I am wanting.

Learning Styles

After completing the first lesson, I believe I can do a better job assessing the learning styles of my students when they begin in the program. This will allow myself and other faculty to provide instruction to the students in a manner that will accomodate all of the different types of learners.

Exams/tests

I have found in my experience that many faculty like to use test banks due to the amount of time it can take to write test questions. I too have been guilty of this. This particular lesson gave me information that I can use to write some of my own test questions when I teach some of my future courses.

Course Development

I notice that when teaching my courses I always have students who are at very different academic levels. For instance some are very advanced while some are slower to learn. How do you appropriately develop a course that is stimulating enough for your fast paced students yet slow enough for your lower students to keep up?

Head, Heart, Gut

I especially enjoyed the "Head, Heart, Gut" point made by the Harvard Business School lecturer when he pointed out that a succussful class is one where the instructor hits the head, heart, and gut of the students thereby creating an extremely valuable learning experience in each student. I look forward to reflecting on this principle and applying it in my class tomorrow.

Probing Questions

These questions are great to spark class discussion and to get alternative viewpoints.

Learning methods

I am relating to this material on a personal level and as it relates to my varied student population. If my lectures, which I think are facinating(!), start to put some students to sleep, I had better switch up my delivery with some hands on activity or power point delivery!!

Using Students to help

Using Students to help and work with students with learning disabitilies is also instrumental. They tend to support those from their generation and know where they should be in a course.

Found this module extremely helpful

As I am a "new" instructor, I found this module extremely helpful. I have a better understanding of how to use questioning in the classroom. I found the Harvard video regarding "The Three Characteristics of Questions" particularly useful. Moving forward, I will utilize more of these techniques in the classroom.

pair them up with other bilingual students

Best way to help an ESL student is to pair them up with other bilingual students to assist students with esl

Group Work

What If Group Work Is Difficult To Arrange?

Gathering Student Evaluation and Feedback

We have precious little time with our students. Each minute is valuable for learning, but some must be budgeted for other needs. Given a class of twenty students, meeting four times for three hours, how much time would be appropriate for gathering student evaluation and feedback? Thanks Stephen

Techniques for Efficient Debriefing

My classes average close to 20 students. We meet for four times for 3 hours, with a thirty minute break. How long would you suggest I spend on debriefing each student? Should it be done as a class discussion? Or on a more individual basis? What tips do you have for maximizing the value of the debriefing process (against time)? Thanks, Stephen

Examples of Music By Target Brain State

I am intrigued by the idea of using music in the classroom. The guidelines provided seem too general to implement efficiently. Can you please provide some specific examples of music that is known to be very effective for eliciting specific brain wave activity? Thanks, Stephen

Balance of Burden

Hello, I appreciate the essence of the "learning facilitator" approach (versus "teacher"), but I am frustrated by what appears to be a culture of "do it for me". When I draw a picture of myself as a learner, there's nothing in it that resembles a learning facilitator who is responsible for helping me learn. My experience as a student was one of being fully responsible for my own learning - if I failed to progress, blame was put on my not having done the work or not having studied well. In contrast, the large majority of the students in my classroom seem to believe that their failure to progress is always and entirely -my- fault. They regularly disregard assignments and suggestions - anything that asks them to work on their own is entirely dismissed. Do you have any experience with a similar challenge? Any suggestions about how to encourage students to take fair responsibility for their own progress? Thanks, Stephen

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

I foound this to be very true, especially with students who hae struggled in school beofer. I have a lot of students who did not succeed in HS, and they feel that no one has faith in them, which causes them to fail. When I get these students and remind them that they can do it, they usally meet and/or exceed my expectations. I think that a little encouragement really goes a long way.

Instructional feedback

I find that it is very important in enhancing the learning experience of the class to give feedback at the end of activities where the students are demonstrating learned competencies and skills. As an instructor, it is critical to give (as well as receive) effective feedback in these instances. I use the following format to process a learning activity: 1> I always ask how they think they did overall in terms of the assigned task. 2> Then I ask "If they had a chance to do it over, what would they do differently?". This takes the focus off of what they may have done wrong directly. 3> Lastly, to minimize learning roadblocks (defensiveness or behavioral justification) to the feedback that I give them (noting that this only takes place AFTER they are giving a chance to decompress and say their peace), I preface the process with two simple rules: 1) This is meant to be a learning experience...take from it what you will. There is no need to be defensive or take the feedback personally. This is simply what one person observed and I will always offer you suggestions for improvement. 2)In the spirit of #1, you are only able to respond with "Can you be more specific" or "Thank You". Class participants seem to have fun with this last rule and it disarms the defensiveness and removes the barriers to learning.