Gary Meers, Ed.D.

About me

I am an Education Advisor/Consultant for MaxKnowledge. I write courses that assist in the professional development of career college instructors. These courses range in content from the introductory level to advanced instructional development. I started my teaching career as an instructional technology teacher on the high school level, completed graduate school and then moved into higher education. I spent many years in the area of teacher training at the University of Nebraska. While at the University of Nebraska I stared working with career college instructors to improve their instructional delivery skills. As a result of these experiences I have been a consultant to career colleges throughout the United States and a number of foreign countries.

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Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Understanding Learner Characteristics

Hi Carolyn, What are some of the methods you use to identify the characteristics of your students? Thanks. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Making Your Expectations Clear

Hi Melissa, I really like your approach because you take the mystery out of how to be successful in your course from day one. "Read the syllabus, do the work and put for effort in all of the activities and you will pass." Simple and straight forward for everyone to understand. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Learning from Instructor and Student Introductions

Hi Lisa, Sounds like it can be a lot of fun for the students as well as a real ice breaker. This activity helps to set the tone for the class and get students settled into the flow. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Instructors as Role Models

Hi Debra, Good point and one we need to reinforce ourselves with each time we step into the classroom. Thanks for sharing it with us. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Valuing Student Opinions

Hi Todd, Right you are. What are some of the ways you use to help the students interject their feeling into the class discussions while keeping the class moving forward? Thanks. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Expanding Your Instructional Abilities

Hi Jeb, This is a very important point because much of what we do in our various careers is to problem solve. We need to be able to gather all of the facts so we can make wise decisions when needed. Questioning is one of the ways to get those facts and build a base from which to operate both as an instructor and as students. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Expanding Your Instructional Abilities

Hi Dalene, Great way to grow as a professional educator. You are fortunate to have so many resources available to you. Keep looking for ways to grow and expand as an educator and teaching will continue to rewarding to you. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Your Instructional Style

Hi Dalene, I wish you the best in completing your professional improvement plan. I have been teaching many years and I have a current professional development plan because you never can get to where you want to be as a life long learner. I set a specific goal for each year to concentrate on some aspect of my teaching and then work very hard to develop and/or expand my abilities and expertise in this area. Then I set another goal for myself. Keep setting your goals and striving for improvement and you will continue to enjoy being a teacher for… >>>

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Effective Motivation Techniques

Hi Alexander, This approach really reinforces what has been covered. They start to see relevancy and application to what they are learning. This approach also helps them to personalize the content to their own situation and that increases their motivation. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Motivating Learners

Hi Lynn, You make a number of good points but one really stands out to me and that is the one about helping the student to personally relate to the material and the course. This is so important to the learning process. The students need to internalize the content in such a way that they see application and relevancy to what they are learning. When this occurs they start to get "ah-ha" moments. Gary

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