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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Strategies for Keeping Students Engaged in Learning

Hi Seyed, Good strategies for keeping the students engaged in the learning process. What have you found to be the most effective methods for getting all of the students to participate in the questioning sessions? Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Becoming aware of retention strategies...

Hi Cheryl, Thank you for those kind words about helping with retention strategies for students. Over the years of my teaching I have always felt the need to work as hard as I can to assist students in becoming successful. Call it personal pride or professional obligation I want every student to excel in my course. It doesn't always happen but that is always my goal. The reason is if I am content with less than a 100 percent completion rate I don't think I am fulfilling my professional responsibilities. I don't always get a 100% retention but that is… >>>

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Making a Positive First Impression

Hi Laura, Do a class activity that gets the students involved in talking, moving about or working in groups. It might be a game or a case study that you used to get them started. This helps to set the stage for the remainder of the class, while you get settled in as the instructor. Develop your lecture to give no more than 5 key points and then examples. This will help you to slow down and it lets you change the pace of the class. If you don't change the pace of the class you will get faster and… >>>

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Expanding Your Instructional Abilities

Hi Michael, What methods or activities have you found to be the most effective for your students? What part of your "show" do they like best? Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Motivation techniques...

Hi Mike, This is what application and relevancy is all about for students. They are doing "live" work for real customers. They are getting valuable experience from having these opportunities. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Motivation techniques...

Hi Gina, Good point. Examples of both kinds of experiences help the students to see the value of the education they are engaged in. Plus they can avoid some of the pitfalls through these examples. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Motivation techniques...

Hi Florence, This is a great way to get student involved and seeing the relevance of what they are learning. They get to see and hear and then do. This is a real motivator for them. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Understanding learner characteristics...

Hi Gary, What a great resource you have with this student. I am sure that with students with these kinds of experiences you have lively discussions that engage the other students in the learning process. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Becoming aware of retention strategies...

Hi Doris, Supporting the students is key. You are doing that by showing them the relevance of what you are teaching and how the content can help the achieve their career goals. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Motivating Learners

Hi Douglas, As the saying goes "Everything rises and falls on leadership" and this is true for the classroom. If you are excited about the topic the students will reflect this. We need to be thinking about this each time we step into the classroom or lab and share our expertise with our students. Gary

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