Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Hi Jessica, You are right on the mark about making the connection to the "real world" for your students. The required gen ed courses can present a challenge for instructors as they try to make applications to the lives of their students. With psychology classes you have many great opportunities to make applications in terms of why we, as humans, do the things we do. For example, it takes 28 tries to change a behavior, 20 tries to remove the old behavior and 8 tries to develop the new behavior. I always use exercise for this example. 80% of the… >>>

Hi Elbert, Thank you for your observations and comments about teaching style. You are right on target about how the instructor must adapt and change to meet the learning needs of students. Instruction today is so much more targeted. Our adult students want to see relevance and application. Selection of course content and delivery has to have these two aspects woven into all the planning that occurs. It is easy to miss the mark if we don't. Through it all instructors must continue their professional development. Your remarkes bears that out. I know your students benefit from your desire to… >>>

Hi Michael, Good approach. I use a career passport as well. I have my students develop an e-version of it so it is easy to store and add to. They print out hardcopy whenever it is needed like when they are sharing their experiences with employers. Senioritis can also result from fear. Many students feel confident with their training and skills up until they get to the final training phase and then they start to develop doubt. It is at this point they need encouragement to assess the skills they have developed and to realize that they are in fact… >>>

Hi Jeff, I would suggest that you look at material from the National Science Teachers Association. This professional organization has published numerous articles about measuring and improving the teaching in science laboratories. They have several articles that focus on application of concepts in lab settings. I conducted an study with high school physics students in lab settings vs lecture settings. I used 200 students in the lab setting and 200 in the lecture setting. I assessed their multiple intellingences using an assessment I developed called Talent Key (www.micubed.com) and then placed those students that were more verbal and math/logic in… >>>