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.

Blog

Creating Instructional Segments for Maximum Student Learning

Breaking content down into segments for instructional delivery is a challenge for instructors, especially those just starting their teaching careers. A guide for how to break down instruction can be found in the age old question of "How do you eat an elephant?" The answer is "One bite at a time." If you take this common sense approach you will find that you will be able to break your content down into segments that make sense to students. Many career colleges have their instructors follow a standardized curriculum where the lesson are laid out along with all of the PowerPoint… >>>

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Your Instructional Style

Hi Diana, You might want to put your students into small groups of 3-4 students and have them brainstorm on some hands on activities they think would work in the course. Students as you know are very creative and they might be able to give you a host of ideas you can develop into hands on activities. I do this a lot with my students and they are always coming up with something that I hadn't thought of as a teaching strategy. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Your Instructional Style

Hi James, Thanks for the clear way you outlined how a professional educator should conduct him/herself with students. These are great points for every instructor to follow and if they do they will be a great time teaching. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Defining Instructional Professionalism

Hi Richele, Well said. This is what it is all about and you have outlined it clearly in your comments. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Instructor REFOCUS

Hi Cheyney, Good advice for us all. We need to bring our A game to the classroom every time we teach. This is hard at times because we just don't feel like, have had something in our lives that has distracted us, or we didn't prepare as we should. Like you said this is disrespectful to the students as well as being unfair. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Instructor REFOCUS

Hi Beth, I agree with you about the time a new course takes. In addition, the activities and assignments you select may or may not work since you haven't tried them before so this means there is some risk to the new course as well. I am like you though in that I try to introduce something new in each of my courses each session. The reason is that it keeps me fresh planning the new activity and offers me variety in delivering it so I don't fall into a routine. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Effective Retention Strategies

Hi Cheyney, Great use of a valuable resource. Experienced faculty can really help with all aspects of instruction because they have been through all types of situations that gives them the expertise to help other faculty. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Effective Retention Strategies

Hi Marvin, Good point about being there for students. They need to know you will support their learning efforts if they will put forth the effort. Encouragement is a powerful motivator for us all. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Instructors as Role Models

Hi Aimee, Well said. The approach you laid out in your comments needs to be foundation from which we instructors operate. Honesty, consistency, and professionalism all have to be a part of who we are as instructors and representatives of our field. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Preparing and Delivering Effective Lectures

Hi Joelle, I agree with you about the effectiveness of using case studies. I use them a lot in my classes and my students really get into trying to come up with solutions that will help solve the case study situation. They help to make the content real for the students. Gary

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