Advanced Teaching Skills | Origin: ED151
This is a general discussion forum for the following learning topic:
Developing Highly Effective Teaching Skills --> Advanced Teaching Skills
Post what you've learned about this topic and how you intend to apply it. Feel free to post questions and comments too.
It's important to have the ability to come up with inventive ways to convey information that will resonate and stick in the student's mind. Bookending lessons is a creative way to keep the students interested and curious about the lessons being learned.
I appreciate that the faculty I work with each bring their own strengths and teaching styles. Even though our approaches and lesson delivery may differ slightly, we all share the same goal of helping our students succeed. Those differences are a good thing because they give students a variety of learning experiences while still keeping us united in our purpose. We don't have to teach the same way to work together effectively; we just have to support each other and keep students at the center of what we do.
Empathy goes a long way. It's one of the strongest tools we have to connect with a student. Once we connect with that student, and they're engaged, it makes the class really stick and gets them participating. We should bring our humanity forward, and lead with that.
There was a lot of good info here that related to things I already do in my courses. We teach subjects that combined creativity and technical skills, so it's a constant balance to maintain and be aware of how each group of students is learning each month and finding ways to adapt.
When students feel you actually care about them as people, and establish that connection with them, you have a much better chance of actually getting good results.
We can incorporate our own personal practices and experiences into our instruction. For me, running taught me discipline habit at a young age. It also demonstrated to me that tremendous progress is possible with a small daily habit. This lesson supported the importance that sharing these kinds of experiences can have on education.
I like the example of the boss dropping the hammer on his foot to prove a point... The lesson for the worker was clear: his foot would have been broken; wear your steel-toe boots. That example actually happened to me on a job site years ago; I never forgot that lesson.
I like to plan "mistakes " in the live lecture to show what students usually do and how to correct it if they run into it.
using the outside of the box techniques to get a point across and the inclusion of the start of the day lessons, and or previewing the next assignment.
Being creative and using sometime your own challenges as examples to overcome something, has turn around some of those "difficult" students.
What has stood out to me is using outside the box elements to get a point across. One was the "do you want to be a truck driver or a professional truck driver. The other was the instructor dropping the hammer on his steel toe shoe to get the point across to the student to wear the appropriate shoes.
Include methods of teaching topics that are unique and memorable. Not giving up on a student when all seems lost by reaching out to provide support. Find out what makes a student interested in a topic that otherwise they are not interested in. Providing the opportunity to learn the material in a variety of ways.
Genuinely being a mentor that not only cares about covering the material, but how the student grows in confidence in how they attain the information and become more independent.
An instructor should impact the student's life in a positive way. It's not about the specific lecture or content. It's how the learning happens and how the student absorbs the content. The same class can be taught by 2 different instructors and a student may learn really well from an instructor and simply reject the other one. The instructor has to be creative and, in many situations, think "outside the box". Real-life examples, breaking down content into smaller portions in a creative way are things that instructors can bring to the classroom and transform the way students learn.
I found these 2 statements effective and stunning, "On the surface, these means of delivering material are very atypical, but the level of creativity in their implementation causes a dramatic increase in student motivation and retention of the material. These instructors know that outside-the-box ideas don’t always work, but they are willing to take the chance for the potential of high academic reward.
Essentially, these effective instructors are inventors of techniques that motivate students to think and learn in ways they never thought possible. They make their students believe they can do almost anything and that their only limitation in life and learning is themselves."
Thinking outside the box is important in instruction, as it can be another way students can learn the material, and give students a new way of looking at things. It can make things memorable and more interesting to students.
I enjoy that an instructor can use creativity in order to make the class environment safe and interesting
Finding creative ways to teach a lesson or class can cause a dramatic increase in student motivation and retention of the material. I think that also keeps it interesting for the teacher.
I learned that great instructors do more than teach content. They motivate students, build confidence, and encourage them to push beyond their limits. I will apply this lesson by using real world experiences, and helping the students believe in their capabilities.
Being engaging is key to student success. Bookending information in a unique way keeps students interested from lesson to lesson. Finally, though we want to be friendly and make our students feel welcome, it is important to model professional behaviors.
