Adapting Your Instructional Strategy
How will understanding the basics of learning benefit you as an instructor? Would you give an example of how you might adapt your instructional strategy or teaching methods as a result of understanding how the brain functions and how learning occurs?
When teaching, I find that repitition helps the students to remember. For example, asking the same question to several of my students keeps them focused and knowledgeable of that particular answer; in which, the question asked previously usually results in an correctly answered exam question.
Kanisha,
This is a sound and well accepted practice that helps students retain required content. By being creative you can use repetition in a variety of ways that will keep the students engaged but keep them from being bored.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I mostly teach writing and English-related courses. I have found that assignments that deal with the students' actual lives generate the most enthusiasm and the most application of whatever mechanical skills we are also developing. I could ask the students to "Analyze This Piece of Literature," and in a real literature course, that assignment is mostly inevitable. But in a beginning Composition course (Comp I, Comp II, etc.), an assignment like "Tell About the Time You Confronted One of Your Greatest Fears" asks (or allows?) the student to use their episodic memory as a way of demonstrating the mechanical skills. And then later, as a sort of "final exam" assignment or essay, I can ask students to describe which mechanical skill they think they have improved the most. This reliance on their episodic memory can help the students see exactly how and where their improvement has come - they are writing about their experiences as a way of showing their skills.
Robert,
Wish I had you as an instructor when I was taking English. This is such a foundational approach for getting students engaged and using their newly acquired English skills but with their own life experiences as the foundation. Thanks for sharing this approach with us.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I agree that learning is a process; it is not something that you just have bestowed upon you. Learning helps to develop you. Understanding the basics of learning will benefit me as an instructor because it will help me to comprehend the purpose of learning. It will also help me to understand how people learn and why they want to learn. I just learned that adult learners learn about 400 new things a year! That means adults roughly learn about one new thing a day! Understanding that adults are very selective on what they learn, allows me to tailor my lessons to make them relevant to what they learn, since adults only learn so few things a year. So as opposed to teaching the entire history of mankind, I would refocus my attention on the items that may be relevant to the experiences. Also understanding age groups and brain development can affect my instructional strategies and teaching methods. Knowing the brain has not fully matured until age 25, I will take into account that students aren’t enabling all their capacities and attempt different learning styles to allow the information to sink in. Understanding the basis for education from a neurological viewpoint can definitely assist me as an instructor.
Brandi,
Great to hear about how you are going to be able to use this information to customize your instructional delivery to enhance the learning opportunities of your students. I wish you continued teaching success.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Thank you Gary. Although I have experience teaching, I still consider myself somewhat of a novice! I like to gain knowledge from all sides and incorporate it in my classroom to see if it works for me. Or even if there is a part of the proposed strategy or technique works for me. Either way I am looking forward to adapting my instructional strategies and having knowlege of alternative ways to teaching.
Brandi,
I appreciate the kind words and I wish you continued success as you expand your expertise and become the instructor of merit that you want to be.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Understanding the basics of learning is important because of the diversity of students in my classroom. These range from younger adults fresh from High School to older adults who have years of experience in military and other jobs. These older adults are valuable in classroom, because I use them to generalize their experiences in classroom during various topics by having them apply objectives to real life experience. This helps everyone learn.
Brian,
Thank you for these remarks about the value that older students bring to the classroom and how they can facilitate the engagement of the younger students. Both generations can learn from each other and you as the learning leader can help them learn how to work together since they will need to in the workplace.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
By keeping in mind how knowledge is stored for long term retrieval, adding strategies that require students to add the information to their long term working memory will allow them to use more abstract concepts or higher learning. Some examples of that might include; review, building new information on previous information, and summative assessments.
Having a better understanding of the basics of learning will help me improve my instruction by acknowledging the different learning personalities in my class and then catering to them. For example, if/when my class is primarily older, accomplished adults, I will instruct differently than a more "unpolished" group of very your adults.
Terrie,
Good list of strategies to use in getting students to retain the shared content. Through variety and reinforcement you will enhance their abilities to retain the required knowledge and information.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Jeffery,
This is why it is so important to "read" your students. As a result you can customize your instructional delivery in a way that will help them to become engaged and focused on the required course content and applications.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
When I'm teaching, I like to find out what things my students are fond of and incorporate that into the lecture to help them understand different concepts. It makes it more personal for them to see that the instructor cares for their education as well.
Also, I inform my students when studying make it funny, ridiculous, or even sexual and usually it helps in remembering information.
Jennifer,
This is why it is important to know all you can about your students. When you do you are able to personalize your instruction and keep them engaged for the duration of the course.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
It will allow me to measure how each student learns best. I will adjust each course based upon how I perceive the class learns best.
One of the methods I might try after taking this course is asking students to use their episodial memory as part of discussion boards to get them more intimately involved with the conversation. When a student is speaking about an important event in their life and how it relates to a current topic in their current course, they are more likely to be more in-depth in their submissions and make more meaningful conversations.
Mike,
I think you will like the results you get from using this approach. You find your students much more engaged when they start to use their personal experiences in the course.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
