I teach students from the early 20's to mid 60's and our class time is short. I have found that the student relate to me because of my experience and age.
I am 72 and teach classroom in a truck driving school and was a driver for over 18 years. Teaching from this point works very well for me.
Bonnie,
Students respect experience and caring. I had a couple of teachers in your age bracket. The one that showed caring was much more effective and popular than the one with similar experience who did not seem to like the students.
Jeffrey Schillinger
Excellent characteristics of an effective instructor would be:
1) Knowledge of the material
2) Able to relate and apply topic of discussion into real life scenario
3) Able to anticipate possible questions
4) Able to simplify a complicated topic for students to understand
5) Able to find ways to keep students in class mentally stimulated to keep them awake
6) Able to cater/adjust to all learning styles
Shalomar,
Thank you for this post. What are one or two specific things you do during the hiring process to determine if a candidate processes all of these traits?
Jeffrey Schillinger
What has worked well in my classrooms according to the students are the following:
1. Being passionate as well as knowledgeable about the subject matter
2. Conduct the sessions as more discussions rather than lectures. I am always asking open ended questions about the topics to get the students' take on the topics.
3. Have interactive activities throughout the class time frame. This can include team or group activities or something that I call teaching from the back of the classroom. This is where I put some topics on the board then go to the back of the classroom and ask the students to go up and put their comments to the topics so we can then discuss them.
4. Being available to the students especially in those type of classes that are typically more challenging. This would include those that are more analytical in nature.
Robert,
Great ideas. Thanks for sharing this with your peers.
Jeffrey Schillinger
The instructor must be clear, concise, approachable, motivating, caring, ethical, moral, inclusive, sensible, and compassionate among many others but mostly the instructor must understand the learning styles of their student and how to relate the student's life to the objectives of the class.
