Engaging Students in the process
How often do you engage students in the process?
How do you best accomplish this? On hands,questions? Both? How do you evaluate the effectiveness of the outcomes?
I re-engage my learners every 20 minutes by changing the teaching strategy I am using, as listed in the body of this course and ED310. I evaluate the outcome as I do traditional methods with test grades, skills check offs, etc.
Michele I also try to change my teaching strategy throughout class, but not as frequently as 20 minutes. At times I have four hours of class time and my students start to drift. I'm going to try and mix things up a little more often throughout the class time and see if it holds their attention longer. Thanks for the idea and the five activities. I'm going to try "the weakest think" and ILA for future classes.
Kathleen, I'm glad you are mixing things up already, but hope adding more involvement adds more fun for you, too!
Michele Deck
I try to mix hands on with lecture and example so as not to loose them. I also let them express some of their experiences to keep the discussions going.
Deborah, using their experience makes the lesson relevant to them, which is a good idea.
Michele Deck
I try to change my teaching strategy based on their behavior and time of day. For example, right after lunch is not a good time for a long Power Point or lecture, they fall asleep. This is a great time for activity and getting them out of their seats
Amy, it is good to read the body language and energy level of the students no matter what time of day, and plan from that.
Michele Deck
This is an excellent thread. As a newer instructor I do have some difficulty changing approaches that frequently (20 min). Aware the the normal attention span is about 15-20 minutes, sometimes my quick fix when I see students drifting off is to just get up, stretch and/or minor exercise to get the blood flowing. Any suggestions on how to smoothly change up teaching styles?
Philip, I would suggest that this process not be a smooth one, but one that is different, so that it does wake people up and reengage them. You might explain it as a "Brain-Body reboot."
Michele Deck
