It is important to understand how the students see you as the instructor. Sometimes I may be too serious in effort to come accross as a professional, but then I may not seem accessible to the students as they learn and have questions. Students want to have some fun learning as well.
Julia,
I think just being genuine and sincere allows my natural personality to emerge. Not all may like what they see, but I'm what they get.
Barry Westling
It's important to understand yourself as an instructor because you are positioned to have all the knowledge of the course. The student is positioned to not to know every move and expectation of how the course will go, which creates an uncertaintly for the student. You must know your stregnths and weaknesses to create a stable work enviroment for the class room. This will also allow your students to have trust in you if you exude a confident and knowledgable presence rather than being unsure majority of the time.
Justine,
I operate with the premise none of us is perfect and all can benefit from ongoing self improvement. I also believe student will respond to instructors who portray a genuine version of themselves, confident and sincere. Student appreciate when we are being real and feel we have their interests at heart.
Barry Westling
If you understand yourself, you can modify what you need to do to make your class successful. I use the Myers Briggs assessment on all of my students in order that they may see others and not get frustrated or annoyed with their peers. it is amazing to see a "died in the wool" J tolerate the N.
April,
What a great idea to promote camaraderie among your student population. Many would assume that adult leareners would be responsible, cordial, and considerate with their peers. But actuially, most classes have students that develop a dislike for one of their own. If M-B's assessments help reduce those conflicts of differences, I think that's great start to insuring longer lasting harmony and cohesiveness.
Barry Westling
I need to know my personality, my strengths and my weak areas so that I can play to my strengths and improve upon the weaker areas. I find it helpful that my students are required to assess my qualities as an instructor. I think these surveys offer valid results, because the a trend appeared regarding one of my weaknesses, which is patience and empathy. I could not afford to ignore the evidence, so I worked hard on being more patient and empathetic, and now the results of my student surveys have improved in this area.
Andrea,
Feedback is very helpful, as you experienced. When instructors are willing and open to improvement, better student outcomes often result. The opposite is probably just as true.
Barry Westling
If I don't understand myself and my own personality quirks, strengths, and weaknesses, how could I expect a student to. I like the idea of capitalizing on your strengths and working on your weaknesses.
Jon,
It's good to recognize we all have strengths that make us good at what we do. Understanding there are weaker areas that can also be improved on makes for committed instructors.
Barry Westling
Understanding yourself as an instructor enables to you lead with your strengths and work on your weaknesses. Your students may see that you are working on your weaknesses and probably earn their respect as you become more confident.
Michael,
I don't think anyone really expects perfection. I think being natural, genuine and sincere goes a long ways to building trust and respect with my students.
Barry Westling
when you understan yourself as an instructor it gives you the opportunity to know your strengths and help you to work on your weaknesses. This will help you become a better teacher.
Eunita,
I think we become better with practice, which means making mistakes. Hoefully, over time, we learn from our mistakes and we become better by it.
Barry Westling
I try to give to students the things I wanted as a student. Confidence in material and availabilty to answer questions.
Keith,
I agree when students feel confident in what they've l;earned and can demonstrate that consistently, that's a good sense the instructor and student have made a good connection.
Barry Westling
I believe self awareness is key not just to teaching but to life in general. I have been working on self awareness for several years now while developing my leadership skills as a general manager (my prior occupation.
I am aware of my strengths as an instructor. I have been fortunate in that student surveys and feedback regarding my class has been very positive thus far. Yet I am also well aware of the areas in which I need to improve and this course has reinforced my resolve to continue that work.
Jorge,
Great! When we can be really honest with ourselves and be aware of how we perceive ourselves, how others see us, and perceptive to the "reality" usually somewhere in the middle, we begin to enter the realm of positive self improvement. It's surprising that not all instructors are willing to want to make improvements. It's unfortunate as most have so much to offer, and making minor adjustments often can make all the difference.
Barry Westling
Understanding yourself as an instructor helps you to know your strengths and weakness.By knowing your strengths, you can lean on those while working on your weakness to make it stronger. This is also why I emphasize to students how important the end of course surveys are. It allows me to find things to work on that I might not have acknowledged myself.
Bruce,
I agree and also believe that thos e instructors who are willikng to subject themselves to student, peer and supervisory critique will be better instructors as the result of their openess to ongoing improvement.
Barry Westling
