Knowledge vs teaching experience
I remember in my college classes several instructors that were just tremendous in getting us to understand the material in the course while other instructors, although experienced in the subject matter, had trouble getting the information into our brains!
Now that I'm the instructor, I try to learn from my students. If the entire class in having difficulty with a concept, I know I have to try a different approach. I'm continually polishing my skills and making the appropriate changes.
If an individual student is having difficulty, I will work with them one-on-one and change my methods to suit that particular student.
I agree with you Terry on having to continuously polish up on our skills to make the appropriate changes. If I didn't keep up with all of the changes, I myself as an instructor have not only failed myself, but my students. How can we not keep up on our skills because they seem to be changing all of the time. In the medical field, we have to be on top of things, or it could put a patient in a life or death situation (danger). I can't imagine, if I didn't keep up on my skills, how would I get things across to my students correctly.
Knowledge does help in with my teaching experience because I can explain certain situations to my students and how it can affect my students when they get out into the field.
In addition, we have to push and stay fresh. With the Internet being so easily accessible, the students can have answers, trends, and detailed information on about any topic in a matter of seconds. So we are forced to not only stay current in our field, but also utilize all methods available to us to help them understand the material.
Hi Matt,
I concur! As educators we must stay fully abreast as to what is going on.
Patricia Scales
I agree it is important for instructors to keep up on their skills. I also think it is very important to assess each instructor's skills before hiring them. I feel it is the schools responsibility to know for certain that each instructor is capable of doing the skills they are teaching and that they are being demonsrated correctly. It is alarming when you realize that your program coordinator is performing skills incorrectly and teaching them to students.
