The students in my graduate classes are deployable because of their job or their organization. This may mean that they are gone from class from one to four weeks. While there are makeup assignments due and we communicate electronically, it has been difficult to maintain motivation when they aren't physically part of the class. Any suggestions?

If you are having trouble bridging the gap between the front of the classroom and the students in their seats...what are some effective ways of constructing that bridge?

The effectiveness of the eduational process is based on the result of how the teacher teaches and how the student learns. By acknowledging the learning style of each student, the instructor has the ability to deliver the material in a way that allows each student, regardless of learning style, to receive maximum understanding.

I appreciated the 4 points that were stressed in regards to what you want your students to walk away with after the first meeting. Those will help me greatly in my own teaching. Many of my professors did not make it obvious that they cared about our learning and it affected how we learned within the class.

I think that one of the most important things about a textbook is the authors approach as mentioned in the discussion. It can really make or break the direction of the class. But how do you know which author is going to be the most effective? Is it trial and error?

Where do you draw the line of being a manager and being authoritative?

My classes consist of teaching students Product Design and the Fundamentals of Engineering Technology and most of the students come from a wide and varied background. I never liked taking tests myself so I try to assess my students by giving them design projects that show me the level of understanding and application of the material that they have acquired from the classroom. It also gives then the opportunity to add creativity to what they are doing by personalizing the product they design. So far this has worked well for me. I try to change the projects every so often so they dont get stale for my students or myself. Andrew LeRoy

Since I am fairly new to the teaching profession I can always utilize new information to improve what students are "receiving" from my teaching methods. I have used the minute paper idea in class and it seemed to work well. My students never feel shy about telling me when they are bored. lol. I struggle with limitations of the facilities because much of industry cant be experienced in the environment of a school setting. It would be great to be able to give my students exposure to more machinery and manufacturing practices. I do use dvds and videos to show many things but it is not the same as doing it yourself. A combination of seeing and doing would be great. What does everyone else do in these cases? Andrew LeRoy

I am about to have my students start asking questions of each other that come from differing perspectives. During critiques of their projects I will have groups of 4 or 5 students ask questions from a political perspective, another group ask questions from an economic perspective, and another ask questions from a manufacturing perspective etc... Although we are primarily dealing with product design I think it will give the students pause to think on a broader basis about what they do. I will let you know if it works or not. Andrew LeRoy

Some of what I teach, fundamentals of engineerng, by its nature is pretty dry. It is pretty hard to get to excited about fasteners. I have added some history and personal examples from my industry experience which seems to help. But sometimes it is just material that needs to be remembered by rote. Mostly my attempts at creating interest has been in changing the intensity of my voice, using kinetic examples to pass around, and asking the students alot of questions. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks, Andrew

I am relatively new to the teaching profession and wish that I would have had more of this information when I began. Although most of my time was spent just developing curriculum early on this would have saved me some reworking of my methodologies toward welcoming students. My experiences in industry gave me credibility with my students and they were eager to absorb what I had to give them. Fortunately they were all good about my circumstances and maintained some flexibility. Much of this seems like common sense but it is nice to have it down in a structured format to review.

I have just begun implementing a simple version of critical thinking into my curriculum. I use the critiques of assigned design projects to try and get students, (and myself), to approach a viewpoint by looking through a different window of analysis. The window may be one of economics, or it may be the window of manufacturing processes or politics etc. It may also be the window of the end user. Most of what I use is based on Bloom's Taxonomy. Bloom and his colleagues (1956) produced one of the most often cited documents in establishing educational outcomes: The Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain. They proposed that knowing is actually composed of six successive levels arranged in a hierarchy: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation. Research over the past 40 years has generally confirmed that the first four levels are indeed a true hierarchy. That is, knowing at the knowledge level is easier than, the level of comprehension and so forth up to the level of analysis. However, research is mixed on the relationship of synthesis and evaluation; it is possible that these two are reversed or they could be two separate, though equally difficult, activities (Seddon, 1978). I find many of my students come with preconceived notions or "correct thoughts" about many things and do not have any reasoning behind what they say except possibly their own limited life experience and scope. Any thoughts,imput or experience you have had in this regard would be appreciated. Take care, Andrew LeRoy

I have been teaching anatomy for a post secondary school for over 6 years...I have more in my head than I could ever possibly write in an outline...I now have more administrative duties and find it hard to relay information to the new instructors...the most important aspect, I feel, is to be animated in the classroom...monotone just won't work...I wish every student (and potential instructor) had one of the teacher's they remember as being "out of the box" and made learning fun...as well as making education important

This has really helped me realize why diffent techniques have worked in the past and others have not. Not being prepared has always proved somewhat of a disaster in the classroom. But Ive found in this course that there is alot more as well. Very helpful!

Hi ED101, A couple of things I'm always looking for on the first day of class are 1) are there any "ringers" in the class 2) what is the motivation of each student. Ringers to me are students who know alot about the subject already, or at least think they do. So I need to find out who these people are and how much knowledge they possess. That way they don't become a distruptive influence. Motivation of each student is finding out why they are here. Some students only want to learn very specific things, while others are happy to absorb as much as possible. Knowing this I can give the former group what they want, even if I have to add some content to the course to do so. This makes the class a success in their mind. This is especially true for "ringers" so you can make them feel the time spent was worthwhile. Doing this kind of recon starts on the first day. I make sure I am there early to greet each student coming in, that way I can find out a bit about why they are attending this course. Next, as the students introduce themselves, I ask them to tell me abit about their experience and what they want to take away from the class. Finally while we are covering the syllabus / course outline I ask lots of questions (Socratic Method style) to find out people's background knowledge. These are critical pieces of info for me to make the class a success. Anybody else have other techniques for "recon"? Jeff

how do you deal with two or more students with bad attitudes? At that point they can become a major distraction to the class.

I'm in a dilemma about the use of electronic material vs traditional hard copy versions in our courses. As an IT school, we tend to use mini-lectures and lots of hands on computer time to re-enforce the topics covered in those lectures. Books are rarely used during the actual class time, and support materials are used occasionally to reference tables of information or clarify a topic. Our textbooks are used by the students outside of class to look up ways of doing things but are not generally read cover to cover. So based on this I feel we could successfully incorporate electronic materials into a lot of our courses. This allows the instructor to easily add extra material, internet articles, update material as software changes slightly etc. Plus electronic material is easily searched to find the applicable information. But a majority of instructors are against its use, saying it is difficult to learn from. I would agree if our courses were highly re-enforced by reading the text, but again I don't believe they are. Comments? Thanks Jeff

One technique I have always try to incorporate into my teaching style is using questions as a way to lead students to my point. Instead of using queries solely as a review, use them to illustrate reasons why we need to do things in certain ways, or to have them get their heads into a new topic. So I would be curious on how other instructors use the Socratic Method in their teaching, when is it appropriate and when is it not, and student responses to it. Also I found this article to be a very interesting test of the Method on younger students. Let me know what you think. http://www.garlikov.com/Soc_Meth.html Jeff

I find that when students answer a question on a written test, that answer takes on a quality of being "right", even if it isn't. The longer the interval between taking the test and getting the graded paper, the more solidly that initial answer gels, until it is almost impossible to change. Which is a very good reasonn to return test papers ASAP. In one of my classes, which meets only once a week, I use my lunch hour to grade the papers so students can get the corrections immediately.

One method of assessment can be done as you teach. Observing student body language (are they slumped in their chairs or sitting up straight; are they making eye contact; do they take notes when you make improtant points) can clue you in to how much they are paying attention. The number and speed of hand-raisings when you ask a question provides a similar measure. The advantage is that, if you find you have lost the students, you can stop and reteach immediately, rather than waiting unti you mark the test a day or more later.