I find it very powerful to ask the students to solve potential problems as opposed to give a boring lecture...comments?

Is it better to start with the students introducing themselves to the class , or yourself first?

how long are your students REALLY paying attention during a lecture? also , would somebody consider using instructional DVDs?

some students seems to be taking classes without any motivation at all.they are there just so they have something to do. how to deal with those students?

One thing that I was surprised with my first attempt as an instructor was how unmotivated most of my young students (18-24 years old) were. Assuming that they would be very motivated after having paid a lot of money for the course was the wrong assumption. The field that they are trying to get into involves a lot of physical labor along with generally alot of long days. Everytime we would try to get into any physicl labor it was a chore just getting people to join in on the project. I'm also a parent of two boys and have already went through the teenage years with one and ready to start those years with the second so I have experienced from the home front. Does anybody have suggestions in getting and keeping the students motivated?

Greetings, Perhaps I can get some help here. I have no problems establishing myself as "leader" in the classes but I always end up struggling with this later in the semester. This has been true _every_ semester I've taught for six years. It seems I must do something drastic to re-establish the "leader" role. Any ideas? Thanks!

Practical examples sometimes spring up a perfect times. I just posted two blank messages after entering the subject "Learning Styles" and hitting the enter key on my keyboard. Through the process of learning by trial and error, I was reminded that I needed to hit the tab key. I promise I'm not making this up:) Okay, so now onto my post about learning styles. Firstly, I read a couple of other posts in this modulee forum indicating that Module 4 contained the most useful information of the course; I agree. Not so much in terms of "new" information, but in terms of information that works its way out of our consciousness over time. As related in one of my first posts, I rely primarily on lecture for content delivery, and I learned long ago that to be effective as a lecturer, you must be part orator, academic, comedian, actor, etc. What I have apparently forgotten is that learning styles do vary greatly and that lecture just doesn't cut it for some. I suppose that I have not forgotten this entirely since I still use video resources, power-point presentations and other delivery methods, but rather, I have forgotten why I do so, in terms of structuring content delivery to meet the various learning styles of my students. This "re-discovered" knowledge has given me the idea that I will have students fill out a short,simple, learning style self-assessment at the beginning of each term. It will read: I believe that I learn best by: Hearing Reading Watching Doing and maybe another choice or two. I will then ask them to rate these in order of greatest ability to learn- 1-4 (or 5 or 6) I can then balance my delivery methods based on the greatest needs of the class. Thanks for a great idea.

In my last class the age spread was from 18 to 42. While it is not always that wide, I find a consistent trend towards the older students being self-motivators. I'm sure we all realize several obvious reasons for this such as maturity, life experience and the fact that older students are attending class on their own accord rather than their parents sending them! However, I cannot help thinking that if I did a better job relating to the younger students, (I'm 38) motivating them would be immensely easier. I believe motivation is so important because for some of the younger students who come in with the attitude of just wanting to know the answers for the test, motivation is what will get them engaged. I just know that I can do a better job and have an easier time motivating the younger crowd. As I said, I think learning to relate to them is a key place to start. Does anyone else experience this? Does anyone have any suggestions?

I find motivating students to be one of the most challenging aspects of teaching. To explain this fully requires some generalization about students "today". At the outset I must say that while this generalization is intentional, I fully recognized that not all students are the same. I know this to be true from my own classrooms where I find many motivated students. This said, it is my observation that students today tend to be extremely difficult to motivate. After reading the materials presented in module #3, I better understand causation, but will have to think further about how to address the "causes". Particularly, the module points to: "Appreciation for the value of learning" "Expectation of success" "Belief that performance is realted to reward" In my experience, many students do not value learning, they simply want to complete the degree requirements for purposes of career opportunity/advancement. So, many view my course, not as a learning opportunity, but as another task to complete. Concerning expectation of success- Yes,students are concerned about making the grade and passing the course; so much so that it tends to be their sole focus. However, they do not correlate this success with effort, dilligence, or learning. And finally, the belief that performance is related to reward seems to be a foreign concept to many students. I think all understand that hard work does pay off, but I fully believe that they believe there to be easier ways to obtain the "pay off", so they resist putting in the work. In closing I must refer to my earlier disclaimer: I do know that not all students are alike; I have many hard-working, motivated students. BUT generally speaking, it just seems that students don't "get it". Finally, no, I am not a cynical, grizzled, college instructor who does not like students. The only reason I teach is because I enjoy students, and I go to great lengths to motivate them to LEARN. I simply become increasingly frustrated when it seems to continually fall on deaf ears?

Does anyone percieve a difference between the teaching environment-from an instructor's point of view, and the learning environment-from a student's point. It occurs to me that they are one in the same, but that there may be differences depending on perspective.

The topic 1 module discusses Instructional Style in general terms; briefly mentioning "lecture style of instruction". No other instructional styles are listed or are discussed. After reading the section I began thinking about my style of instruction, and could only determine that it was probably a lecture style, but one that is very interactive. I am interested in examples/descriptions of other instructional styles, anybody care to offer?

when exactly can one be considered a buddy?

this is the most useful of all the lessons, thanks and you should consider adding more examples of the different delivery and demonstration methods.

Are there any "good for all" motivation "tricks" you can recommend?

Do you feel an instructor has to have experience in the field they are teaching or not ?

After taking this module I was pleasantly surprised that I have made a lesson plan that incorporates a lot of the components needed to have a successful class. I am teaching a meditation course this weekend and I have formed lecture notes to discuss walking meditation and purchased a video that is 30 min. on labyrinths and found a labyrinth at a nearby church for a field trip. I think it is going to be a lot of fun. It certainly covers the basis for the students to have a clear understanding of the components of what is entailed in a laybrinth meditation and the exciting part is they get to participate in Doing!!!

I think teaching is a bit like acting. It's really important to have confidence in the classroom and sometimes you have to "fake it until you make it." I think it helps to think of it in terms of putting on a persona. Who are you when you teach? Ask yourself "Who do I want to be when I teach" and then be that.

This is such a critical piece of the successful running of a course. You can assume students know what to expect, especially if they've been at the school for awhile, or you teach more than one class and you've had those students before. But I find it is always better to take the time at the beginning of every class to set clear expectations, go over the syllabus and school policies, and establish clear boundaries. And, it's always better to be a little harder/stricter at the beginning because you can ease up later as opposed to being soft at the beginning and then trying to enforce structure later on.