Saturday 13 February 2016

Effective Teaching

Another great article What Students Want: Characteristics of Effective Teachers from the Students' Perspective from the files of Faculty Focus, written by Ellen Smyth.

"Researchers had asked their students this question: What characteristics are essential for effective teaching from the student perspective? Analyzing and combining reasonably synonymous characteristics, researchers isolated the top nine for online and for face-to-face students"

The top result for both platforms was respect.  This was not surprising for me.  I am a big believer that a classroom must be a mutually respectful environment for any effective teaching and learning to occur. 

Smyth writes "Students should be shown all the respect we can muster. We need to regularly analyze and question our attitudes. We need to empathize with students by imagining role reversals and by believing in them whenever possible. We need to humble ourselves so that even the least are worthy of our attention and admiration."

There are nine characteristics examined in this study and I aim to foster my personal development of these characteristics by committing to the following actions in the future:
  • Respect-  be kind and thoughtful of others particularly when I am feeling frustrated or disappointed.
  • Knowledgeable - keep current with trends and research in education and esthetics
  • Approachable - use welcoming body language (smile, arms uncrossed)
  • Engaging- make eye contact with all students, alter my pitch and tone when speaking, be enthusiastic no matter the topic   
  • Communicative -use dialogue that fosters open communication and listen with my full attention
  • Organized- be well prepared for class and keep detailed lists 
  • Responsive - set and keep to a time frame to respond to emails and student inquires
  • Professional - make professional development goals and work regularly to achieve them
  • Humorous - don't use sarcasm as humor

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