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| Effective teaching in higher education | | | Dr. Pragya Khanna | 2/27/2012 11:28:40 PM |
| All of us would agree that effective teaching is the basis of successful learning. Effective teaching identifies and is build on two important components that is, prior knowledge and deep understanding. It's about not only motivating students to learn, but teaching them how to learn, and doing so in a manner that is relevant, meaningful, and memorable. It's about caring for your craft, having a passion for it, and conveying that passion to everyone, most importantly to your students. According to Ralph Waldo Emerson, "A teacher is a man who can make hard things easy". How true! But how can this be achieved? Well, the skill of communication has a lot to do with good and effective teaching. Communication is an essential skill utilized by any teacher. The transmission of information so that the recipient understands what the sender intends.
It is the exchange of ideas, opinions and information through written or spoken words, symbols or actions. It is important to be a culturally competent communicator. The purpose of a teacher is to assist students understand, explain and use self-efficacy to mediate what they know and can do, and how they reflect. Let's look at an interesting example.
The theory says: "Make a loop that looks like a rabbit's ear and pinch the bottom. Now loop the other string around the bottom of the ear. Very slowly pull it back through the hole so that you can make a second ear. Pull the ears apart to make a knot. Great job! You've tied your own shoes for the first time"
How many of us learned to tie our shoes in this way or through a similar method? We didn't learn how to tie our shoes from a book, since we probably could not read. We also didn't learn how to tie our shoes following a graph or a table. Yet we mastered this skill and immediately applied it to our daily life because it was practically taught to us. Good teaching is not confined to reading books or scholarly journals. But it is about bridging the gap between theory and practice. It is about not always having a fixed agenda and being rigid, but being flexible, fluid, experimenting, and having the confidence to react and adjust to changing circumstances. Teachers need the capacity for innovativeness, and a preparedness to generate new solutions, take on new teaching approaches, and be willing to risk failing. C.B. Neblette, a great thinker and an educationist said, "Teachers should guide without dictating, and participate without dominating".
Good teaching is about listening, questioning, being responsive, and remembering that each student and class is different. It's about eliciting responses and developing the oral communication skills of the quiet students. It's about pushing students to excel; at the same time, it's about being human, respecting others, and being professional at all times. Though, the expertise in any field develops over a long period of time yet I believe that the development of expertise runs through stages for a trainee. He has to be a beginner, an advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and exhibiting expert levels of performance. The premises of teaching that I am discussing here are not hard and fast but can be addressed in many different ways depending on different teaching modes as teachers with completely different styles can be equally effective.
Still you would agree that there is no one right teaching style.
Your teaching style is an extension of your personality, thus some techniques will appeal to you more than others. Teaching may appear easier and "more natural" for some than for others, but there are no "born teachers" who don't need to improve. Good teachers work at being good and are constantly looking for ways to improve. Not all techniques are effective in every setting, in every situation of the same setting, and with every group. It is emphasized that a new approach should not be tried only because it is new, nor rejected for the same reason.
Good teaching is also about style. Should good teaching be entertaining? But then, does this mean that it lacks in substance? Not a chance! Effective teaching is not about being locked with both hands glued to a podium or having your eyes fixated on a slide projector or a black board while you drone on. Good teachers work the room and every student in it. They realize that all students play different instruments and at varying proficiencies. This is rather very important that good teaching should have humor. It's about being easy and not taking yourself too seriously. It's often about making mild jokes, mostly at your own expense, so that the ice breaks and students learn in a more relaxed atmosphere where you, like them, are human with your own share of faults and shortcomings. Yes, teaching is about caring, nurturing, and developing minds and talents. It's about devoting time, often invisible, to every student. It's also about the thankless hours of grading, designing or redesigning courses, and preparing materials to still further enhance instruction. I would not be completing my task if I don't add a very important component that good and effective teaching is supported by strong and visionary leadership, and very tangible institutional support, resources, personnel, and funds. Good teaching is continually reinforced by an overarching vision that transcends the entire organization from full time professors to part-time instructors and is reflected in what is said, but more importantly by what is done. It is about mentoring between senior and junior faculty, teamwork, and being recognized and promoted by one's peers. Self-efficacy as a teacher, on the other hand, is a powerful predictor of how and whether a teacher will act. What teachers' believe about their capability is a strong predictor of teacher effectiveness. People who hold strong self-efficacy beliefs tend
- to be more satisfied with their job (Trentham, Silvern, & Brogdon, 1985) - to demonstrate more commitment (Trentham, et al. 1985), and - to have lower absenteeism (McDonald & Siegall, 1993). - to take more risks with the curriculum (Guskey, 1988) - to use new teaching approaches (Gibson & Dembo, 1984). One of the fundamental questions surrounding this issue of good teaching is of class-size that is whether or not smaller class sizes help teachers teach more effectively. The most obvious result is that teachers are more apt to individualize their instruction to fit the needs of their students. It has been observed through research that through one-on-one tutoring, small-group learning, and total class teaching, individual student understanding and input are elicited, critiqued, and corrected or extended. The content taught is largely the same, but the teaching techniques vary for each student. I can justify this being a science teacher as we have the privilege of holding sessions with comparatively fewer students during our practical classes that this increased use of individualization in reduced-size classes is possible because teachers can spend more time on students and less on disciplinary issues, have greater knowledge of their students, and feel more enthusiastic about their work. In turn, individualized instruction and more hands-on activities result in more in-depth instructional content, more student self-direction, and, ultimately, greater student achievement as reflected by higher achievement scores. I would end my talk with the words of Francis Bacon, "Natural abilities are like plants that need pruning by study which can be achieved by having a good teacher". We teachers need to be able to survive the demands, pressure, and challenges within the diverse circumstances of teaching and yet prove ourselves. Aristotle said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." |
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