Tips for Talking Effectively With Student - Using “After . . .” words

“After . . .”
You can visualize success for students and help them to do the same. Sometimes, students have difficulty visualizing themselves succeeding. Through your language, invite students to go into the future and experience what it is like to have already succeeded in what they are doing.

A woman on a plane once taught me Sudoku, saying, “After you get really good at it, you will do puzzles like these” (she showed me one that looked really complicated). She was helping me to visualize the future, seeing myself having already mastered Sudoku puzzles and working on ones that were even more diffi cult. When you say “after,” you are presupposing that the student will definitely be doing the things that come after it.
• “After you have learned this, what else might you enjoy learning?”

• “After you have done everything that you identifi ed as necessary to achieve your goals, how will you feel about having been successful?”
• “After you have achieved your dreams and even more than you ever thought possible, what will your life be like?”
• “After you have put away your materials, you will have a clean desk.”
• “After you have studied for your test, you will be able to make a good grade.”
• “After you have written your paper, you will feel really good about what you have accomplished.”
• “After you have overcome your habit of procrastinating, you will be able to do anything that you want to do in your life!”

Potential Functions for This Tip: Teaching, Planning for the Future, Responding to Objections, Encouraging Students, Influencing Students, Resolving Conflicts

“And” or “Yet”—No “Buts”
How do you feel when you hear the word “but”? You probably brace yourself for what might be coming. The other shoe is about to drop. We tend to negate everything that a person says before they say “but”; the word cancels what came before (Hall, 2004).
• “You did a really nice job, but . . .”
• “I like that, but . . .”
• “You could go out to recess, but . . .”

The next time you are tempted to use the word “but,” replace it with “and.” If “and” doesn’t fi t, use “yet.”
• “You did a really nice job, and . . .”
• “I like that, and . . .”
• “You could go out to recess, and . . .”


On the other hand, you can also use the word “but” to your advantage.
• “I don’t know how to do this.”
• “But you will learn!”
• “I am not succeeding.”
• “But you will get it soon!”
• “I can’t do this.”
• “But you did it the last time!”

Potential Functions for This Tip: Building Relationships, Teaching, Planning for the Future, Responding to Objections, Encouraging Students, Influencing Students, Resolving Conflicts.

“As . . .”
As you read this articles, you may find that you automatically think of students with whom you will use the various ideas and concepts. As you plan for tomorrow, you may notice those students applying all
that they learn and even more.

When you begin sentences with “as,” you link the first clause with the second clause. This also enables your listener to link the information in both clauses.
• “As you do this assignment, you may notice that you are learning even more.”
• “As you complete your work today, you may become aware of your growing skills and capabilities.”
• “As you read this assignment, you may notice just how quickly you are comprehending all that you read.”
• “As you move toward completing your degree, you may feel absolutely pleased with the many ways that you are progressing.”

Potential Functions for This Tip: Teaching, Planning for the Future, Responding to Objections, Encouraging Students, Infl uencing Students, Resolving Confl icts


“At This Time . . .”
Have you ever had different perceptions about the same situation at different times? We all do, depending on what we think about the situation at any given time.
You can help students realize that they will have varying views about their abilities and situations at different times. Yesterday, they might have perceived that they couldn’t do something. Today is a new day, and tomorrow is another new day. Do you recall ever thinking that you couldn’t do something that was important to you that you subsequently learned to do? Looking back now, the thought that you ever believed that you couldn’t do it seems fairly ridiculous!

Our perceptions about various events in our lives can also change from day to day. Use words about time combined with words such as “perception,” “seems,” and so on to help students realize that their perceptions are not set in stone.
• “So at that time, you had perceived that task to be difficult.”
• “So right now, you feel that you don’t yet know what to do.”
• “At that time, you believed that you couldn’t do it.”
• “So at this point in time, it seems like you don’t yet have the ability to perform the task.”

Potential Functions for This Tip: Planning for the Future, Responding to Objections, Encouraging Students, Influencing Students, Resolving Conflicts
Read More : Tips for Talking Effectively With Student - Using “After . . .” words

Tips for Talking Effectively With Student - Using “Because” and “Since” Words

“Because” and “Since”
We all want to reap the benefi ts of what we are doing, don’t we? Communicate to students that they are reaping the benefi ts of the work they are doing by using phrases such as “because” and “since.”
• “Because you worked hard, you succeeded.”
• “Since you realized the importance of learning these things, you are progressing rapidly in your studies.”
• “Because you are attending this seminar, you will gain valuable strategies to use to accelerate your success.”

• “Since you worked collaboratively in your group, you completed the project in only three days.”
• “Because you made the decision to learn and grow in many different ways, you have already brought that about in your life.”
• “Since you focused on completing this assignment, you feel really good about it.”

Potential Functions for This Tip: Teaching, Planning for the Future, Responding to Objections, Encouraging Students, Infl uencing Students, Resolving Conflicts

Becoming Someone Else
Who are some of your heroes? Who are the people who can do the things that you would like to learn to do or do even better? When we want to do something better, we can step in and become someone else. Several years ago, I wanted to learn how to get away from work when I was on vacation. A friend suggested that I think of someone who was able to do that with ease. I identified my role model, worked to be like that person, and had a wonderful holiday!

Students have many heroes in their lives, both in person and in the media. When students hesitate to believe that they can actually do something, or when they don’t quite yet have the confidence to move forward into completing a task or assignment, ask them about their heroes: “Who might be able to do this quickly and really enjoy doing it?”

This technique helps students move from having no idea what to do, to thinking about how a powerful person in their lives might go about doing something, to actually becoming the person who can do it.
• “What might _______ do in this situation?”
• “What are your thoughts as to how _______ might go about completing this assignment?”
• “What steps might _________ follow in the process of doing this?”

• “If you were _________, what might be some of your thoughts about how to do this?”
• “Step in and become ___________. Notice what you are doing as you complete this project.”

Potential Functions for This Tip: Planning for the Future, Responding to Objections, Encouraging Students, Influencing Students, Resolving Conflicts

"Before Friday” Instead of “By Friday”
What does it mean when someone asks you to do something “by Friday”? Most people visualize themselves completing the task on Thursday evening, stressed out because they are doing it at the last minute. What do you visualize when someone says, “Please do this before Friday”? This change in wording allows the listener to focus on the time before Friday, perhaps even the entire week that precedes Friday.

Frequently, we ask students to have something completed “by Friday.” Instead, use the term “before Friday” to help students envision the whole process of completing the assignment, and they will be more likely to focus on the time during the prior week, according to C. Hall (personal communication, May 2006).
• “Please complete your project before spring break.”
• “Papers will be due before the end of the day on Wednesday.”
• “Please turn in your work before the end of class tomorrow.”
• “Papers are due before 3 p.m. today.”

Potential Functions for This Tip: Teaching, Planning for the Future, Influencing Students, Resolving Conflicts


“By Doing X . . .” 
By teaching, we affect the future. By focusing on encouraging students, we help them to be powerful learners who will encourage others. By encouraging others, your students will powerfully influence the world! By beginning a sentence with “By doing X,” we imply that the student is defi nitely going to be reaping certain benefits as a result of doing something.
• “By studying the material every night after class, you will almost guarantee that you will do well on the fi nal exam.”
• “By participating in class, you will build relationships with your colleagues that can last a lifetime.”
• “By coming to class every day and taking notes, you will ensure that you do well in the class.”
• “By walking quietly down the hall between classes, you enable students in other classes to continue studying.”
• “By being willing to take risks and do new things, you will grow more than you ever dreamed would be possible!”

Potential Functions for This Tip: Teaching, Planning for the Future, Responding to Objections, Encouraging Students, Influencing Students, Resolving Conflicts
Read More : Tips for Talking Effectively With Student - Using “Because” and “Since” Words

Tips for Talking Effectively With Student - Acknowledging Learners’ Current Experience

Acknowledging Learners’ Current Experience 
Have you ever felt reluctant about a new learning situation, like a weekend workshop? Perhaps you had things you would rather do than attend the class. Maybe you were preoccupied by things going on in your family. We’ve all been there. What if the instructor verbally acknowledged that you were choosing to give up a weekend in order to continue growing professionally? You would relax, knowing that the instructor understood!

It is important to acknowledge your students’ current experience. You might say, “It may have been a little bit difficult to leave home this morning, as you had things on your mind. Thank you so much for coming. I’d like to invite you to set those things aside and focus entirely on these experiences so that you can benefit from our time together.”

After summer vacation, you might say, “I am sure that you had a wonderful summer vacation and that you were doing many fun and exciting things with your families and friends. The weather was lovely, and I understand that you may be missing it a little bit. We will be outside doing projects so that we can continue enjoying the good weather. We will also be doing a lot of physical activities outside, and you will continue to be with your friends. Thank you for being here.”

Potential Functions for This Tip: Building Relationships, Teaching, Planning for the Future, Responding to Objections, Encouraging Students, Resolving Conflicts

Adverbs
What is it about the ability of words that end in -ly to convey positive things even more powerfully? Use words that end in -ly to increase the intensity of your students’ experience and help students to feel excited about what you are discussing. It’s amazing how using these words will not only encourage students but make you feel good as well!
We can use adverbs such as the following:
• absolutely
• beautifully
• completely
• confi dently
• continually
• delightfully
• easily
• elegantly
• enthusiastically
• excitedly
• friendly
• fully
• gladly
• gratefully
• happily
• heartily
• hopefully
• intensely
• internally
• joyfully
• lovely
• possibly
• powerfully
• probably
• quickly
• rapidly
• readily
• skillfully
• spontaneously
• steadily
• strategically
• successfully
• totally
• warmly
• wonderfully

Here are some examples of such adverbs in practice:
• “You will be surprised and delighted at just how quickly you are learning the material.”
• “As you are working steadily, you may notice just how delightfully you are progressing.”
• “As you are continually progressing toward your goal of ____, you may notice just how instinctively you are applying your new learnings and understandings.”
• “In the process of completing your assignments, you may be pleased with just how spontaneously you are doing the work.”
• “As you complete this class, you may be noticing just how rapidly you have internalized your insights and understandings in order to bring about lasting changes in your life and in the lives of others.”
• “I’m sure you are pleased as you realize how steadily you have been progressing toward your goals.”
• “In what ways might you skillfully and enthusiastically apply all of the exciting things that you are learning?”
• “This is absolutely the hardest-working group of learners that I have seen in my 20-year career!”
• “As you fully involve yourself in the process of learning, you may notice just how quickly and easily you are grasping these concepts!”

Potential Functions for This Tip: Building Relationships, Teaching, Planning for the Future, Responding to Objections, Encouraging Students, Influencing Students, Resolving Conflicts
Read More : Tips for Talking Effectively With Student - Teacher Guide

Teacher guide : Rationale for a TOEFL Preparation Course

Although Barron's How to Prepare for the TOEFL was originally written as a self-study guide for studknts who were preparing to take the TOEFL, in the years since its first publication, I have received letters from ESL teachers around the world who are using the book successfully for classroom study. In fact, in recent years, many special courses have been developed within the existing ESL curriculum to accommodate TOEFL preparation.

I believe that these TOEFL preparation courses respond to three trends within the profession. First, there appears to be a greater recognition on the part of many ESL teachers that student goals must be acknowledged and addressed. For the engineer, the business person, the doctor, or the preuniversity student, a satisfactory score on the TOEFL is one of the most immediate goals; for many, without the required score, they cannot continue their professional studies or obtain certification to practice their professions, They may have other language goals as well, such as leaming to communicate more effectively or improving their writing, but these goals do not usually exert the same kinds of pressure that the required TOEFL score does.

Second, teachers have recognized and recorded the damaging results of test anxiety. We have all observed students who were so frightened of failure that they have performed on the TOEFL at a level far below that which their performance in class would have indicated. The standardized score just didn't correspond with the score in the gradebook. In addition, teachers have become aware that for some students, the TOEFL represents their first experience in taking a computer- assisted test.

The concepts of working within time limits, marking on a screen, and guessing to improve a score are often new and confusing to students, and they forfeit valuable points because they must concentrate on unfamiliar procedures instead of on language questions. Third, teachers have observed the corresponding changes in student proficiency that have accompanied the evolutionary changes in ESL syllabus design.

Since this book was first written, we have moved away from a grammatical syllabus to a communicative syllabus, and at this writing, there seems to be growing interest in a contentbased syllabus. Viewed in terms of what has actually happened in classrooms, most of us have emphasized the facilitation of communication and meaning and de-emphasized the teaching of forms. As we did so, we noticed with pride the improvement in student fluency and with dismay the corresponding loss of accuracy. Some of our best, most fluent students received disappointing scores on the test that was so important to them.

Through these observations and experiences, teachers have concluded that (1) students need to work toward their own goals, (2) students need some time to focus on accuracy as well as on fluency, and (3) students need an opportunity to practice taking a standardized test in order to alleviate anxiety and develop test strategies. With the introduction of the Computer-Based TOEFL, the opportunity to gain experience taking a computerassisted model test has also become important to student confidence and success. In short, more and more teachers have begun to support the inclusion of a TOEFL preparation course in the ESL curriculum.
Read More : Teacher guide : Rationale for a TOEFL Preparation Course

Student with intellectual disability

Other than the population of children with general learning problems already discussed, students with intellectual disability represent the next largest group of students with special educational needs. For an individual to be identified as having an intellectual disability, he or she will obtain a measured intelligence quotient (IQ) below 70 and has limitations in reasoning and in independent functioning. The most obvious characteristic of individuals with intellectual disability is that they experience significant difficulty learning almost everything that others can learn with ease.

Children with intellectual disability usually appear to be much less mature than their age peers, tending to exhibit behaviour that is typical of younger children. Their behaviour patterns, skills and general knowledge are related more closely to their mental age than to their chronological age. They can and will learn if provided with an appropriate instructional program, adequate support, and teaching methods suited to their level of ability. The extent to which major changes in teaching approach are required depends upon the degree of intellectual impairment, ranging from mild to severe.

Children with mild intellectual disability tend to be very similar to children who have been described in the past as ‘slower learners’. Most children with mild intellectual disability attend ordinary schools now and receive
additional support in that setting. To assist these children, their teachers usually try to simplify learning activities and the content of the curriculum where necessary. The children may also attend additional remedial classes
in the school.

Children with moderate to severe intellectual disability are more commonly accommodated in special schools or special classes. Many children with severe intellectual disability also have additional handicaps or problems (physical, sensory, emotional, behavioural) and are frequently described as having ‘high support needs’.

For some children with disabilities, a special education setting may still offer the best environment to meet their needs. The purpose of having special schools and special classes was – and still is – to create a situation in which curriculum content, resources, and methods of instruction can be geared appropriately to the students’ needs and abilities. Classes are also smaller in special schools, allowing more opportunity to work with individuals.

Areas of difficulty
General development: Intellectual disability often results in significant limitations in development in the following areas. These areas are priorities within the curriculum and IEP for children with intellectual disability:

• self-care and daily living skills
• language and communication
• social skills
• literacy and numeracy
• self-regulation
• independent functioning in the community.

Attention: Children with intellectual disability often appear to have major problems in paying attention in a learning situation and are easily distracted. A teacher needs to think of many ways of helping the child focus on a learning task and maintain concentration. Without adequate attention, any child will fail to learn what the teacher is trying to teach.

Memory: Many students with intellectual disability also have great difficulty retaining information in their long-term memory. This problem may be linked with the failure to attend closely to the learning task, as discussed above. The memory weakness indicates that a greater amount of repetition and practice is required with these children to ensure that information and skills are mastered and remembered. Frequent revision of previous work is also needed. It is claimed that once these children do eventually get something stored firmly in their memory, they can recall that skill or information as well as any other child.

Generalization: In learning theory, ‘generalisation’ means that a learner is able to use information or skills outside the situation in which they were first taught. It is typical of many children with intellectual disability that
they learn a particular skill or concept in one place with one teacher but then fail to transfer that learning to a different situation. The message from this is that skills and concepts must be taught and rehearsed in many
different contexts.

Language: One of the main characteristics of children with intellectual disability is the very slow rate at which many of them acquire speech and language. Even the child with mild disability is likely to be somewhat
behind in language development. Some individuals with severe and multiple disabilities never develop speech. So, for them, alternative methods of communication may need to be developed; for example, sign language or
picture communication systems. Many children with intellectual disability require the services of a speech therapist; but even then, may continue to have language problems.
Language ability is important in life because it serves the following functions:

• It enables the child to make his or her needs, opinions and ideas known to others.
• Concepts are more effectively stored in their memory if they have a representation in words.
• Language is the main medium through which school learning is conducted.
• Positive social interaction with others is heavily dependent upon effective language skills.
• Language is important for regulating behaviour.

For these reasons, development of language and communication skills in children with intellectual disability is given high priority in the special school curriculum.

Social development: Children with intellectual disability often experience difficulty making friends and gaining social acceptance among other children – particularly if they have certain irritating or troublesome behaviours. Some children with intellectual disability are rejected by other children because of their irritating behaviour rather than because they are disabled. Inappropriate behaviour such as aggression, shouting or temper tantrums makes it difficult for a few of these children to be socially accepted. If the child with a disability is to make friends and be accepted in the peer group, these negative behaviours must be eliminated and social
skills training provided.
Read More : Student with intellectual disability

Specific learning disability

Specific learning disability (SpLD) is a term applied by psychologists to approximately two or three children in every 100 whose learning difficulties cannot be traced back to any lack of intelligence, problems with vision or hearing, or insufficient teaching. This small group of learners has ongoing difficulty in mastering basic skills of literacy and numeracy. The experts tell us that SpLD can impair the ability to learn to read (dyslexia), to spell (dysorthographia), to write (dysgraphia), to perform mathematical calculations (dyscalculia), or to recall words, symbols and names quickly from memory (dysnomia). Some children with SpLD also have problems with social relationships – difficulty in making and retaining friends – and a few have minor difficulties with physical skills and coordination.

It is generally true that the difficulties of children with a learning disability are not recognised early enough in school, and many of these children are considered simply to be lazy or uncooperative. In most countries, the
method for identifying children with SpLD is for an educational psychologist to assess the child’s level of intelligence using an intelligence test, and then to obtain accurate measures of ability in reading, spelling and mathematics. Any marked difference between level of intelligence (IQ) and level of attainment in these skills suggests significant ‘under-achievement’ and might indicate the presence of a learning disability.


The most widely recognised learning disability is dyslexia. Dyslexia is often defined as a ‘disorder’ causing difficulty in learning to read despite normal instruction, adequate intelligence and opportunity to learn. This
form of reading problem is thought to be present in approximately 2 per cent of the school population, although some reports suggest a higher figure. The oral reading performance of dyslexic students tends to be very slow and laboured, with great mental effort having to be devoted to the identification of each individual word. Comprehension of what has been  read is therefore usually very poor. The child tires easily and avoids the frustrating task of reading.
A child with dyslexia typically exhibits the following problems:

• Difficulty in analyzing spoken words into separate sounds. This difficulty then causes major problems with learning phonics and spelling.
• Difficulty in recalling words from memory or quickly naming familiar objects. This difficulty in rapid recall then causes major problems in building a memory bank of words recognized immediately by sight, and in remembering letter to sound correspondences.
• Difficulty in making adequate use of the meaning of a sentence to assist with word recognition (teachers refer to this as a weakness in ‘using contextual cues’).
• Inability to develop adequate speed and fluency in reading.
• Weakness in understanding what has been read.
• Perception problems occur in some cases, resulting in frequent reversal of letters and numerals. A few children report distortion or blurring of print when reading.

In addition, many children with dyslexia also exhibit:

• hyperactivity and attention problems
• inefficient learning strategies
• emotional, motivational and behavioural problems due to persistent failure
• learned helplessness, anxiety and depression
• negative attitudes towards reading, writing and mathematics, and towards school in general.

In many cases of dyslexia, as in other types of learning difficulty, the children do not appear to have developed an effective system for approaching tasks such as phonic decoding, reading for meaning or writing a story. Their inefficient approach produces a high error-rate and much frustration. It has become popular in recent years to say that these children need to ‘learn how to learn’ so that they can tackle activities like reading and writing with a greater chance of success. The important thing to note here is that the current evidence suggests that children can be taught to use more efficient learning strategies; this will be discussed in practical terms later.

Dyslexia remains a controversial topic. While some experts argue strongly that dyslexia is quite different from any other form of reading difficulty, others regard it as simply a variation of the same problem. Reading disability has attracted an enormous amount of research interest over the past 50 years, but it is quite clear that this has not resulted in any major breakthrough in special teaching methods or instructional resources.

It is difficult to visualise that any teaching method found useful for children with general problems in learning to read would not also be highly relevant for other children identified as dyslexic – and vice versa. If we examine the literature on teaching methods for children with SpLD, we usually find a range of valuable teaching strategies that would be helpful to all children.

Any child with a learning problem requires assistance, and there seems little to be gained from seeking to differentiate between SpLD and ‘non- SpLD’ students; the need for high-quality, effective instruction is equally strong in both groups. But maybe parents feel more comfort in having their child classified as ‘dyslexic’ rather than ‘a weak reader’. All children who find learning to read and write difficult are best served by designing and delivering intensive high-quality instruction, rather than by identifying them with a label.
Read More : Specific learning disability

Teaching as Decision Making

The aim of research in educational psychology is to test the various theories that guide the actions of teachers and others involved in education. Here is another example of how a teacher might use educational psychology. Mr. Harris teaches an eighth-grade social studies class. He has a problem with Tom, who frequently misbehaves. Today, Tom makes a paper airplane and flies it across the room when Mr. Harris turns his back, to the delight of the entire class. What should Mr. Harris do?

As an intentional teacher, Mr. Harris considers a range of options for solving this problem, each of which comes from a theory about why Tom is misbehaving and what will motivate him to behave more appropriately. Some actions Mr. Harris might take, and the theories on which they are based, are as follows:

Action

1. Reprimand Tom.
2. Ignore Tom.
3. Send Tom to the office.
4. Tell the class that it is everyone's responsibility to maintain a good learning environment and that if any student misbehaves, 5 minutes will be subtracted from recess. 
5. Explain to the class that Tom's behavior is interfering with lessons that all students need to know and that his behavior goes against the rules the class set for itself at the beginning of the year.

Theory

1. A reprimand is a form of punishment. Tom will behave to avoid punishment.
2. Attention may be rewarding to Tom. Ignoring him would deprive him of this reward.
3. Being sent to the office is punishing. It also deprives Tom of the (apparent) support of his classmates.
4. Tom is misbehaving to get his classmates' attention. If the whole class loses out when he misbehaves, the class will keep him in line.
5. The class holds standards of behavior that conflict with both Tom's behavior
6. in class and the class's reaction to it. By reminding the class of its own needs (to learn the lesson) and its own rules set at the beginning of the year, the teacher might make Tom see that the class does not really support his behavior.

Each of these actions is a common response to misbehavior. But which theory (and therefore which action) is correct? The key might be in the fact that his classmates laugh when Tom misbehaves. Ths response is a clue that Tom is seelung their attention. If Mr. Harris scolds Tom, this might increase Tom's status in the eyes of his peers and may reward his behavior. Ignoring misbehavior might be a good idea if a student were acting up to get the teacher's attention, but in this case it is apparently the class's attention that Tom is seeking. Sending Tom to the office does deprive him of his classmates' attention and therefore may be effective. But what if Tom is looking for a way to get out of class to avoid worlc? What if he struts out to confront the powers that be, to the obvious approval of his classmates? Malung the entire class responsible for each student's behavior is likely to deprive Tom of his classmates' support and to improve his behavior; but some students may think that it is unfair to punish them for another student's misbehavior. 

Finally, reminding the class (and Tom) of its own interest in learning and its usual standards of behavior might worlc if the class does, in fact, value academic achevement and good behavior. Research in education and psychology bears directly on the decision Mr. Harris must make. Developmental research indicates that as students enter adolescence, the peer group becomes all-important to them, and they try to establish their independence from adult control, often by flouting or ignoring rules. 

Basic research on behavioral learning theories shows that when a behavior is repeated many times, some reward must be encouraging the behavior, and that if the behavior is to be eliminated, the reward must first be identified and removed. This research would also suggest that Mr. Harris consider problems with the use of punishment (such as scolding) to stop undesirable behavior. Research on specific classroom management strategies has identified effective methods to use both to prevent a student lilce Tom from misbehaving in the fist place and to deal with his misbehavior when it does occur. 

Finally, research on rule setting and classroom standards indicates that student participation in setting rules can help convince each student that the class as a whole values academic achievement and appropriate behavior, and that this belief can help keep individual students in line. Armed with this information, Mr. Harris can choose a response to Tom's behavior that is based on an understandng of why Tom is doing what he is doing and what strategies are available to deal with the situation. He may or may not make the right choice; but because he lznows several theories that could explain Tom's behavior, he will be able to observe the outcomes of his strategy and, if it is ineffective, to learn from that and try something else that will work.

Research does not give Mr. Harris a specific solution; that requires his own experience and judgment. But research does give Mr. Harris basic concepts of human behavior to help him understand Tom's motivations and an array of proven methods that might solve the problem. And using research to help him make teaching decisions is one way Mr. Harris can achieve a sense of his own efficacy as a teacher.

Read More : Teaching as Decision Making

Teaching method as a source of difficulty

The term ‘teaching method’ refers to the way in which a teacher presents new topics to the children, engages them in appropriate learning activities and provides corrective feedback. Methods range from formal (for example, directly presenting and explaining new information or demonstrating a new skill to the children) to the informal (for example, creating a situation in which children are required to discover new information through their own activities). A single lesson in any subject may involve some direct teaching, some student activity using instructional materials, some group discussion, and some feedback and summarising by the teacher.

Teaching methods are usually described as tending towards either ‘teacher-directedness’ or ‘student-centredness’ in their emphasis. Different subject areas in the school curriculum call for different methods of teaching in order to achieve the goals for learning in that subject. Teachers need to select the most appropriate teaching methods to suit the type of subject matter to be taught, the age and ability level of the children, the children’s previous experience and knowledge, and the available time and resources.

Until recently, the method of teaching was rarely investigated as a possible cause of learning difficulty. Teachers seem to assume that if something is taught (which usually means explained or demonstrated), it is

automatically learned; and if it is not learned, then the problem must be due to inadequacies in the child’s own ability, motivation or persistence, not to the effectiveness of the teaching method. Parents also assume too
readily that a learning problem must be related directly to the child’s ability or effort, not to the method of instruction. Researchers in the field of education are now recognising, however, that learning problems arise
if inappropriate methods of instruction are applied. Not all methods are equally effective in achieving particular goals in learning. Let us examine the teaching of reading and mathematics as examples of situations where some popular approaches have proved to be less effective than others.

Direct teaching versus indirect teaching: the case of learning to read
In the past few years, important reports published in Britain, the United States of America and Australia have been highly critical of the way in which literacy skills are being taught in the majority of primary schools in
those countries. Basically, the reports indicate that over the previous two decades the direct teaching of phonic skills – designed to enable a young child to read and spell using knowledge of letter-to-sound correspondences – has been seriously neglected. Instead, teachers have been trained and encouraged to use a popular method called ‘whole language approach’ in which direct teaching of phonic skills and spelling is frowned upon.

Teachers who use whole language approach believe that children will learn to read, write and spell without needing direct instruction if they are given daily opportunities to engage in reading and writing activities, and if they receive positive feedback from the teacher. In other words, these teachers believe that learning to read and write is a ‘natural’ process; all it requires is for children to be self-motivated and active learners in order to discover their way to functional literacy with minimal guidance from the teacher.

The evidence is, however, that some children (particularly in the early stages) simply do not discover the basic principles of reading and writing in an alphabetic language unless they are clearly and directly taught. The absence of direct teaching is the main cause of reading difficulty for most of these children.

Direct teaching versus indirect teaching: the case of mathematics
In recent years, the teaching of number skills and mathematical problem solving has also favoured a ‘discovery’ or ‘activity’ approach rather than direct instruction. It has become unpopular, for example, for teachers to drill children in basic arithmetic processes and multiplication tables because it is claimed that they will easily pick up these skills along the way if they simply engage every day in solving problems that involve counting, measuring, comparing and calculating. But some (possibly many) children do not benefit from this activity-based approach and instead need to have basic numeracy skills taught directly and then practised to the point of mastery. It is clear that some children have significant difficulties learning mathematics because the underlying skills and concepts have not been taught clearly and effectively or practised sufficiently.
Read More : Teaching method as a source of difficulty

Teacher guide : Stories for learning

Knowing how the student’s brain is set off firing means knowing how to organize material to move it from short-term to long-term memory. What we tend to forget as faculty caught up in teaching requirements is that for the students to remember the material they need to map it into their brains. For their maps to be produced, we need to go beyond the Idea to the emotions. We need to capture their values—so, we need a story.

One famous professor of philosophy at NYU begins or ends every class with a story. The subject of the story might be his family or his life, but there is at heart a clear ethical dilemma that reinforces the day’s material. A fi nance professor illustrates concepts with his children’s activities. For example, he tells how his daughter persuades her younger brother how he might apportion his allowance or his candy to her benefi t in what became a net present value example.

Stories help memory. They give the students a context for their more esoteric course material. They anchor theory in concrete, visual detail, and they change the language of the course. It engages the students. Once listeners hear the narrative structure begin, they are eager to hear what happens next.

The story can open a door for students into the lives of their professors while still making a relevant learning point. Holding out your life to students through a story touches all their senses as well as reinforcing memory through chronology and language. More than a few neurons are fi ring. From there the student can make associations to the lecture that could not be made from an idea or the facts on a PowerPoint slide.

Keeping the students energized
We know that the middle portion of any speech or lecture or class of any length is where attention is at its lowest. The student is most passive. We know we all suffer from a form of attention deficit. My estimate is seven minutes on average is all we can count on for focused attention. Many tricks allow us to work against
these habits. Sharpening our awareness of timing as a tool to create and use energy will help shape structure of our lessons.

Thinking about where the action is located and the kind of learning students are being asked to do will keep the class energized and the professor, too. Shift the learning from the podium to the class and back again. And remember that some play-acting helps. In acting, we learn that energy and enthusiasm can be created by deciding to be energetic and enthusiastic. By our own presence, even following the lead of the learner, we can keep the energy level of the student higher.

Eye contact
How do we follow the lead of the learner? This fi rst rule for following the learner is to see the individual student—‘eyeball-to-eyeball’. This eye contact brings the professor in touch with the student and the student in touch with the professor. You are making an emotional connection. One prominent researcher at a business school who consistently received poor student evaluations was often told by his students on the evaluation sheets that he did not care about the students. They said other things as well, but the reaction was emotional and negative. He did care. He spent many hours preparing. The students made comments about his being knowledgeable and that he was a productive researcher; they recognized his scholarship.

They just did not realize that he wanted to be in communication with them. When he invited me to consult with him, I attended his class after our interview , I was astounded to note that after 20 years’ teaching, he was not making eye contact with his students. He never looked at them directly. He was turning his head, glancing in the direction of his students, but never actually looking into their eyes or really seeing them.

When the speaker does not see his audience, the audience, without every effort, will involuntarily turn off. This will often take a physical turn: going to sleep, getting restless, or other physical responses to boredom. What interests me is the emotion aroused by it—the angry response. Notice this in yourself when you fi nd yourself listening to a knowledgeable speaker on a topic you espouse interest in, yet fi nd that you cannot pay complete attention; observe the speaker’s eye contact. You may fi nd that the speaker is not really looking at any individual in the audience. This is true of an audience of any size: in rooms of two hundred, if the speaker makes eye contact with a single member of the audience in every section of the room, then all members of the audience will feel that they are being seen as well.


The professor derives many benefi ts of eye contact: losing self-consciousness, and gaining sustained feedback. Against our intuition, sustained eye contact reduces performance nerves. As important as helping with performance nerves, it provides a feedback mechanism, for example, for pace, volume, and variety.

Feedback from eye contact, careful observation, informs the professor of content issues. The feedback indicates whether a concept was sufficiently explained, or whether the students are tuned out or turned off, whether it is time to move on, ‘they’ve got it’, or whether this is really important and they are not quite getting it: say more about that. The feedback loop needs to be completed; during a lecture eye contact is crucial.

In one class I observed, the professor made eye contact with the PowerPoint slides, her computer and then, lastly, the class. The attention of the students flagged, energy in the class was fl at, distracted. The more she talked while looking away from them, the more the students had to fight to keep engaged. When she began to focus more on them, she realized that the students were getting only about half of the lecture, if that much. Their feedback signaled their confusion. She began to offer examples, practice sessions, illustrative cases, and so on. In short, she began to teach.

For the student, it assures them that their performance is being observed—the professor is audience for their work. They learn from the professor what it is like to have objective and constructive feedback on their work. We know from playing with our children and from observing their play how much influence is gained from simply being present to them. Eventually, through time in class and time in profession, the students will evolve their own feedback mechanisms. Until then, the professor as witness and model helps them learn to reflect on their learning.

As these examples indicate, eye contact offers much more than might fi rst appear. For the younger student, needing a relationship with the professor is more obvious, but it is no less significant to the older student. Our progress in the course depends upon it. I am not ignoring the skills of the self-directed learner, the learners who know how to do the work regardless of the teaching. These students are always there, but as we know, learning is much more than just hearing and recalling facts. Eye contact is critical, specifically, for moving forward into practice and application, and supportive connection. It also should be a reminder that learning begins with the emotions, our motor skills are close to our emotional center in the brain, the root of emotion comes from motion, ‘e-motion’.
Read More : Teacher guide : Stories for learning

Can A Game Promote Learning?

Teachers compete against a world of entertaining distractions in which the best instructional programming seems to incorporate a prescribed mix of eye candy, puppets, storytelling, cartoons, and music. This is a tough act to follow! But mass media cannot deal with our students’ needs on a daily and continuing basis. We all know what our students need in terms of curriculum and application, but sometimes we need help in creating the appropriate education to entertainment mix that meets their needs on a day-to-day basis.

As educators and parents, we are always looking for ways to engage our students and our children with the classroom topic. Our lessons are not “work” to us , and we certainly don’t want them to be “work” to our students. We want our students to want to know more about the topic, to become vested in their own learning experience connecting their own dots and experiencing their own ideas.

The twenty-five games in this blog bring students into the learning arena. Each game has a playful feature that intrigues students and transforms them into players who interact with the game format. Once involved in the play of the game, each player actively interacts with the topic and also demonstrates skills in problem solving, creativity, and group dynamics. These games are powerful tools that extend the invitation to all players to “come on in, the learning’s fine.”

GAMES AND INDIVIDUAL LEARNING STYLES
Each student has a personal preference for how she receives, interprets, and understands information. Michael Grinder, in his book Righting the Education Conveyor Belt, divides learners into three main types—visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. As educators we hope to successfully address all three types of learners each day and with each lesson. Games are an amicable way for an educator to present material and assess material learned, in a way that appeals to all her students. Games also help you maximize each student’s learning potential. Games help everyone win.
Here are the learning types and the ways games satisfy each type:

• Visual learners. Reflective of our visual age, many of our students are visual learners, reacting favorably to reading assignments, pictures, wall charts, overheads, videos, worksheets, game sheets, and other visual media. To these students the props, game sheets, and visual sequences enacted during a game create a visual experience that can be recalled to reinforce the items or concepts covered in the activity.
• Auditory learners. Many students react favorably to music, oral stories, reading aloud, class sing alongs, sounds, class discussions, and ongoing dialogue. For these students the oral directions in games, repeated episodes of question-and-response, and ongoing discussions create a memorable experience.
• Kinesthetic learners. Many students prefer to be involved in the learning experience through touch and interaction, as occurs during game play. They like tactile experiences, such as touching ordinary game items like game sheets, pencils, and markers, and may especially enjoy touching special game props, such as balloons, trash balls, chips, letter cards, question cards, and so forth. The actual physical movement involved in certain games is also important for these learners. They will enjoy the out-of the- chair games. These students especially enjoy interacting with the other students during the socialization required in a competitive game environment. Students become players, and players become teams during the surge of energy and adrenaline that occurs during game play. Learning types can also be expressed as internal and external styles.
• Internal learners. These learners prefer working alone to create a product or solution—they enjoy reflecting and then working out the solutions in their heads before presenting an answer. Games encourage and reward the type of reflection and thought that is needed to provide the best answers.
• External learners. These learners are very social and thrive on group collaboration and interaction. They work well with others and are natural leaders. Games give these students a way to socialize, yet still remain on task with their learning goals. Games also provide an opportunity for these students to test out their leadership skills in a safe environment.

Read More : Can A Game Promote Learning?

Learning Outcomes With Game Teaching Approach

Games can reinforce many different behavioral and learning outcomes.  Your learning outcome can vary from the reinforcement of the topic to the demonstration of how to participate in a working group. It is important to establish a set of learning objectives  what you want the participants to learn or demonstrate during and after playing the game. Then you can evaluate how the game met your expectations.

Games are excellent vehicles for learners to demonstrate the following skills and abilities, all within the friendly and competitive game environment:
• Understanding of the concepts of rules, cooperative play, and winning and losing.
• Understanding of the classroom material.
• Application of concepts and principles found in the classroom material.
• Problem solving and strategizing.

PLAYING TIME
Time of play is always a critical issue. Game play represents only part of the total classroom time required. The total learning experience is a three-part process of setup, game play, and closure.
• Setup time: approximately 20 percent of total. During this time, you establish the game environment by preparing the room, distributing game materials, dividing learners into teams, and reviewing the rules of play.
• Game playing time: approximately 60 percent of total. This is the actual playing of the game, including the start and stop of game play, clarifying questions about rules or content, validation and elaboration of correct responses, and declaring winners.

Closure time: approximately 20 percent of total. This portion of the time is for processing game content and player conduct. During this time the teacher brings the class “back to the classroom” and revisits the learning concepts covered during game play.

Teachers must plan for a total learning experience, considering several factors including the complexity of the topic, time required for setup and closure, time of day, and even the attention span of the participants. Because of these factors, all the games in this book are designed to be played in fifty minutes or less. Of course, if you find that a game generates a highly motivating environment, you may extend the time of play by conducting additional rounds or adding supplemental questions or tasks.

THE WHOLE COURSE GAME
When a particular game proves both popular and effective, consider reusing it as appropriate throughout the entire school semester or year. This whole course technique allows you to reintroduce a game experience that is familiar to both student and teacher. Advantages of a whole course game are ;
• Immediate acceptance of a game format that has already proven successful in reinforcing learning or behavior outcomes.
• Familiarity with the rules and roles involved in game play.
• Immediate focus on content in the form of game questions and situations.
• Readily available game accessories from previous play and easier setup for game play.
• Ease of updating to match your current curriculum requirements.
Read More : Learning Outcomes With Game Teaching Approach

The importance of effective teacher education for diversity

Increasingly multicultural societies have an impact on education and student achievement. Data from PISA 2003 and 2006 indicate that the educational challenges posed by family background, socio‑economic context, and migration status are not only strongly linked to student performance, they are the main determinants of student performance over and above the influence of the school.

School education must therefore seek to overcome socio-economic inequalities throughout societies while at the same time utilise the benefits that diversity brings to schools and classrooms. A successful programme treats diversity as a source of potential growth rather than an inherent hindrance to student performance.

One way to do this is to use teachers’ strength and flexibility. Of course, for this to be effective, teachers need to be given appropriate support and training. This volume stems from the OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI ) project, Teacher Education for Diversity (TED). This activity focused on how teachers were prepared for the increasing diversity in their classrooms, and aimed to identify the common challenges and benefits which countries are currently experiencing in their teacher education in response to increasing cultural diversity. The analysis focuses on:
• pre‑service teacher education
• in‑service teacher education
• training for teacher educators

This focus is deliberately broad as no matter how confident teachers feel about their pre‑service education, it cannot prepare them for the evolving challenges they will face throughout their careers. Teacher education should thus be a continuum of development that includes pre and in‑service training.

System change and development involves the support of and dialogue with a wide variety of actors, including the teacher educators. Crucially, effective professional development is on‑going and includes training, practice, feedback, and follow‑up support.

This introductory chapter sets the stage for this volume by focusing on the concepts, themes, and definitions central to the discussion of teacher education for diversity. It discusses different approaches to diversity in the
various OECD country contexts, explores reasons underlying these interpretations, and offers an analysis of how contextual factors have shaped country responses to increasing diversity in their classrooms and society.

It looks at key challenges facing OECD teachers and classrooms with respect to diversity and the evidence base available to guide policy approaches to this issue. It also introduces an online consultation with practitioners that was conducted by the CERI TED team in order to better understand the challenges and strategies of those in the field. It concludes with an overview of the publication.


Underlying the analysis of and contributions to this chapter and the volume more generally is an important transversal theme: the conception of diversity as complex but potential positive, both for educators and societies in general. This contrasts with an approach that views diversity as a problem that needs to be “solved”.

Defining diversity
It is important to state at the outset that “diversity” is a multi-faceted concept that can contain as many elements and levels of distinction as required. Work on the topic includes but is not limited to: age, ethnicity, class, gender, physical abilities/qualities, race, sexual orientation, religious status, educational background, geographical location, income, marital status, parental status and work experiences. In order to constrain the discussion and work of this volume to manageable levels and to recognise the specific focus on education, the definition of “diversity” for this work has been framed as: characteristics that can affect the specific ways in which developmental potential and learning are realised, including cultural, linguistic, ethnic, religious and
socio-economic differences.

Implicit in this definition is a distinction between diversity and disparity, wherein “diversity” per se is a neutral concept that is an inevitable reflection of the richness of human experience (i.e. one can be short, tall, lefthanded, right-handed, etc.). This it is thus distinct from “disparity”, in which diverse characteristics are associated with different outcomes or differential treatment. All OECD school systems inherently contain diversity of socioeconomic status, parental educational attainment and student abilities; what differs among them is how these differences are related to cultural, linguistic, ethnic and religious diversity, and the disparity associated with the various factors in particular societal and historical contexts.
Read More : The importance of effective teacher education for diversity

Capturing The Student's Mood

Capturing the mood of the student is essential to capturing a mind. Sometimes, even before setting up the course objective, the professor must first respond to students’ moods. For example, one day you might notice that the students are unusually tense. You become aware of a change in rhythm, or the way they entered class. Perhaps it is body tension: sitting with heads down; talking abruptly, loudly; and ignoring your presence. Maybe you overhear the chatter when the students walk in to the classroom.

You ask a question and learn, perhaps, that they just came from an incident in the previous class: a difficult midterm, the announcement of the new business 100K winner (for a startup), once, a (seemingly) unfairly challenged student. Perhaps, with only 10 minutes between classes, they will not have had time to digest news, or commiserate about an especially difficult test. (In some institutions where departments plan with each other, the professor will have a calendar showing all scheduled exams and papers and can anticipate student stress points.)

Instead of commencing that day with your material, begin explicitly with the students and their mood. Invite them to discuss, briefly, their fears, or the facts, or their excitement. The professor simply acknowledges this mood, hears what is going on, and, perhaps, reflects on it. This moment, in effect, reverses the physiological changes that had occurred in the students’ nervous systems. Their reactions have been quieted by their own examination and evaluation In a facilitator’s guide, it is a checking-in activity. By acknowledging the pressures they feel, or whatever they are feeling, and providing witness to their moods before putting them into the task at hand, the professor will help them put aside the previous incident. From brain research, we know, in effect, that hyperarousal takes over the bulk of a frontal cortex’s resources. Once freed up, the frontal cortex can focus on something else. And information obtained in the process of discovering your students’ moods will add to your understanding of their needs, your knowledge of who they are, as well as what else is occurring in your institution. It may even lead you to make new connections in your course to the students’ interests.

Motivation
Having attended to the mood, the professor will want to explore student motivation. It is not enough to tell students they need to know your subject matter, or that you have some unique slant on what they already know. Telling them the subject is useful is not even enough motivation for the student who already realizes its relevance. The student will need to understand two things: why the material is relevant and what knowledge they are missing.

When dealing with adult students who are professionals, this is especially important. Some courses may lend themselves more towards motivating learning than others. For example, a student’s interest in Futures and Options may be obvious. The student may know very little about the subject, and may be totally unfamiliar with the language. This makes it easier to get them to acknowledge that they are missing information.

However, they can guess scope and context in order to relate the subject matter to what they intuit or have experienced in their jobs as relevant. In some courses, Human and Organizational Behavior, for example,
students tend to take their knowledge for granted. The language is familiar; the solutions posed may sound like common sense—all adding to their sense of competence. Still other courses may seem unique but not fulfilling of a pressing need. One MBA required course, Conceptual Foundations of Business, essentially a course in business ethics, consistently received low course/faculty evaluations. But when alums were asked, three years out, which core course was of most value to them, this one received the highest ratings. The students had by that time experienced the ‘startle factor’—its relevance to their security and success. Still, involving the student during the semester proved difficult.

Motivating students to learn
To create an urgent need to learn is a little like trying to arouse someone from sleep. You want to increase alertness. Our brains attend to multiple stimuli, from within and without. ‘Novelty and reward are the two primary forces that direct the selection of where to focus our attention. The novelty system takes note of new stimuli. The reward system produces sensations of pleasure, assigning an emotional value to a stimulus, which also marks it for memory’ (A User’s Guide to the Brain, John J. Ratey). An ‘emotional’ value—key to long-term memory as well as motivating attention—means actively involving the students. The professor will help students ‘experience’ their needs, or help pinpoint more precisely where they are ignorant: through a case, a
discussion, a problem set, an example, or a role play. Recognizing in a graduate level course that some in the class are novices and others are experienced, the professor will acknowledge this difference implicitly or explicitly. The professor’s meta-communication, communication about the communication, to the knowledgeable will make clear the relevance of this material to them. Or, she will explain that for them this review and their involvement can be useful to those who are inexperienced. If possible, she will show how their knowledge might need refreshing or updating, or at least, invite them to bring their related practical experiences into discussion.

Motivating students can be simple and practical. One professor I know always brings extra copies of the assignment given out, and when asked about it by someone who missed the previous class, states, ‘Would I forget about you?’ In other words, her administration and housekeeping role is personal with her students. It is simple awareness, for example, that after 50 minutes of class, students need a stretch break. We can do many things that make it easier to help them manage the learning process.
Read More : Capturing The Student's Mood

Teacher as Facilitator of Learning

As we know, learning takes place when students create their own meanings. As John Dewey stated, ‘... no thought, no idea, can possibly be conveyed as an idea from one person to another. When it is told, it is, to the one to whom it is told, another given fact, not an idea.’ Students must wrestle with the facts and conditions to make them their own ideas. Therefore, the role of the teacher is to help students make content memorable and meaningful for themselves.

The intellectual origins of this approach are from such sources as John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, and David Kolb who were astoundingly prescient about the current research on learning and the brain. To fully disclose perspectives and practices, my years as a student of theatre and communication led to bringing theatre practices and experiential exercises to work with faculty and MBA students.

Finally, the foundation for facilitating learning is connection between student and professor. How else to make the classroom a ‘safe container’ for students to participate fully in their own learning except through connection?

Beginnings
Beginning at the beginning: the professor walks into the classroom, puts down her books, turns on the overhead projector and plugs in her computer. She pulls up the day’s agenda on the first page of her slides. At the top of the slide is a welcome to the class, instructions to sit with study teams, and a quote to alert them to today’s theme when they come in. She has answered their fi rst question: ‘What are we doing today?’ They come from another class, or from their jobs. Sometime in the last 48 hours, 90 per cent of the students prepared for today’s class. They turned to the assignment—read the case; prepared the problem set, and so on—and then once completed, set it aside. It is then wiped out of conscious memory, replaced by more immediate and ‘real’ demands of other courses, of work, friends and family. Now as they enter the class, reminded of homework, they retrieve it and hand it in without any thought to today’s lecture. The professor, on the other hand, is full of her topic. She has probably spent the last 30 minutes reviewing what took three to six hours to prepare. She turns away from the side of the classroom where she was chatting about an article she saw today on an employer of interest to two students who came in early.
(A colleague notes that he fi nds a ‘gift’ for his class almost every day in the news.)

How does our professor begin? The beginning is the most critical moment in the classroom. The students’ minds are fresh, relatively open, and willing to tune in. And creating a strong and early emotional connection is crucial—you want to awaken the students and their brains!
For example, one renowned professor at NYU Stern, Economist Robert Kavesh, uses a poem at the beginning of each class.

As she moves into the center, she senses that the class is relaxed and present. She waits in silence for fi ve to seven seconds while making eye contact with someone in each section of the class. The class is in session. Without a word to the class, she has established control. She opens with a provocative statement about her topic, and then she reviews today’s agenda and delivers the punchline: ‘By the end of class today, you will know ___; you will be able to do ___; you will feel ___ about this subject.’ The objectives have been established to anchor today’s work.

She began with the end in mind. By providing a proper frame for the course, the day, and the hour, she ensures that the students will be receptive to what she has to say. All this has been achieved through the use of space, timing, media (blackboard, PowerPoint slides, or an overhead) and the physical presence of the professor. We lead the class in response to our own and our students’ expectations about what should occur: the shape of the class, the structure of course material, and the timing of all elements within today’s context and the trajectory of the course. By remaining aware of these rhetorical elements to make conscious
our choices and our students’ needs, we can do more to manage expectations. We are balancing
the rhetorical decisions with the cognitive and physical needs of our audience.
To begin, the professor should answer the fi rst fi ve critical questions in the minds of every
audience during the introduction:
1. What’s the topic?
2. What’s your position on it?
3. Why is it relevant to me?
4. Why is it urgent?
5. Who are you to tell me this?

The answers to these questions convey more than the topic, they inform the listener of your perspective and your claim to authority. This opening declares what is at stake for both the professor and the student by citing relevancy and urgency for the listener. Now the student can engage with the problem by making associations with what they already know or believe about the topic. Then they can settle down to listen—perhaps suspending skepticism—but, one hopes, remaining open-minded enough to listen.

Such an opening makes the most of the high levels of attention at the beginning of a session. Attention is at its highest level within the first three to five minutes of class. The audience ‘attention curve’ shows us that the highest levels of attention occur at the beginning and at the end of a lecture. Making the most of that few minutes of fullest attention will help the student to organize and retrieve material later, moving it from short-term to long-term memory. For this reason and some other important ones, an indirect structure should be used sparingly. The deductive structure can be very useful to approach parts of the topic, but for the class as a whole, deliver the punchline at the beginning. Stating the objective upfront will enhance the student’s ability to follow your logic and your thinking while making associations vital to their own.
Read More : Teacher as Facilitator of Learning