“When the task is done beforehand, then it is easy. If you do it hurriedly and carelessly, it must be hard.” (Cleary, 1989, p. 5)
Learning from Experience
Recall your previous experiences teaching this topic and try to repeat the good ones.
- If the class has gone “well,” what made that happen? If you or the students were unhappy with the class session, what was not working? What might have worked?
- Are you doing anything different today than in the past? If so, pay special attention to how students respond and ask several for their opinions after class.
- Do you need to slow down? Are you rushing? Remember that more is not necessarily better and that rushed material may not provide the depth or foundation you hope for.
- Have you previously experienced this classroom as depressing or ill-suited to your teaching? Can you be assigned a different room?
Beware of Habituation
Most teachers teach to their strengths. The entertainer tells stories and lectures to an enthralled class; the cheerleader uses group discussion, moving from group to group of students, supporting their work and urging them on; and the perfectionist spends hours on brilliant, detailed (usually too much so) PowerPoint slides. No matter how you teach, keep in mind that students will habituate to your presentation method. Variety is the spice of good teaching. Change the pace and your teaching style.
- If you typically use PowerPoint, do something else for a class period once in a while.
- If you always stand in the front center of the room, move somewhere else.
- If you use an overhead projector, sit somewhere in the class and have one of your students write important points on the overhead as you get to them. (Students love this and a friend can take notes for them.)
- Tell a relevant story from your own life that might evoke students’ stories as well.
- If you are a lecturer, mix in some group work once in a while.
- Is it time for a demonstration, perhaps including students?
- Seize the moment. If the weather is getting nicer and students are wearing shorts, does their behavior relate in any way to course content (e.g., conformity, hopefulness)? Once, when teaching about anorexia, one of us asked a female student athlete what she weighed. She would not answer. Every man in the class volunteered to publicly state his weight. Her refusal led to a discussion of the cultural pressures women experience about the power and privacy of weight and body measurements, making it clearer how eating disorders may arise and be maintained.
Students
Classes have the tendency to blend and blur together. One class goes well, whereas another is not as much fun to teach as usual. What often gets lost is the audience (Gleitman, 1984): the students we are teaching, who are individuals with differing needs, problems, and successes.
- Which students that day may need attention? Who is a member of an athletic team, for example, who merits recognition for the team’s performance?
- What students say little or nothing at all in class? Is there someone in particular you want to ask, “How is the semester going?” before class?
- Is there an issue that must be dealt with directly (e.g., student performance on an exam, class attendance, students’ lack of preparation for class or lack of questions)?
- Have any students come to the office to talk about their academic performance? Do any of these students need feedback or support as you pass back exams or papers? Are kudos called for?
- Have students approached you about personal matters — their own or a family member’s illness, a friend who recently attempted suicide, family problems, and so forth? Do you need to check on how they are doing and see if they need to talk with you more?
- Have you ever gotten to class early and sat in the last row to talk with the students who are always the furthest away during class sessions? Entering their physical world is interesting and is often gratifying to them.
- Do you begin the class period with course content or other matters? Do you need to ask the students as a whole how the course is going? Are there ways you could establish a sense of common purpose and “togetherness” in the course (i.e., a sense of community)?
Conclusion
Preparation for class sessions is a habit worth cultivating. We hope it serves you as well as it has served us.
Source: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/preparing-for-a-class-session
Editor: Simon Peel
