Useful Strategies to Achieve a Meaningful Learning Experience

Are you an aspiring teacher? Carol Hawthorne, Instructor and Instructional Designer with Concordia's Centre for Teaching and Learning has these tips for planning and executing a meaningful classroom experience.

Share Responsibility with the Learners

Carol stressed that to create a meaningful learning atmosphere you have to centre on the learner and make them accountable for their learning process. Three tips for achieving this include:

1.     Include plenty of active learning activities

The instructor demonstrates the theory but then shifts the power so that the students can share their own take on the material. This can be done using active learning sequences that allow for more interactivity. Carol advised that “in 50 minutes of lecturing the power should shift at least twice to keep retention.” 

2.     Transition from expert to coach

The "sage on the stage" approach does not work.  While the instructor may (or may not) be the expert in the room, their role is not to tell the students about a topic but instead to coach the students in their exploration of the topic.  It is should never be a one way channel from teacher to students, but instead a network of knowledge and experience being shared among the students and the teacher. 

3.     Foster student responsibility

The instructor should think through some of the duties that students must be responsible for and how to achieve that accountability in the classroom. Such things include:

• Punctuality – addressing lateness but in a way that isn’t defensive, like asking “I see you arrived late, is everything ok?”
• Preparation – make expectations clear on what is coming up
• Participation – include content that caters to people’s interest and try implementing discussion groups
• Critical thinking – make it applicable and connect it to other disciplines
• Cultural Awareness – diversify content so it encapsulates different perspectives
• Attitude – give motivation by making relevant connections
• Task completion – make sure your deadlines are doable and that they have a clear purpose
• Competition – interject, ask what someone else is thinking about a topic
• Motivation – relates to attitude, include relevance and be interested in what you’re teaching
• Respectfulness – create a safe space by making it clear that everyone is here to speak about ideas not carry out personal attacks on one another. Carol mentioned that "as an instructor you have the power to show when you value what someone has to say." 

Create Interactions with Deeper Purpose

Along with considering the learning environment, instructors should also consider what effective learning facilitation looks like. For this we turn to Finn and Schrodt (2016) and their five factors involved in effective discussion facilitation, which are:

1. Affirm students discussion: let them know that you value their contribution and encourage them to participate.
2. Organize discussion: set up a foundational structure to guide the discussion so the students have an idea of how and why they should be talking about something.
3. Provoke discussion: give reasons to talk. For instance, bringing up points that can be debated.
4. Question students: make students think by asking open-ended, probing questions.
5. Debrief students: correct any misconceptions and have an end to the discussion.

Understand Learner Behaviour

Do you dread being faced with the situation where is student texting or sleeping in the first row, or having two students chatting in the back of the class while you are mid-presentation?  Carol recommends a few strategies to avoid these disruptive behaviours:

• Decrease anonymity by learning the names of students
• Seek feedback by observing how the class is going and changing up your teaching methods if you find the interest is fading
• Encourage active learning and equal participation by having activities or discussion groups
• Change the position of where you’re teaching to get students to pay attention to you
• Just stop talking if ever someone is speaking when you are and being disruptive 

Be Culturally Aware

The classroom management workshop finished off by speaking about cultural awareness and the importance of being mindful of the fact that everyone comes into a space with their own cultural perspectives. Possessing cultural intelligence is about bridging the gap between you and your learners. It can be developed by becoming more adaptable, listening and observing how students move through the environment and relate to the things they are speaking about, as well as being open to suggestions and advice. 

For more pointers about classroom management and instruction, attend GPTK703 - Graduate Seminar in University Teaching (All Disciplines). This workshop is especially useful for anyone who wishes to further their pursuit in academia by becoming a teacher.