The primary reason why I have adopted this format is a desire that students learn and participate in their own education. Few activities are less inspiring than listening to the drone of a lecturer more interested in "covering the material" than communicating with the audience. The least tapped learning resource is most often the student mind. Beginning in early elementary years students learn that quiet acceptance of the "superior" wisdom of the teacher is the acceptable road to academic success. By the time students reach college, most have become quite adept at sitting in class, taking some sort of notes, and cramming for exams. Consequently, this approach will produce a certain amount of dis-ease (the first step to learning). However, once released to the active mode of learning it is hard to stuff them back into the complacent acceptance mode. The desire is that they become more demanding and there by become students rather class attendees.

This approach has worked for me in the past, which no guarantee of the future, and is offered only to present an alternative/additional approach to what you may be currently using.

• BE EXCITED : Enjoy teaching. Tell your students you enjoy teaching and show it. Tell your students that You and They are joint partners in this learning process. This means that you will prepare fresh notes before each class, each time you teach.

• NO BIRDWALKING: Know what you want them to learn, encourage discussion but retain sufficient control to keep the class focused.

• PREPARE !! Read everything you assign, the references to the assigned reading, and tangential information that will bring life to your exposition. Commit to a fresh and new preparation for EACH class period.

• OUTLINE : Just as in a lecture format; have an outline of material to be covered for the day: 3 to 6 points in 50 minutes, potential questions, exposition of material NOT in the text. Pass out the outline at the END of the class period - or better yet put it on "the Web".

• INCLUDE STUDENTS: Teach students HOW to prepare for your class. This is a different approach than most students have previously experienced; therefore, help them get started right: how to read a book; outlines; useful note taking schemes; post-class outlines.

• KNOW YOUR CLASS: Be very sensitive to each student. Some may rapidly sink their teeth into this format where others may be traumatized by it. Therefore, your questions and the manner in which you ask them are the key to "bringing" each student along at their own pace.

• READ: read, read, read!!, you will be surprised how "tangential" and "unrelated" materials will fit into your expositions, illustrations, and discussions to make a point or catch their interest.

• IMPROVISE : Look for new things and new approaches. When things don't go as planned, as the modified old saw goes, "When given lemons make a lemon chiffon pie, anyone idler can make lemonade".

This page is authored and maintained by:

Dr. J.E. Partridge, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

jpartridge1@unl.edu