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Better Teaching for Better Outcomes
https://www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/WalkBeyondBorders2025MaireandLeo
I have been working with SeeBeyondBorders for many years both as a research collaborator and more recently as their volunteer academic advisor. SeeBeyondBorders is firmly focused on addressing the education crisis in Cambodia by enhancing teacher capability through in-service professional development.
Cambodian education has been in crisis since the awful killing regime of Khmer Rouge (1975-1979) and subsequent civil wars up to the turn of the millennium. These events devastated the knowledge base for teaching and learning across the whole country. Schools are still feeling the effects today:
- 65% of teachers in Cambodia do not have a formal teaching degree.
- By the age of fifteen, 97% of children are unable to demonstrate proficiency in literacy and maths.
Without substantial improvement of teaching and school leadership the education prospects for children in Cambodia are extremely bleak. Research has established a clear link between the quality of teaching and the educational outcomes for children. Our research on enhancing teaching in Cambodia means we have a good understanding of how what needs to be done. We now need to put in place the people and infrastructure to achieve this at scale.
You can help! Máire and I are participating in the WalkBeyondBorders to raise funds to support education in Cambodia. We kindly ask you to consider making a donation to support the work of SeeBeyondBorders. Every little helps to ensure a better future for the children of Cambodia and a better world for all of us!
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Letter from Cambodia
I have been in Cambodia for three weeks, mostly working with SeeBeyondBorders, an NGO working to develop teaching capability in early grade primary schools.
Cambodia is a country of contrasts. The people here are among the most friendly you will ever meet and yet they were subjected to a terrible genocide in the last decades of the 20th Century.
Typical rural dwelling in Cambodia. Note the house is raised above ground as protection against flooding. The shaded area underneath is usually where the family rest during the day. The countryside is flat, characterised by jungle, rice fields and Asian cattle wandering the roadsides.
And yet there is a vibrancy in the towns and cities like Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Battambang.
Everywhere you see the juxtaposition of the traditional and the modern. The banking system is good and you can order a tuk-tuk (a motorbike powered rickshaw) using a state-of-art hailing app on your phone (it’s called PassApp).
Cambodia is coming back to life as a tourist destination after the Covid pandemic. The numbers have not yet returned to their previous peaks but there is new energy at the tourist sites. The temples at Angkor Wat, Bayon, Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm and further out to Banteay Srei are all open to visitors.
It is difficult not to like the Cambodian people. They are welcoming and friendly and always willing to help. There is a wonderful calmness about the way they interact with you. Loosing one’s temper or becoming agitated is frowned upon.
While the traffic is chaotic you will not witness much road rage. People give way and concede rather than confront.
Great old trees grow over the temples in Ta Prohm. How does this happen? The answer is that seeds are eaten by birds and are then deposited on the temple walls. The motorbike is the main means of transport. There are motorbikes everywhere and it is quite common to see a complete family with two parents and two children on the same small bike. They don’t travel fast but everyone cuts corners and travels on the wrong side of the road!
The motorbike is the workhorse for famers, vendors and office workers alike. Motorbikes are also modified so they can pull a cart for crops or a people carriage as with the tuk-tuk.
The temple at Angkor Wat features on the Cambodian flag. It is a world heritage site and regarded as the biggest religious building in the world. Although Angkor Wat is the most widely known and visited it is just one of a collection of temples in the area around Siem Reap. They were built between the 11th and 14th centuries.
Most of the temples were originally erected as Hindu shrines however in many cases they were modified to reflect Buddhist traditions in line with the changing religious orientations of the rulers. They are exceptionally beautiful. One of my favourites is the Bayon Temple featuring many stone carved faces.
One of the many faces of the Bayon Temple The contrasts of Cambodia abound.
For centuries, these magnificent buildings of the ancient Khmer Kings were forgotten and overrun by jungle. They were only rediscovered in the last one hundred and fifty years.
The new Cambodian nation freed itself from the colonial shackles of the declining French empire in 1953. The country used these monuments to frame a new identity. The optimism was short lived as the American war in neighbouring Vietnam spilled over into Cambodia. The country was heavily bombed by the US and this, along with other factors, destabilised the country leading to its own civil war.
The appalling regime of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot began in April 1975. They took over Phnom Penh and declared a new social order. They emptied the city forcing everyone into the countryside with no exemption for the old and the sick. It was the beginning of a dreadful time with almost a quarter of the population lost through execution, famine or sickness.
The regime tried to establish a new economic order by forcing city people to work the land. Education was replaced by indoctrination. Anyone who had a profession or qualification was targeted for elimination.
People were forced to dig huge irrigation systems intended to re-engineer rice production and agriculture. It was a disastrous plan and led to famine and extreme poverty.
Communal ownership was compulsory with private property and ownership of goods and food outlawed. Transgressors were severely punished.
The country was not completely free of the Khmer Rouge until 1999.
Ta Prohm From those horrific times, Cambodia has experienced a remarkable recovery.
In my opinion the scars are still there under the surface, especially the psychological trauma. However, the burgeoning young population are full of energy and optimism.
Cambodia is a land of contrasts and the most noticeable of all, is overcoming despair with an optimism for the future.
This is especially true if we enhance education opportunities for Cambodian children. The dreadful legacy of the Khmer Rouge has led to the depletion of education and teaching expertise. This can and is being be rebuilt by Cambodians with the help and support of organisations such as SeeBeyondBorders. They need our support!
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International Women’s Day: Maria Edgeworth’s Ideas on Education
As today is International Women’s Day, I thought it appropriate to draw attention to the contribution of Irish woman and novelist, Maria Edgeworth to educational thinking in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.She is best know for her works of fiction such as Castle Rackrent but less well know is that she broke the mould of the day by writing a book on Practical Education in 1798.
There is much to admire in her thoughtful analysis of education and inquiry.
Although her work should be interpreted within the social historical context of the time.
The quotation below is a remarkable insight for its time and is as apt today as it was over 220 years ago.
A number of facts are often stored in the mind, which lie there useless, because they cannot be found at the moment when they are wanted.It is not sufficient, therefore, in education, to store up knowledge; it is essential to arrange facts so that they shall be ready for use, as materials for the imagination, or the judgment, to select and combine.
The power of retentive memory is exercised too much, the faculty of recollective memory is exercised too little, by the common modes of education.
Whilst children are reading the history of kings, and battles, and victories; whilst they are learning tables of chronology and lessons of geography by rote, their inventive and their reasoning faculties are absolutely passive; nor are any of the facts which they learn in this manner, associated with circumstances in real life.
[Maria Edgeworth Practical Education Pg 300]
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An Open Letter to Students Sitting Exams
Dear Writers,
I know this can be a difficult and anxious time for students sitting examinations in college. The exam system is far from perfect and there are many valid criticisms of its ‘fitness-for-purpose’ and no doubt we will continue to improve how we assess learning in the future.
However, like it or not you will soon be sitting in a controlled setting, for a limited time, to complete a previously unseen set of tasks related to your subject – in other words you will be taking an exam.
So, here is some advice from the other side of the examination process – that of the college teacher tasked with reading your response sheets and grading your outputs.
1 You are Writers – We are Readers
This is so obvious but it is often overlooked by students taking exams. As a writer you have responsibility to guide and direct your reader throughout your response. You know yourself that readers like structure, stories, and clarity. Have you ever tried to read a book and come away saying “I just couldn’t get into it” meaning the author was obscure or rambling too much? Exam script readers want to find evidence for which they can award marks. They want you to do well. Why make it difficult for them? Point out what you are doing and take them with you on the journey as you complete the task.2 Read the Question and Use it to Structure Your Response
This is another obvious and often overlooked guideline. You might think “obviously I’ll read the question – duh! I’m not that stupid”. Well, actually there are many situations in life where we overlook the obvious (as in “I just got to the airport when I realised I forgot my passport”). It so happens that in strange situations and times of stress we often overlook the obvious. And what are exams if not strange situations and times of stress? So please, please, read the full question or task. Parse it out into its constituent parts. Make a note of any verbs (discuss, compare, analyse, critique, solve, suggest, define etc.) and structure your response around the task – as in “(Hey reader!) this is where I ‘define’ – here is my ‘comparison’ and so on”.3 Give Yourself (and the Reader) Some Space
Sitting an exam is a unique experience and as such it gives rise to some strange but common behaviours. Perhaps it’s the time limit, or the realisation that this is a test or competition but some student responses take the form of an endless stream of consciousness – a kind brain dump. As a reader, we are confronted with page after page of unformatted, unstructured and hurried writing. Trust me it is a difficult task to wade through this material to find where to award marks. Perhaps the student has misidentified the assessment goal and replaced the actual task with some sort of word count intensity trial. In my opinion, you need to write in blocks (paragraphs) with plenty of ‘advance organisers’ (e.g ‘in the next section I will show how my analysis may be applied…’) and headings to indicate the structure of your response. One of the best ways of achieving this is to leave space between sections and to consider the overall layout of your response from a readers perspective.4 On Your Marks
Most exam papers provide a breakdown of the marking scheme – they might say “all questions carry 100 marks” and then indicate the proportion of the marks for each section (e.g. Part (i) 50 marks Part (ii) 25 marks and Part (iii) 25 marks). This is very useful information often overlooked by students. Your effort to complete Part (iii) of Question 1 carrying 25 marks must be weighed against the (perhaps easier) challenge of Part (i) of Question 2 worth 50 marks. Allocate your time and effort according to the marking scheme.5 It’s About Time
It’s amazing how many student papers end with statements like “I ran out of time so I could not answer Question 4”. The hidden meaning is “I really know this stuff but the time passed so fast that I did not get around to the final question”. Well perhaps your did and perhaps you did not know but in all events the examiner can only mark what is presented on the exam script. So time planning is crucial to good exam strategy. Generally speaking you will have ample time to complete your test and some more besides. Most tests are not about speed writing. Allocate specific amounts of time for each question and then leave time for revision and improvement. I suggest you apply 80% of the total test time to attempt the required number of questions and 20% for revision and improvement. And don’t attempt more than the required number of questions – revising and improving your answers is a better strategy and there may be specific rules about exceeding the required number of answers.Remember as readers, examiners and above all as teachers we want every student to do well. If you take the advice above into consideration your chances of exam success will improve.
Good Luck and
Remember the Reader!!
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Reflection, Teaching Practice and Learning from Experience
Teaching practice or placement is one of the hallmarks of initial teacher education. As with many professions, the novice teacher is expected to learn through experience in an authentic setting. Student teachers are often required to write reflections on they have learned in placement. Many struggle with the task – wondering what actually constitutes reflective writing and why there is so much emphasis on the process of reflection.
Many look to scholarship to provide answers and works by Dewey (1933, How We Think), Schön (1992, The Reflective Practitioner), Boud et al (1985, Reflection: Turning Experience Into Learning), Mezirow, (1990, Fostering Critical Reflection in Adulthood), Brookfield (2005, The Power of Critical Theory for Adult Learning and Teaching) and Moon (1999, Reflection in Learning and Professional Development) are all good resources to improve ones understanding of reflection.
However, knowing the characteristics or constituents of reflective practice is not the same as engaging in reflective practice. Indeed, I have read many essays by students who describe the underpinning theory of reflection but fail to grasp the challenge of practicing reflection.
It is important to realise that the foundation of teaching placement is learning from experience. We are in danger of missing the point if we emphasise ‘reflection’ per se rather than learning. It is more useful to regard reflection as part of the learning process – often an essential part.
A good starting point is to consider a basic model of reflection as a ‘a situation with me in it‘. This simple conceptual device has a lot of complexity behind it. Normally, when you think about an experience – say a lesson you taught – your first inclination is to remember from your own perspective. You would perhaps think something like ‘that went well – I could see the attentive looks of my students as I was explaining’. Good for you! But that’s not thinking about the situation with you in it! That’s your recall of your perceptions of the situation.
A basic model of reflection Notice the imaginative shift to look back on a situation and place yourself in the picture. W B Yeats’ poem Among School Children provides an example of this shift when he uses the line “the children’s eyes – in momentary wonder stare upon – A sixty-year-old smiling public man.”
This sense of looking at yourself – often through other people’s eyes (as in Brookfield’s Lenses) – is characteristic of reflective thought. Notice how powerful the simple device can be. I can reflect on events, interactions and complex experiences. Even ‘big picture’ issues like global sustainability can be subjected to reflecting thinking “There I am in the world and what am I doing to sustain it?”.
Teachers and many other professions involving human interactions need to engage in reflective practice. No two teaching events are the same. Unlike for example, piloting an aeroplane there is no procedural manual or situational checklists one can draw upon. Teachers develop their skills and knowledge through the ‘engine of experience’.
Accomplished teachers are expert reflective practitioners. They have developed not just the instrumental skills of teaching, but the much deeper capacity to know what skills matter and when to use them.
Reflective writing and journaling are useful for developing reflective capacity. This is especially true for novice professionals.
Here are some guidelines to get you going.
Reflective writing is about: Reflective writing is not about: A situation with me in it A situation from my perspective Questioning my assumptions Defending my actions Possibilities & alternatives Theory and practice Demonstrating how I came to know Demonstrating what I know Learning from experience Describing experience -
Reflections on 40 Years of Educational Technology
Completing the NCI National Forum for Teaching and Learning Index Survey caused me to reflect on my previous experiences with technology and education.
On an October afternoon in 1981 in Theatre L in UCD, I placed a coin on the flat surface of an overhead projector and adjusted the lens to reveal a perfectly focused black disc on the giant screen. With that simple action I began my professional relationship with educational technology.
Studying for the H-Dip in Education to qualify as a teacher, I was lucky enough to get part-time hours as an audiovisual demonstrator. The only downside was the cringe-worthy task of focusing the projector for the professor’s lecture to the jeers of my fellow students.
The Education Department in UCD had a studio and as demonstrators we were encouraged to take photographs and make audio and video recordings and programmes. (That’s me mixing audio circa 1983) Having spent the previous four years in the monotone and monochrome world of Physics, Maths, and ‘Maths Physics’, I was excited by the innovations of education and teaching.
That was a time when new ideas were emerging on how and what we should teach. The latest technologies such as slide projectors, tape recorders and movie reels were slowly finding their way into the classroom. We self-learned film and videotape production and explored new uses of audiovisual media for learning.
Throughout the 1980s, equipment became more sophisticated and we pushed the boundaries on what could be achieved in terms of education. This was particularly true for video, satellites and broadcast television.
The RTE archive features a news item from 1986 on a project involving a live satellite link to Jordan used to deliver lectures to engineers with return audio via a telephone link. I traveled to Amman to set up that side of the project. It’s worth a look to see the early manifestations of what is quite commonplace today.
https://www.rte.ie/archives/collections/news/21204395-ucd-link-to-jordan/
The Studio Room in the Education Department UCD – I am on the control desk and cameraman Ronan Fox in studio and King Hussain wishing the project well from Jordan. 
Yes that’s me circa 1987 with one of the first mobile phones in Ireland. In those days you could rent them by the day as part of location filming equipment All the while, evolving and emerging technology provided new possibilities for learning. As the Audio Visual Centre in UCD, we moved to a purpose built studio with a direct connection to RTE across the road. This was the beginnings of an era of educational television production.
With this development we were able to extend our on-going inquiry on new possibilities for learning. I trained as a TV director and had the wonderful task of devising, producing and directing over a hundred educational TV programmes.
Broadcast TV series such as The Story of Irish Expression, Women’s Studies, Know School Today, N to End and Remote Control brought new ideas and accessible insights to everyday lives.
This was a time before the Internet when video, broadcast and satellite TV were opening up new channels for learning. Soon the pivot point of the ‘technology revolution’ centred on the development of the World Wide Web.
In 1997 we introduced a new live TV series called Learnnet which ran for three years on RTE. The programmes captured the excitement of the early days of the Internet and the realisation that new technology would play an important role in school, college and workplace learning.
On location for an Archaeology programme in the Ollscoil TV Series.
From left to right – Mary Harkin (Researcher), Sally Reynolds (Presenter), Dr Rhoda Kavanagh (Archaeologist Expert Contributor), Kevin Cooney (Sound), Leo Casey (Director) and Declan McCaughy (Camera)One series had a significant impact on my thinking on adult education: Right to Learn pushed the boundaries of power and access to mass media. Throughout the programmes, unemployed people voiced their experiences of the world through drama and expression. The emancipatory nature of the production process provided powerful insights on the transformative potential of learning from experience.
I was also involved in several broadcast series for adult literacy such as Read Write Now and the Really Useful Guide to Words and Numbers. Insights from these series also shed a light on adult’s motivation for learning and the lasting damage of negative school experiences.
Looking back I now realise that the current emphasis on ‘Teaching and Learning in the Digital World’ is the most recent manifestation of a trend that originated back in the 1980s. Essentially digital media are tools of inquiry in the world. The range and possibilities available today influence who, how and what we teach.
Reflecting on what I learned over many years working at the intersection of technology and learning I can identify some qualities and trends that point to the future.
Digital media will continue to provide access points for learning. From the early days of educational TV to the live Internet lectures of today – options and entry points for learning continue to expand.
Digital media projects and productions are powerful aggregators of learning. The shift from specialist subjects to projects and broad themes will continue as Digital World educators grapple with big questions such as sustainability and social justice – essentially how the world works and how to make it a better place.
Digital media democratise education by providing open access to the discourse of ideas. Of course there is a dark side to this and we’ve still much to learn on how to work together in dialogue. But we have come a long way from the times when public discourse was available only to academic and broadcasting elites.
Digital media will continue to afford new ways to engage and understand our world. Our capacity to capture, simulate and interact through digital devices provides new ‘ways of knowing’. The primacy of the written word has not been overturned but it is now complimented by a rich array of visual, aural and multi-sensory representations of our world and ideas.
As I write these words on a small laptop, to a file stored in the cloud, to a post shared with the world, I remember that day focusing the projector to begin my journey to Teaching and Learning in the Digital World.
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Some Educational Insights from Confucius
While travelling in Vietnam I visited the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. Built in 1070, it is dedicated to Confucius sages and scholars. There are many beautiful and interesting features to the site. It is one of the oldest establishments dedicated to learning and scholarship. It is a place of worship as well as a place of learning. The design and layout reflect the ideals of Confucian education, introduced by the Chinese into Vietnam more than a thousand years ago.
Temple of Literature Hanoi One of the biggest misconceptions of the Confucian approach to education is that it promoted rote learning and didactic teaching to the neglect of deep understanding, critical thinking and individual autonomy.
Examination of the writings from Confucius and his followers reveals a much richer conception of teaching and learning. Many of the ideas espoused in the texts are remarkably relevant in today’s complex digital world.
Confucius (Kong Fuzi) lived from 551 to 479BC and his influences continue to this day in his home country of China and in many other countries across Asia including Vietnam.
Difficulties with translations, changing political climates and the arrogant primacy of ‘western’ ideologies have meant the full depth of Confucian thinking on education has not been appreciated. Recently however, new translations and revised scholarship have opened our thinking on the Confucian approach to education and its relevance to the modern world.
Confucius Shrine in Temple of Literature Hanoi There are two main works in the Confucian canon that address education and learning. The Analects (Lunyu) comprises a collection of sayings and teachings from Confucius’ life and Xueji (Record of Learning).
It is the Xueji that perhaps is only now beginning to be fully appreciated. It is a short chapter in the Book of Rites (Liji) one of the Five Classics of Confucianism. It is from this source that one of the most insightful passages deals with the strategies for skillful teaching:
XIII. [When] a junzi (noble or exemplary person) knows the reasons for teaching to flourish and fail, [such a person] can then become a teacher. Therefore a junzi teaches by leading (yu): [lead] the way [of learning] but does not drag [the learners];
strengthen but does not suppress [them]; open [their minds] but does not arrive [at the conclusion on their behalf].
[To lead] the way [of learning] without dragging [the learners] will result in harmony [between the teacher and learners];
to strengthen [the learners] without suppressing [them] will result in ease [of learning for them];
and opening [the learners’ minds] without arriving [at the conclusion on their behalf] will result in [reflective] thinking.
[A teacher who produces] harmony, ease and [reflective] thinking may be called skillful in leading.
This translation as well as the clarification in square brackets is from Tan, C. (2015). Teacher-directed and learner-engaged: Exploring a Confucian conception
of education. Ethics and Education, 10(3), 302-312 (the line spacings are inserted by me to facilitate comprehension)There’s a lot more useful insight in the Xueji on the subject of teaching and learning. One of my favourites is on the subject of ‘bad teaching’. The lament here on what is wrong with some teachers is still very relevant today. Consider for yourself:
X. The teachers nowadays [only] chant the [texts on the] bamboos, with much talking and asking of questions. [They aim to] advance rapidly but disregard [the learners’ ability to] accomplish [the learning].
[The teachers] are not sincere in making others [learn], and do not give [their] utmost to [consider the learners’ individual] talents when teaching them.
[The teachers] carry out measures that are contrary [to what is right], and make requests that are not realistic [for their learners]. In such a case, [the learners] detest [their] study and resent [their] teachers; [they] are embittered by the difficulty [of learning], and are unaware of [its] benefits.
Even if [they] were to complete their study, [they would] certainly lose [what they have learnt] quickly. These are the reasons why teaching does not produce [its desired] results!
Also from Tan, C. (2015). Teacher-directed and learner-engaged: Exploring a Confucian conception of education. Ethics and Education, 10(3), 302-312Great insight from two thousand four hundred years ago still very applicable today!
Gardens around the Temple of Literature Hanoi -
College Teaching: How to let go of PowerPoint
It started as a means to an end. You wanted to do well in class but felt you couldn’t cope without additional support. “Don’t worry” you told yourself, “I can manage. I’ll just use a few. I’m not really dependent on them.”
So you start with five, and then it becomes ten and before you know it your on 30 or more slides per class. Deep down you know you’re addicted.
College teachers – you may have PTS! You may have full-blown PTS! Powerpoint Teaching Syndrome.
Here are five indications to help your self-diagnosis of PTS:
- Preparation for each class is devoted exclusively to preparing powerpoint slides. You even say things like “that’s the first five lectures in the bag” as you complete the slide banks.
- You consider cancelling the class if the projector is broken or unavailable.
- You read all the text from each slide.
- Your rush through the last ten slides saying something like “I don’t have time to go through all of this so here are the slides”.
- Your students explain they won’t be in class next week but they will read the slides instead.
- You’re constantly asking other teachers for their slides.
If you answered ‘yes’ to more than one the above statements then you probably have PTS. If all of the statements are true then you are in deep trouble and should get professional advice on how to improve your teaching.
Don’t worry there is a cure for PTS and in many cases with proper treatment it can be completely eradicated. Here are some tips to help wean yourself off the dependency:
- Build in-class student questions and activities into your slides –that way you focus on what the student does rather than the ‘delivery of content’.
- Use the ‘B’ button in slideshow (on Powerpoint) –that way you can make the screen go black and it takes the focus away from the slide and on to what you say or do. Press B again to resume.
- Place additional content in the notes sections of PowerPoint rather than on the main slide. Notes can be helpful for student revision without cluttering up the presentation.
- Try to make every slide work hard for its place. Ask yourself ‘Is it really necessary? What purpose does it serve and how are students expected to use it for learning?’
- Some functionality such as animation can work well for explaining particular concepts, at other times animations are useless distractions. Make student learning the focus of every decision you make and your overall design approach.
- In class, talk about a topic then reveal the slides. That way you are giving the students an opportunity to construct their own understanding and then subsequently, they can compare and review through the imagery or text you present.
In short
Make your slides serve your teaching not the other way around.
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New to college teaching – here are some tips to get you going.
Well done! You’ve been appointed to teach a college module and you’re really looking forward to the experience. You know your topic and whilst you’re very confident about your expertise in your subject or discipline, you’re a little more apprehensive about your ability to teach.
Like many other competences, effective college teaching involves a mix of knowledge, skills and disposition. There is certainly a continuum between the novice teacher (albeit subject expert) and the more experienced and accomplished teacher.
The good news is that you have a lot going for you from the start. Subject expertise is a necessary but not a sufficient qualification for good teaching. Your in-depth understanding of your topic is a stable foundation upon which to build your repertoire of abilities as a teacher.
The first tip is really an imperative and it’s perfectively captured in the phrase “It’s not all about me”. Many novice teachers naturally focus on their own performance. They prepare meticulously for what they will cover in each lecture. They design an extensive bank of slides for each class and they organise tasks for the students to complete between each session.
Sounds like ideal preparation! And yes, all teachers should be encouraged to prepare well and to think about the tasks the students need to accomplish in order to build their knowledge. However, the missing ingredient in ‘all about me’ teaching is the focus on the student.
You need to start and finish and at all points in-between stay focused on student learning as the goal and purpose of teaching.
Ask yourself the following questions and then devise strategies to glean the answers
- what is the current level of knowledge and understanding among the students of your topic?
- are there potential flaws in their pre-existing comprehension?
- how confident are the students in their abilities to learn this topic?
- is there a range of abilities in the class, if so where is the baseline and where is the optimum?
- how long will it take to learn and how much effort will be required?
- do the students know what is expected of them and what kind of assessments they will undertake?
- do the students know what to do if they can’t follow the material?
- how will you know how well the students’ knowledge is progressing as you teach the module?
The questions above could be arranged as a checklist for your preparation. It’s ok to write ‘not yet known’ beside any of the questions provided you have a plan in place as to how to get the answer.
So, now you see the difference. Your first class may involve some questions and answers. Some group work to gather insights on prior knowledge. Some instructions on how to approach the topic and how and where to get support.
You might be nervous as a first time teacher but you can also be sure that your students will also be apprehensive. By shifting the focus from your performance to their learning you take much of the the angst out of the situation.
The purpose of teaching is to bring about learning. Stay with that idea and you will always be an effective teacher.
