Page 17 - Yanai ebook

יאני סרפ לארשיל יגולונכט ןוכמ - ןוינכטה ןוספלוו ש”ע תימיכ הסדנהל הטלוקפה | ןיול לאינד ’פורפ • Clearly defined instructional objectives: Not only must course objectives be well-defined, it goes without saying that once defined, they should not be changed for the duration of the course In my experience, students will agree to take on challenges defined up front, however tough they appear to be at first. But once they were told, at the beginning of the semester, that they are to “shoot for the moon”, they will not take kindly to being told that the target has been moved to Mars. It is also recommended that objectives be arranged together with a support system, so that the average student will be able to bridge the gap from one objective to the next. • Who does what? Every participant in my courses has tasks. As the lecturer, I make the rules, define the objectives, prepare the teaching materials and make them available in a timely manner for the students and I make the first-pass delivery. But my main job as a teacher is to motivate students to take control of their own learning. My assistants run the active tutorials and serve as “glue” between me and my students. The latter should be actively engaged in their own learning continuously during the semester. • Preparation, preparation, preparation... All participants in the course should prepare for the activities of every week: The lecturer should review the course material and decide order-of-priority. The assistant, supervised by the lecturer, should prepare examples for demonstration in exercises and review homework. The students should ideally be requested to review the materials to be covered in next week’s activity. • Ask questions, listen to the answers and give every student the opportunity to participate. And be tough, but fair. The best way for a student to learn is by being active in the classroom. For that to happen in class, the lecturer should give students time to respond, and be generous to them and supportive of them. My experience is that generally, students will accept tough requirements as long as the lecturer is fair about how he assesses their efforts. • Paradigm shift : Active tutorials. For students to master a course, they need to apply themselves to independently work on problem sets covering the course material. Traditionally at the Technion, this has been left to the student to do on his own at home. A much better alternative is to convert the exercise sessions into “active tutorials”, where students working in teams solve homework in class time. This ensures that: all students who participate in the sessions are actively involved in working out problems; assistance can be provided; students, assistants and the lecturer all receive feedbacks in a timely fashion. In every course in which I had switched the exercises to this mode, there has been a significant improvement in the performance of the students in the final exams. What are my success criteria? • Evidence of class interest and student curiosity. The degree to which this is achieved can be measured by the number of students who engage me in class discussions, either in class or by e-mails. • Getting the student motivated and working independently. This is the reason why I would recommend that lecturers participate in active tutorials. One gets to see one’s students actually dealing with the course materials and working exam-level problems on their own. • Evidence that the vast majority of students pass the course well. The very able students in class will do well in any course, irrespective of how the lecturer performs. Unfortunately, the least able students might have great difficulties, however well the lecturer performs. That leaves a large number of students in the middle, whose performance can be significantly enhanced if the lecturer takes the time and effort to motivate them. That is one of the yard-sticks by which I measure the degree to which I had succeeded. 15