sey068

I remember when I joined the university about 17 years ago (it feels like only yesterday!) I was given the task of handling a laboratory class. I already had some experiences as a graduate assistant during my time as a Ph.D. student so it was not very difficult. I think I did quite a good job designing new experiments, interacting with the students and helping them with the experiment and marking the lab report. During the first few months, I had to attend induction courses including one or two sessions on teaching and learning. I don’t think I learn much on the learning theory or pedagogy then but I still remember a session where I had to give a mock lecture that was recorded and later commented by the facilitator. That was how much the training I received to become a teacher (lecturer) and I was supposed to be ready to carry out the task of educating the adult students. Without sufficient knowledge in pedagogy and teaching techniques, I was forced to use my intuition and developed my...

I always share my enthusiasm with my colleagues about my teaching approaches and very often one of the issues raised during our discussion is “spoon-feeding” or “over teaching”. “Don’t you think you are spoon-feeding your students by putting your hand-outs, notes, PowerPoints slides, etc. for them to freely download?” “Don’t you think we over teach our students?” – These are the questions commonly asked by my colleagues and also when I give a presentation related to teaching-learning issues. Hmm....actually these are difficult questions to answer because to me there is no fine line or clear demarcation as to what constitutes spoon-feeding or over teaching and what is not. Well, this is what the dictionary says about spoon feeding in the context of teaching-learning: " If you spoon-feed someone, you do everything for them or tell them everything that they need to know, thus preventing them from having to think or act for themselves. There is a tendency to spoon-feed your pupils whe...

" Teachers should not be predictable in their teaching practices or approaches – in fact, in my view all great teachers are not predictable because they always surprise and excite their students with different “tricks of the trade” up their sleeve " - A. A. Karim . In this posting I will share some of the 'open secrets' of being great teachers and their attributes that provide the environment for teaching excellence. In fact, I put the original title as "Open secret recipes of great teachers" but I changed my mind and instead use the current title. The main points actually are based on the article “ The Quest for Excellence in University Teaching ” written by Sherman and others [1]. It was published more than 20 years ago but I think the idea is still very much applicable and relevant when we talk about the characteristics of teaching excellence, be it in school or in higher education.  Some might argue whether it is still relevant to talk about teaching exc...

Here I'm just sharing Carmine Gallo's presentation he posted on the Slideshare. Carmine Gallo is the author of two international best-seller books, " The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience " and " The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs ", which reveals the principles that have driven Steve Jobs’ success and that can help readers achieve incredible breakthroughs. I have not read the books but looking at the points presented in the slides, I'm sure the books contain wealth of good tips and strategies for speakers/presenters. For those who's doing a presentation is your bread and butter, then I would highly recommend you to spare a few minutes of your precious time to view the slides. If you can't make it, below I have extracted some important quotes and points from the whole presentation (verbatim). " A person can have the greatest idea in the world. But if that person can't convince enough...

" Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime .” This phrase is simply mean that having a good job is better than giving someone a handout. This is an inspiring story of Dr Muhammad Yunus ( read his biography ), the recipient of 2006 Nobel Peace Price for his creation, the Grameen Bank , to help the poor people in Bangladesh. Grameen Bank provides small loans through a micro-credit (small loans for self-employment) scheme to millions of poor families in Bangladesh to start and grow their own business. Since its establishment the Grameen Bank has helped almost half of them work their way out of poverty.The repayment rate was said to be more than 98%. " You cannot get a dollar without a dollar in your hand ", he said. Dr Muhammad believes the concept of Grameen can end world poverty: " There is no reason why poverty should be here. This is a rich country - 120 million energetic, hardworking, intelligent people. The...

“ Technology doesn’t inherently improve learning; it merely makes possible more effective pedagogy, and only when it is consonant with an instructor’s educational philosophy and beliefs and reinforced by other components of the total course ” – Educause Research Bulletin , 2004(3), 2004.  No, no…I’m not talking about mobile learning here but rather on using mobile phone in a classroom for interactive learning. First, let’s picture this scenario: You walk into the classroom with high spirit and full of enthusiasm, eager to start your lecture. As usual, you have prepared well in advance and you have visualised in your head how you would deliver the lecture. You start the lecture and after 10 or 15 minutes you pause and ask, " Does anybody have any questions? " More often than not, nobody raises a hand. “Hmm…sure everything clear? ” (yeah…nodding…). If you ask a specific question, “ Can anyone give one example of shear-thinning food?" , perhaps only one or two students woul...