Practicum in Teaching - Student Questions on Teaching Styles

What exactly is a practicum in teaching? This is the question a class explored during its first meeting in order to develop an operational definition/description.

A practicum involves teaching in a laboratory setting complete with assessment in order to enhance one's teaching skills.

Teaching involves motivating students to learn new information so as construct an understanding of the world that shapes how they live.

Employing these description, the students self-understanding of their instructional styles, development of an assessment instrument and teaching multiple times in class the objective is to enhance their skills and effectiveness as instructors.

In reviewing student questions and synthesizing them, two important questions emerge.
1. How does one effectively adjust her/his teaching style to enhance effectiveness?
2. What is the relationship between the type of content and the teaching style employed?

Reflections on the above questions will appear in the next couple of days.

Practicum in Teaching

The evening was spent prepping for a new course titled Practicum in Teaching and reflecting on the axiom what is good for our young people is good for our congregations. How are these two things related, you ask? First, it keeps the focus on student learning. This questions the ever present assumption that good teaching ensures learning. Rather the focus ought to be on student learning in a way that contributes to creating meaningful learning experiences, including lecture. Second, by focusing on student learning it forces the instructor to identify the learning base present rather than assuming students know more than they do. Third, it challenges one to keep things simple - one point illustrated/illumined in multiple ways.

Pushing students to consider "Who they are teaching?", "What they are teaching?" and "Why they are teaching?" is fun, especially when they are forced to confront these questions after teaching.