Trying New Strategies

Learning about the various teaching methodologies has been interesting for me.  I've never thought of it before but I would say that my default teaching methodology is as an Interactive Lecturer - I think I fall into quite a common group with that.

The 2 strategies I decided to try were Collaborative and Direct Instruction.  I introduced collaborative by asking students to work together on a wiki to produce a specimen answer to past exam papers of an exam they are sitting in January.  Each student had to write an attempted answer on one question and then edit and improve the work of their colleagues.  What I found interesting was that although nearly all students did "their" question, nobody did the editing until I chased them up about it.  They almost seemed quite surprised when I checked up on it but once they realised I was serious, they participated.

This led me to decide to use Direct Instruction in one element of the course- specifically on coaching students how to use the various aspects of moodle.  I realised after talking to students that for many, using an LMS was a very new experience for them.  One student told me she did not want to "make a fool of herself".  I found this very enlightening and decided to use DI to talk people through the process of using Moodle for contributing to a discussion. 

I think that what I have realise from this is that very often, my "natural" style is just my comfort zone.  I need to consider the best approach to effectively deliver the material for students to learn.  It has actually made my planning more complex, but in an enjoyable and stimulating kind of way.