2016 Annual Conference

Good teaching that produces effective outcomes requires the teacher to have knowledge of the subject matter and the ability to use tools and methods to engage all of the students. To be effective, that material must be presented using methods that acknowledge and respect all learning styles and levels of attention.

This workshop has direct application to anyone who in involved with the educational process or is a supervisor of educators. All of us who provide instruction want tools information about current theory and practice and look for tools to improve understanding. The goal of my presentation is to give examples, activities and tricks to catch attention, create better connections and make learning enjoyable. In the process of doing this, I will relate this information to experiential learning theory.

I am an advocate for using experiential teaching methods because It entails using all the senses in the delivery. There are people who are visual learners, auditory learners and tactical. If the instruction is slated in only one of these directions, the other groups are missed. When we use an experiential approach, all learning styles are respected, and greater understanding is achieved. In the experiential approach, the important information is presented and followed by an activity that relates to the information in the lesson. During the activity, the instructor acts as more of a facilitator ensuring safety and encouraging as they work to solve the problem or accomplish the task. In any of these activities or tasks failure is an option as much is learned in whatever the outcome. The real teaching comes after the activity as the instructor will process the results. Three main questions are asked. They are:
1. What: What did we just do?
2. So What: How does this relate to the topic of the information presented
3, Now What: Now that we know this how can we use it?

Lastly, the learning is applied back to the presented information.