What Students Notice

What did you notice about the better teachers that you had when you were a student? It was probably a just a few things such as:

• Organized
• Enthusiastic
• Good communicators
• Easy to understand
• Practical
• Connected the material to your world

At the end of the course you probably said to yourself, “That was a good course. I actually learned something.” Unfortunately, there were probably too few of those types of teachers.

If this is what you noticed as a student, then one can ask the question, “Do I try to do this as a teacher?” If not, why not? If so, great. What methods do you use? What kind of improvements have you made? Do you share your methods with other teachers?

I think about the attributes that I want students to recognize in me and in my teaching. I don’t want them to think of me as disorganized, unenthusiastic, a poor communicator, someone who is difficult to understand, overly focused on theory, disconnected from their world, and, worst of all, does not know or cannot teach the material.

I have found the Lean teaching pedagogy to be exceptionally helpful in improving my teaching so that most students think of me in ways that I would like them to think of me. But, more importantly, it delivers a better and more memorable learning experience for students.