Matthew (& interested others) -
I agree with Patrick that one very important factor is class size. If,
indeed, you have only very large classes (as I'm sure Zimbardo does for
Intro), the interest-generating style may be the best way to go. Students
in large classes can feel quite isolated from the instructor and the
flashier kinds of demos and uses of A-V tend to draw students in and hold
their attention even if they are physically distant from you.
If, on the other hand, you are lucky enough to get reasonable class sizes,
it's my belief that you not only have many more options, but you should
really sieze the opportunity to develop them. In my experience, any group
of students can benefit from teaching that comes from many different
modalities and classroom experiences. I use single-student demonstrations,
whole-class discussion, intense lecturing, small-group brainstorming,
videos w/notetaking guides, and debates. Not only do the students
experience psychology in lots of different ways (and ways that I believe
best enhance learning of particular topics) but I get the chance to
continually work on my teaching "toolbox" (to use a very worn-out but
nevertheless useful term). If you are just starting your teaching career,
that developmental work can be extremely useful.
Good luck in your new position -
Johnna Shapiro
At 7:58 AM -0600 3/18/99, Patrick O. Dolan wrote:
...SNIP...
>Maybe this philosophy or style is well suited for a large (several
>hundred in my case) class where more traditional interactive/discussion
>lecture styles are not as possible. McKeachie (Teaching Tips)
>discusses different approaches to teaching when the class is large
>- my experience (and it sounds like yours) is that this approach may
>be a good one. Will you be teaching a large class or more reasonably
>sized one? I wonder if it would be so effective with a class of 25.
>
>Good luck, and congratulations on the new position!
>
>Patrick
>
>
>
>At 12:04 PM 3/17/99 -0800, Matthew Prull wrote:
>>TIPSters:
...SNIP...
>>
>>What do the members of TIPS think about the talk-show vs. traditional
>>approaches? What are the pros and cons of these two philosophies of
>>teaching? How to best teach psych 1?
>>
>>Cheers,
>>
>>Matthew Prull
>>
Johnna K. Shapiro, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Illinois Wesleyan University "Thousands of years ago,
Bloomington, IL 61702 cats were worshipped as gods.
309/556-3164 or 556-3803 Cats have never forgotten this."
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http://titan.iwu.edu/~jshapiro =^..^= Anonymous
