Ever found yourself in the shoes of a course designer, pondering the best way to deliver information to your students? Were you faced with limited software and hardware resources, leaving you scratching your head? If you nodded along, then you're in for a treat with this post!
Surprisingly, the key to effective classroom instruction actually has nothing to do with fancy technology. Seriously! Some of the most impactful lessons I have ever been taught were on a bar napkin or a whiteboard, without MS PowerPoint or flashy videos involved. In fact, thinking back, it wasn’t about how it was presented; it was the lesson itself that stuck with me. If you wanted to go ahead and take an exploration of memory like I did, take a moment and think back to your most memorable lesson that you have been taught… what was it? Now, how was it taught? What do you remember more?
"...explain the why"
So, what is the secret sauce? The holy grail of effective classroom instruction? It’s simpler than you think… explain the why. That’s right, the only thing that you have to do to make your classroom instruction effective is to explain the why. Now, there are a lot of you that are thinking I am crazy at this point. Surely that can’t be the only way John. I am here to tell you, it is.
You can put all of your time and effort into making an amazing presentation. But if you can’t explain the why, nobody will remember what you are attempting to teach them. You can put all of your time and effort into delivering an amazing speech (that word was used for a reason) but if you don’t explain the why, they won’t remember. Are you catching on yet?
Here is my straightforward method to designing impactful classroom instruction sessions:
1. Start with the why.
If you can clearly understand the reasoning behind the classroom instruction and can articulate that to your students clearly and efficiently, the hardest part of designing your class is complete. My personal technique is to open my classes up with a “who I am” moment if the class is unfamiliar with me or if I am unfamiliar with the class. Why do I do that? I do it to establish initial credibility with my students. I can tell them who I am and where I am from and what I have done. I keep this to less than 30-45 seconds. I then immediately transition into a “why should you pay attention” portion of the class. Going back to the rule of thirds, the intent of the why is to take the “bottom 2/3” of the class and bring them each up one level. (see that blog post here)
The why is the most important aspect for an adult learner, but I would also postulate that it is extremely important for children as well. However, for the adult, this portion of a class articulates to them how the skill you are teaching can be immediately applied to their every day lives. If you don’t have a good why, then there is no point in teaching the class.
2. Develop the scenario and explain it.
The next portion of your course should focus on the scenario that the skill or skills are to be used in. Again, beyond the why, this adds context to the why you just explained. This scenario has to be realistic and believable to your class. The best things I have found to use are real-world examples.
3. Break the knowledge into manageable chunks of information.
George Miller (1956) proposed that there is a limit to the capacity of short-term memory. His book “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information,” suggests that this capacity limit is around 7 “chunks” of information. He further defined that a chunk of information is centered around the idea of a organized unit of information that can be processed as a single entity. That is an important thing to remember here. Steps 1 and 2 have led you to this moment.
We now must organize our class into chunks that all relate to one another in an attempt to make them meaningful and presented as a single entity. Why are we doing that? So that we can teach concepts that transfer from short to long-term memory faster by providing a near knowledge transfer vice a far knowledge transfer. This is a fundamental idea in cognitive psychology and is backed by being applied to various fields of instruction.
No matter how you chunk the information together, ensure that you keep grounding the instruction back into the reality of the scenario that you presented in step 2. That should look like a new concept or idea being introduced, and then a check back to where that skill or idea applies within the context of the presented scenario.
4. Remind the class why they just sat through the instruction.
More than just reminding your students about they why and repeating what you told them in the beginning. It is important to leave them with something they can go and immediately execute.
Think about that for a second… you have to leave them with something that they can go try out immediately. Why do you think that is a thing? Because it goes back to that part of step 1 where you told them who you are and why you’re teaching them. It gives them an immediate reflection on your credibility as a teacher.
5. Give them your contact information and actually respond!
I cannot tell you how many times I have seen someone leave behind contact info after a class and then not respond to inquiries or requests. Again, if we are looking at the tenants of why I am teaching here, humility, approachability, credibility, and aggressiveness, then this portion speaks directly to your approachability.
Bringing It All Home
That was 5 simple steps to effective classroom instruction. Notice that I did not include what sort of transitions you should include on your PowerPoint presentations, or how long your classes should be with regards to time. That is because those things don’t actually matter in the grand scheme of things. You should be able to quickly pull a class together with these 5-steps. You could teach someone at a bar, on a napkin, and leave them with something to go and execute immediately with these steps.
If you have a better way, reach out. Let's have a chat about effective teaching.
As always, stay humble in your knowledge, approachable in your teaching, credible in your thoughts, and aggressive in your passion to teach others!
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