Carmen's Home — a progression from this world to that which is to come

With each new semester or training session comes a unique opportunity for a fresh and exciting start.  Given that we are entering a new year, there is further inducement to reflect more carefully on our instruction and learning methods, styles and activities.

Now that you have had several class meetings and have met your students, what are your initial impressions? How will you capitalize on the impressions that students have made to create a learning environment that includes increasingly greater student-student and student-instructor collaboration and interaction?

For both veteran and rookie faculty there are usually varying degrees of anxiety that come with the start of a new semester of  instruction. Organization and management of the instructional program are quite demanding to say the least.

What have you found to be essential considerations in your course preparation for the first couple class meetings?

It's surely been a long-cold winter and the spring semester opened only recently. Student participation, while usually slow to warm up, has not been particulalry inspiring thus far in the course I am teaching. In past courses I have taught, class participation has helped sustain student interest in the course content and has provided an excellent vehicle for class discussion, interaction and generalization of the content to current life situations.

There is increasing interest and discussion related to teaching and student/trainee learning and performance in higher education and organizations.

What do you believe are factors that contribute most to student learning and performance?

What role do the instructional faculty/trainers play in the dynamic process of learning and performance?

To what extent are higher education instructional faculty and organizational trainers prepared sufficiently to facilitate or enhance learning and performance?