"[Dan] Encourages a hands on learning style while really taking the time to
connect with the student. He thoroughly explains concepts in a manner that
is easy to comprehend." (Former Environmental Education Crew Member)
"Dan really helped me learn important concepts and people by allowing me to find the connections between them."
(Former Student)
Ultimately I consider a good strategy to be one that encourages ownership, excitement, critical thinking and analytic creativity in a student. I prefer to do this with clear expectations, active group work, consistent peer revisions, midterm evaluations, and use of current events.
I apply a high degree of rigor to setting expectations early on in a teaching experience. By establishing my understanding of the course early on I aim to keep excuses and drama to a minimum down the line. I also place a high value on making my time and opinions available to students to facilitate progress in reading, writing and research skills. By incorporating drafts and peer-reviewing in class I like to ramp up writing quality expectations so students have a strong final product. I am also a proponent of providing examples of strong writing early and often.
By creating anxiety and uncertainty about "familiar" concepts an instructor can open up new pathways of learning. I endeavor to avoid explicitly telling a student she is wrong as I find this often leads to conversation shutting down. By "answering questions with questions" a teacher can put the onus of "getting to the truth" on the class. I've found as a Teaching Assistant most professors prefer a discussion heavy class in lieu of more lecture time.
It is also crucial to establish that a classroom is what you make it. I don't shy away from holding students accountable with a variety of quiz options.This accountability goes both ways, and high expectations for performance also necessitate a responsive instructor. I am a fan of finding creative (and hopefully digital) means of getting anonymous feedback as a course nears the halfway point.
Finally, I believe drawing in current events to be crucial for success in instruction. This is especially true in social science courses. In Political Science or International Studies there are amazing tools and new media sources that a teacher can incorporate to reify theories and case studies.
