CBCS Teaching Methodologies

  • Direct —Tell students what to do

  • Discuss — Ask questions and listen

  • Delegate — Empower students

  • The directing style promotes learning through listening and following directions. With this style, the teacher tells the students what to do, how to do it, and when it needs to be done.

  • The teacher imparts information to the students via lectures, assigned readings, audio/visual presentations, demonstrations, role playing, and other means students gain information primarily by listening, taking notes, doing role plays, and practicing what they are told to do.

  • The only feedback the teacher looks for is “Do you understand the instructions?”

Suggestions for using the directing style:

  • Start with the big picture. Provide the context before launching into specifics.

  • Be clear and concise. Students need to know exactly what they must do to succeed and by what criteria their work will be evaluated.

  • Provide sufficient detail. Communication breakdowns occur when important details are omitted or instructions are ambiguous.

  • The discussing style promotes learning through interaction.

  • In this style,the teacher encourages critical thinking and lively discussion by asking students to respond to challenging questions.

  • The teacher is a facilitator guiding the discussion to a logical conclusion.

  • Students learn to have opinions and to back them up with facts and data.

Suggestions for using the discussing style:

  • Prepare questions in advance : Ask one question at a time. Be open, curious, and interested in learning what each student thinks.

  • Don’t allow one or two students to dominate the discussion : Solicit everyone’s ideas and opinions. Gently draw out students who seem insecure and reticent to participate.

  • Have students create questions : Ask students read a case study/topic and formulate three questions to ask their classmates. We then discuss their answers in class.

  • Don’t sugar-coat the message : There are times when teachers need to be very direct and candid to get through to students

  • Utilize clickers : Clickers are an easy way to get students involved during class. Pose a multiple-choice question and their responses are tabulated on the screen. You can then open it up for discussion as students share why they selected a certain answer.

The delegating style promotes learning through empowerment.

  • With this style, the teacher assigns tasks that students work on independently, either individually or in groups.

Suggestions for using the delegating style:

  • Assign research projects.

  • Assign team projects.

  • Assign a capstone project. Let students show you what they can do when working independently on a topic that’s important to them.

  • Use an appropriate mix of each teaching style.

  • Using an appropriate mix of teaching styles helps students learn, grow, and become more independent.

  • Too much reliance on one style causes students to lose interest and become overly dependent on the teacher.

CBCS – Effective management of large classes
Advantages

  • Decreased instructor costs.

  • Efficient use of faculty time and talent.

  • Availability of resources.

  • Standardization of the learning experience.

Disadvantages

  • Strained impersonal relations between students and the instructor.

  • Limited range of teaching methods.

  • Discomfort among instructors teaching large classes.

CBCS – Teaching Methodologies for Large Group Setting
The traditional passive view of learning involves situations where material is delivered to students using a lecture-based format. In contrast, a more modern view of learning is constructivism, where students are expected to be active in the learning process by participating in discussion and/or collaborative activities.

Suggestions for Constructivism / Active Learning:

  • Ask yourself what you want your students to learn and what is the best way for them to learn it.

  • Plan your lectures and learning activities to achieve the learning outcomes.

  • Outline what the lecture is going to cover : use a structure that will encourage you and your students to engage in active learning with clear aims and learning outcomes showing what students will know, understand or be able to do by the end of the session identify and repeat your key messages.

  • Encourage and build in time for questions.

  • Allow time for students to reflect on what they’ve learned.