The Secrets of Teaching Management Students
Each teaching session is compared to an instance of public speaking. As with the audience at the public speaking event, students in a classroom session want to follow the content with ease and comfort, learn something new, and take home the happiness of having gained a new perspective. It is characterized by abhorring the teacher and his session if the necessary precautions are not taken to facilitate the monitoring and assimilation of the contents, however spectacular the contents of the lesson may be. Students want to learn without being suffocated by confusion or unrelated content. They, by nature, expect the flow of content to be at their fingertips. They want the flow to be smooth, fun, and juicy. They are willing to learn new things based on their existing conceptual knowledge. In addition, they want to participate in the class and seek the opportunity to use their mental faculties. In the following discussion, various strategies are weighed to make students really enjoy their class time.
There is no alternative to preparation. Preparation is the key to the success of each session. A teacher, no matter how long his experience, has to prepare well. The only blessing for the experienced teacher, it goes without saying, is that the preparation time is less and is in indirect proportion to the duration of the experience. The focus of the preparation is the determination of the conceptual contents, examples, logic between concepts, keywords and the correct sentences. One should not expect to have ideas on the spot or depend on ideas so spontaneous that they may or may not cross the mind during the session. In fact, when the preparation is good, relevant anecdotes can be remembered spontaneously and quite naturally.
The textual lesson must be adapted to the level of the students. A teacher should not rely heavily on the textbook whose content may not be up to date and may not be relevant to the level of the students. Also, the arrangement of concepts in the textbook may not be as logical as it should be to match the level of a given group of students. The teacher must establish an “appropriate lesson logic” in the content. The best practice is to take each concept or point and link it to the previous point. This can best be done by ruminating or turning over the points in mind over and over again.
As Maxwell says in his famous work Psychocybernitics, the teacher must prepare for the session in its coolest and most peaceful moment without rushing, but with a deep implication, but during the delivery he must leave his presentation to spontaneity. In such a case, the delivery is more creative and “juicy”. A student enjoys when the fluency of the teacher is natural, and also when the student cannot find the teacher without words or ideas. All of this is possible only with proper preparation.
The introduction to the topic sets the tone for the lesson and is therefore very comprehensive. A student can become interested in the topic of the day only when the introduction is appropriate and easy to follow. All fundamental concepts must be explained from the beginning. Needless to say, the student must be convinced of the importance of the subject. The teacher should emphasize how the topic is useful for scores / GPAs or for practical life. Most of my sessions, as the students testified, are successful because of this principle that involves explaining the purpose of the topic.
Real life examples should be taken. Examples should be from the contemporary and family field or from everyday life. All of these examples should be thought out beforehand, no matter how routine and less complex they may be. The teacher’s own experiences work well to clarify the point. Constant self-questioning like ‘does it make sense to them?’ It will help to cite correct examples.
The teacher should rehearse the points and related examples within himself several times to achieve clarity and logic between the points. Even arithmetic or less complex sums must also be worked out beforehand.
The teacher should use synonyms for difficult words and make statements more than once to help students understand.
Questions and discussions bring the lesson to life. Points that are far less complex should be opened for discussion and the students’ faculties should be challenged by appropriate questioning. A teacher who is skilled in questions can keep students interested in the lesson while minimizing the number of yawns. Yawns are a direct measure of a boring presentation.
The teacher should use body language, intonation of speech, rhythm of voice, etc. suitable. I think that a teacher who can sing or dance with very moderate body movements can make the presentation more intriguing. Additionally, you must maintain eye contact with each student while moving from time to time from one side of the podium to the other to provide fair attention to each student.
