It may be pointless to offer you a step-by-step guide to teaching because firstly it is a job that requires adaptation instead of a by-the-numbers guide. Secondly, the manner in which you teach is just as important as the techniques you use. You do need a fair amount of flexibility when teaching, especially if you teach a variety of different students through the week.
Stop trying to entertain them
Even if your students are unhappy and unwilling, it is not your job to entertain them, and the fact is that most teachers cannot. Kids may need to be entertained when they are learning, but that is simply to help rope in their wandering attentions. Trying to entertain older and adult students is fruitless and maybe even counterproductive. Do not purposefully make your content boring. Allow students to find their own pleasure in the material.
Engage them with open-ended questions
This idea was adopted by some of the staff members at Queensland-assignment.com who review sites offering assignment help. They encourage students to pose themselves open-ended questions when picking essay topics. It allows for a thicker and fuller discourse within written content, and it allows a student to engage a little more with the content.
Another way you can look at it is to think about job interviews. If an employer only asked closed questions, then he or she would have a hard time really getting to know a staff member before taking him or her on. Such a closed method would relegate every interviewer to something as useful as a multiple-choice questionnaire.
Do not let them ask you if something is the answer
Nervous and/or unconfident students will answer a question with “Is it…?” and you shouldn’t allow this. You should have them either give an answer or not give an answer. Let them know that if they are wrong that they are not “doing” wrong.
Help release them from their lack of confidence, and help them understand that being wrong is a part of learning and that it is not something they should shy away. This is the reason why teachers are taught to reply to wrong answers with encouragement such as “Good idea, but I am looking for something else,” or “I see where you are going with that, but I am looking for a different solution.”
Teach values as well as the content
This is a very powerful idea that is often misconstrued. For example, liberal colleges often try to force values on younger people such as how they should be politically correct because they think that people have the “right” not to be offended. They are trying to instill values, but those are not the values you should try to instill.
Instead, you need to help students understand that they are not robots and that the material you are teaching is relevant to them and their lives. You should instill values that motivate students to learn on their own and to enjoy seeking knowledge.
Do not make the mistake of drumming information into a student so much that they flinch at the idea of more education. Instead, encourage them to seek out knowledge on their own so they get the pleasure of creating goals and achieving them.
