There are essentially two ways to improve one’s teaching according to Geoff Petty (Petty, 1995) - self assessment, and working on the main factors that contribute towards student’s learning - namely active learning and feedback.
As lecturer and mentor I acknowledge the fact that I need to continuously improve my observational skills, as well as the ability to examine and judge my own teaching practice for possible further improvement. The results of my observations will serve as a basis for the improvement of my existing teaching schemes as well as a starting point for the creation of new teaching strategies wherein both students and myself, as a lecturer, would benefit from an atmosphere of better communication, which will certainly provide a more fertile ground for a healthy teaching-learning environment.
Pedagogy essentially revolves around the teacher’s ability to transmit data, ideas, information, instructions, advice and countless other messages to an intended receiving audience – the students. For the successful transfer of any kind of information the teacher must be able to have very good communication skills, as well as receptive students – two elements which depend on each other for success.
Students need to be continuously challenged and provoked into being active participants, especially if they are more hyperactive than others and with lower attention spans. Some students are easily distracted and consequently tend to become very disruptive. After a number of teaching session I find myself asking questions such as: what are my listening skills?; are they effective?; how are my thinking and creativity skills in a given particular situation being applied? I also ask how these proficiencies could be improved. One answer is by applying my thinking skills to both traditional and nontraditional teaching methods. Another is by making use of critical thinking and juxtapose it against creative thinking in order to be able to establish the root of the problem and to find innovative means of problem solving.
