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Accessibility Awareness Training for Educators

Effective Teaching and Learning Principles

These following twelve principles are intended as guidelines to educators and administrators interested in the improvement of teaching and learning.

  1. Instructors' knowledge of the subject matter is essential to the implementation of important teaching tasks. Educators who know their subject matter thoroughly can be more effective and efficient at organizing the subject matter, connecting the subject with the students' previous experience and knowledge, finding useful analogies and examples, presenting current thinking on the subject, and establishing appropriate emphases.
  2. Active involvement of the learner enhances learning. Learning is an active process which requires that the learner work with and apply new material to past knowledge and to everyday life. Some of the methods that encourage active learning in the classroom are: discussion, practice sessions, structured exercises, team projects, and research projects. In the words of William James: Teaching without an accompanying experience is like filling a lamp with water. Something has been poured in, but the result is not illuminating.
  3. Interaction between educators and students is the most important factor in student motivation and involvement. Interaction between students and educators, particularly informal interaction, is one of most important factors in student motivation for learning. The opportunity to know a few instructors well often enhances students' intellectual commitment and provides valuable role modeling.
  4. Students benefit from taking responsibility for their learning. Students are more motivated when they take control of their own learning. This is the belief which has stimulated active interest in self-directed learning.
  1. There are many roads to learning. Students learn in different ways and vary in their abilities to perform certain tasks. Understanding that each student has unique strengths and weaknesses related to the ways in which they approach learning is an important component of effective education. Providing a variety of learning activities for a class enables individual students to choose the activity which is the most effective for them at the moment.
  2. Expect more and you will achieve more. Simply stated, if an educator conveys to students that they believe in their ability to succeed, learning is enhanced.
  3. Learning is enhanced in an atmosphere of cooperation. Learning is enhanced when it is perceived as a collaborative and cooperative effort between students. The opportunity to share ideas without threat of ridicule and the freedom to respond to the ideas of others increases complexity of thinking and deepens understanding.
  4. Material must be meaningful. If new material is presented in a pattern or framework that the learner can perceive, it is more readily learned and retained. New material will be more easily learned if the learner is helped to see its relationship to what they already know. Material which is seen by the learner as relevant to their own problems and experiences will be more readily learned.
  1. Both teaching and learning are enhanced by descriptive feedback. Without feedback neither learner nor educator can improve because they will not know what they need to know or to what extent they are fulfilling their goals. The learners' behavior will more quickly reach the objectives if they are informed (or given feedback) frequently about the correctness of their responses. Correct responses should be immediately reinforced to increase the "permanence" of learning. A positive reinforcer is anything that will increase the probability that the desired behavior will be repeated. A smile or comment to let the learner know they have successfully completed the task is especially good because awareness of successful completion is, in itself, the most effective of all reinforcers. Feedback about progress is helpful because learning is facilitated when the learner is aware that they are progressing towards the goals.
  2. Critical feedback is only useful if the learner has alternatives to pursue. There is no use giving feedback about a learners performances unless they can do something about it, that is, unless they have some alternative course of action or behaviour.
  3. Time plus energy equals learning. Being around for a few minutes afterwards, provides opportunities for valuable interaction between students and educators. Office hours also help students to arrange time to talk with educators. Students must learn how to organize their time so that they can find time to study. And the curriculum must be organized to allow students time to study.
  4. Experience usually improves teaching. Experience is associated with increasing educator effectiveness especially for those educators who obtain feedback about their teaching and who are flexible enough to modify their methods in response to the feedback.
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