Teaching Strategies for Nurse Educators LECTURING Lecture is a teaching method where an instructor is the central focus of information transfer. Typically, an instructor will stand before a class and present information for the students to learn. Sometimes, they will write on a board or use an overhead projector to provide visuals for students. Students are expected to t ake notes while listening to the lecture. Usually, very little exchange occurs between the instructor and the students during a lecture. DISCUSSION One of the most challenging teaching methods, leading discussions can also be one of the most rewarding. Using discussions as a primary teaching method allows you to stimulate critical thinking. As you establish a rapport with your students, you can demonstrate that you appreciate their contributions at the same t ime that you challenge them to think more deeply and to articulate their ideas more c learly. Frequent questions, whether asked by you or by t he students, provide a means of measuring learning and exploring in-depth the key concepts of the course. QUESTIONING Teachers ask questions for a variety of purposes, including: To actively involve students in the lesson To increase motivation or interest To evaluate students’ preparationTo check on completion of work To develop critical thinking skills To review previous lessons To nurture insights To assess achievement or mastery of goals and objectives To stimulate independent learning A teacher may vary his or her purpose in asking questions during a single lesson, or a single question may have more than one purpose. In general, research shows that instruction involving questioning is more effective than instruction without questioning. Questioning is one of the nine research-based strategies presented in Classroom Instruction That Works (Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock 2001). One important finding is that questions that focus student attention on important elements of a lesson result in better comprehension than those that focus on unusual or interesting elements. Questions should also be structured so that most elicit correct responses. Educators have traditionally classified questions according to Bloom’s Taxonomy, a hierarchy ofincreasingly complex intellectual skills. Bloom’s Taxonomy includes six categories:
