Course #1 - Basic Teaching Methods

  
January 2004
Instructor: Marshall Rose
Fred Hirsch, Administrator

CNYSCS, Coalition Teacher Training Program
1-800-400-5987 | FAX: 609-279-9395
51 Chestnut Street, Princeton, NJ 08542
Notebook and Diary Entry

David Shapiro

Date: Feb 2002
Environment Windows 2000 Server Networking Class – 5 day course duration.
Student Profile/Target Population Employees from a Federal governmental agency. The individuals had three main job functions – IT Professionals, Field Business Personnel, and Office administrators.
Conditions I was informed at the start of the first day of the class, that two individuals in the class had physical disabilities and that it would be necessary for me to make adjustments in my presentation of the course and workshops. There were a total of 20 individuals in the class.
Observation One of the individuals in class was deaf and had two interpreters (Note: The interpreters would switch off every hour) who would be translating my lecture with hand signaling. A second individual had a sight disability and had an oversized monitor and had availability to the JAWS software product on his laptop computer. It was clear that during my course introduction and the students’ brief statement of their purpose for attending this course, that there would be difficulties in my making myself clearly understood to these individuals. During the first break in class, I spoke with both students and the 2 interpreters in order to receive some feedback on how well they were able to understand me during the introduction (there were some issues) and how I could take corrective action right from the onset of the class.
Solution Based upon the initial feedback, I immediately began to implement the following modifications and new approaches to my lecture and teaching style and to the training aids that I used to class.
  1. The course workbooks were converted into a raw text format from WordPerfect in order that they could be utilized by the sight impaired student both in the JAWS software product and Braille language.
  2. I gave the interpreters their own copies of the course workbooks and extra hand-outs in a in advance of my presentation.
  3. I changed my positioning in the front of the room in order that I was facing the two impaired students when lecturing in order that they had a direct line of vision to my head. This would allow them to lip read and present them with a better opportunity to understand my lecture. I also made sure that my pattern of speech was clear and appropriately loud.
  4. At least once a day in class during breaks, I spoke with the interpreter and/or the learning disabled students in order to validate that they understood my lecture and were able to read my board notes.
  5. I transcribed my board work in the evening into text files on diskette in order that the notes would be available to the impaired students at least a day prior to my presenting the subject matter.
  6. I provided additional instructions and screen captures for the hands-on workshop exercises. I also provided the students with hand-outs of the solutions to the exercises.
  7. During each break in class, I transcribed the notes I had taken from students who had asked questions asked in class into CFAQs (Course Frequently Asked Questions), edited them, and then passed out the notes at the beginning of the next day of class.
Assessment of Solution The evaluation forms completed by the students at the end of class indicated that they had a reasonably good learning experience and were able to complete the workshops. I gained an appreciation as to how my presentation had to be adjusted in order to provide individuals with sight and hearing disabilities with a better opportunity to learn. In summary, my methods/techniques of transferring information had to be modified to a format and delivery which could be processed in a somewhat different manner.

The next time that I teach a course which has a few student’s with physical impairments, I will be better prepared in terms of utilizing the three modalities: Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic.