Teaching Skills

A). INTRODUCTION
Teaching is an essential part of education. Its special function is to impart knowledge, develop understanding and skills. It is usually associated with the imparting of 3 Rs- reading, writing, arithmetic. The teachers play a vital role in imparting knowledge to the learners.
“to know how to teach is the great art of teaching”
“you teach what you need to learn”
B)    WHAT IS A TEACHING SKILL?
The teaching skills are defined as a group of teaching acts or behaviors intended to facilitate students learning directly or indirectly.

C)    WHY DO WE NEED TO HAVE SKILLS IN TEACHING?
  • To ensure competency in teaching.
  • To make the class interesting.
  • To enable the teacher to develop confidence in teaching.
  • To avoid confusion
  • To enable the teacher to understand individual differences in learning.
D)    STEPS OF TEACHING SKILLS USED IN DISCUSSION METHOD
1. Analyzing the student group:
a) Getting to know them
  • Always begin with an ice breaker.
  • Get students talking as soon as possible.
  • Watch nonverbal behavior.
  • Encourage the passive ones to contribute.
  • Don’t allow eager behaviors to dominate.
  • Find out each students level, position and background soon as possible.
b) Enthusiasm
  • Consciously use your eyes and eyebrows to communicate enthusiasm.
  • Always keep a sparkle in your voice.
  • Fight boredom of repetitive sessions by introducing new anecdotes.
2.  Discussion leading
a) BUILDING
Here are four ways to keep a class discussion going:
  • BUILDING- build on incomplete answers by adding comments and asking for agreement or disagreement.
  • BOOSTING- support timid participants contributions, boost their confidence and ask for extra comment.
  • BLOCKING- interrupt dominant aggressive participants by asking what others think.
  • BANTERING- establish non threatening atmosphere by engaging in friendly rapport without going participants.
b) BRAINSTORMING
It is a technique for obtaining idea from a group. Here is how:
  • ASK ----------- for /provoke ideas. If necessary wait 45 seconds before giving own.
  • RECORD----- write all ideas on a flip chart don’t evaluate till the end.
  • TRIGGER------ use B ing discussion leading techniques to encourage participants to trigger ideas.
  • SUMMARIZE----- summarize and / or regroup ideas. Help group to choose best.
c)      SOCRATIC DIRECTION
In order to encourage audience participation to prove to a point, use Socratic direction.
  • Know the answers you want.
  • Open questioning technique.
  • Paraphrase participant’s answers.
  • Summarize contributions.
Add your own points.
d)     CLASS CONTROL
a) REGULATING-------interrupt long winded talkers with questions.
b) FOCUSING---------keep the current topic in front of the class
c) GUIDING------------ask reflective questions.
d) INTERPRETING-----interpret or paraphrase badly throughout contributors.
e) SUMMARIZING----give overview and recall points covered at every logical or convenient point.
e) TEACHING TEMPO
There are two factors which will govern the tempo of your material coverage and discussion periods:
a) Students level of knowledge and general intelligence.
Low=slow
High=fast
b) Your own teaching skill.
Snappy /authoritarian/directive=fast
Relaxed, informal, facilitative=slow
How to change tempo
a) Slower-use more cases, examples, anecdotes. Speak slower. Ask open questions.
b) Faster- speak fast, use directive tone. Cut down discussions. Ask closed questions.
f) METHODS FOR DEALING WITH STUDENT QUESTIONS OR STATEMENTS.
a) STRAIGHT FORWARD-----answer the question.
b) OVERHEAD------------------ good question. What are some of the other questions    we should also ask about----?
c) RELAY------------------------thanks for the question. Have some of you met the same problem?
d) RICOCHET------------------- good point!
e) REVERSE---------------------when the question is really a statement, hand the answer back to the poser.
f) STATEMENT? --------------what point are we discussing now?
g) STATEMENT! ---------------“I think we should come back to this point later”.
g) QUESTIONING SKILLS
Closed questions-WHO CAN tell me on which date?
Open questions
a)     “About”            -how do you feel about-------?
b)     “Reflective”       -you don’t feel comfortable with------?
c)     Hypothetical      -what do you think would happen if----?
d)     Framing            -help me to see how this fits with------?
e)     Silence             - ---------------------------------------------?
f)      Statements      - you look as if you wanted to say something.
h)  LUBRICATORS
VERBAL                                        NONVERBAL
a)      “I see”                                  Nodding  
b)      “Ah, ah”                              Constant eye contact
c)      “That’s interesting”              Leaning forward
d)      “Really”                                Stepping aside
e)      “Go on”                                Raising eyebrows
f)       “Tell me more about that”     Frowning
3. questions and interruptions
Most participant questions are not questions. They are request for the spotlight if it is one of those rare, close d real questions-answer it succinctly. If not, first;
REFLECT back to the questionnaire what you thought was the question.
Or
DEFLECT it as follows-
a) Group: how do the rest of the group feel?
b) Ricochet: to one participant-“you are an expert on this?
c) Reverse: back to questioner:-“you have obviously done something on this. What’s your view?
4.  dealing with difficult participants
a) THE HECKLER: probably insecure, gets satisfaction from needling, aggressive and argumentative.
a.  What to do: never get upset, find merit, express agreement, move on, wait for a mis statement   fact and throw it out to the group for correction.
b) THE TALKER/KNOW ALL-an eager behavior, a show off, well informed and anxious to show it.
a.  What to do- sit till he/she takes a breath, thanks, refocus and move on. Ask him or her with a tough question.
c) THE GRIPER-feels hard done by probably have a pet “peeve”, will use you as scape goat.
a.  What to do- get him/her to be specific, show that the purpose of your presentation is to be positive and constructive, use peer pressure?
d) THE WHISPERS- don’t understand what’s going on clarifying & translating.
a.  What to do-stop talking, wait for them, to look up and nonverbally ask for their permission to continue.
e) THE SILENT ONE-timid, insecure, shy, bored, indifferent
a.  What to do: timid- ask easy question. Boost her ego in discussing the answer. Refer by name by giving examples. Bolster confidence.
b. Bored- ask tough questions. Refer to by name someone who surely knows that, use as helper in exercises.
5. using one’s voice
a) Projection: speak louder than usual.
b) Articulation: don’t swallow words.
c) Modulation: vary tone and pitch.
d) Pronunciation: watch tonic accents.
e) Enunciation: over emphasize.
f) Repetition: repeat key phrases with different vocal emphasis.
g) Speed: use delivery speed to manipulate the audience!
6. listening
Whenever a participant interrupts or responds emotionally during the class, he/she is probably overstating his or her feelings in order to justify the outburst. In every such case use active listening. Never attempt to counter, argue, defend or take sides.
E. WHO, WHOM, WHY, WHERE, WHAT, HOW AND WHEN OF TEACHING
To play this role completely, a teacher is expected to understand the significance of the following:
1. Who is to teach
The teacher is to teach and must understand herself/ himself thoroughly- his/ her strengths and weakness, strive to present a reasonably good model before the students.
2.Whom to teach
The student is to be taught. Therefore, a teacher should understand the abilities, aptitudes, attitudes, manners, temperaments and accordingly cater to the individual differences of students.
3.Why to teach
The teacher should always keep in view that the aim of education is to develop harmonious personalities, who are culturally refined, emotionally stable, ethically sound, morally upright, physically strong, socially efficient and spiritually enlightened.
4.Where to teach
The teacher ought not to visualize the school to be merely a place of importing information, but a place where students of tomorrow are trained to take their place as enlightened citizens in the society and contribute to professional development.
5.What to teach
The teacher must have mastery over the subject he/she teaches.
6.How to teach
The teacher must use new teaching –learning technology to make teaching effective and inspirational.
7.When to teach
Appropriate steps need to be taken by the teacher to develop motivation of the student in the entire work.
F. CONCLUSION
Despite the huge value of the skills of teaching to the future of nursing there is still little opportunity to develop vital skills within the curricular constraints at many nursing schools. However, without basic training in teaching skills at undergraduate level, it cannot realistically be expected that, students without a natural flair will spontaneously be able to show the necessary skills, attitudes, and practices required of a competent teacher.

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