Page 246 - Making Instruction Work

chap 19 3/11/97 5:15 PM Page 232

232 making instruction work

• a little extra attention

• a little time off (even a few minutes works)

• ask the student to explain a concept to others

• applause

Add your own.
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•

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Check your own performance. The easiest and most private
way to find out whether you are encouraging desired perfor-
mance and discouraging undesired performance is to set up a
video camera in the back of the classroom or lab and just let it
record.
Review the tape in private. Look for examples of desired stu-
dent performance, and then watch to see what you did in
response—when the desired performance happened. Did you
ignore it? Did you punish it? Or did you pay attention to it,
smile on it, say something nice about it? Build on it? This sim-
ple review will show you how you might modify your own per-
formance so that you will get more of what you want and less
of what you don’t want. Your goal should be to “glow” on
desired (productive) performances, and to ignore unproduc-
tive performances wherever possible.

People See, People Do

Instructional success is also influenced by the quality of the
modeling—by what they see and hear the instructor do while
they’re in the instructor’s presence.