Page 256 - Making Instruction Work

chap 20 3/11/97 5:17 PM Page 242

242 making instruction work

6. can operate instructional equipment,
7. uses visuals in a timely manner and without causing dis-
traction,
8. diagnoses individual student problems and recommends
remedies, and

9. can handle a variety of instructional methods (e.g., dis-
cussions, question-and-answer sessions, role-plays).

Whether you are experienced or inexperienced, your pre-
sentations will benefit from periodic checkups. Because we are
prone to picking up distracting mannerisms . . .er . . . ah . . . and
gestures over time, the wise instructor periodically reviews his
or her presentation behavior at least twice a year. This is done
by using one or both of the following procedures:

1. Videotape one of your presentations, and then pretend
you’re a student and review it in private as you answer
the checklist questions found in the “How to Do It” sec-
tion below, and/or

2. Give your students a copy of the Presentation Checklist
and ask each of them to complete it at the end of one of
your presentations.
Since the instructor is the key instrument through which
instruction is offered in the instructor-controlled format, it is
important that that instrument (the instructor) be kept in fine
tune.

How to Do It
Though just about everyone can talk, not everyone can
deliver a presentation in a way that will teach. To make the pre-
sentation accomplish its purpose it needs to have certain char-
acteristics. Here are the basic steps.