(ENG156) -  Michelioudakis Nick

Περιγραφή Μαθήματος

What is the course about?

The aim of this short course is to help students become better teachers by introducing them to some findings from the field of (mostly Social) Psychology as well as other, related fields such as Behavioural Economics, Marketing or Management.

What do the sessions consist of?

A description of a series of studies or case studies from the fields mentioned above. Each one illustrates one principle. The participants are then encouraged to reflect on how they can apply this in a teaching situation and some possible examples are offered.

How is this going to help teachers?

An understanding of what factors can influence people and what it is that motivates us can be hugely beneficial in helping teachers with Classroom Management and motivating learners.

Are these principles not common sense?

Actually, a number of them can be very counter-intuitive. Others are things that a good teacher would do naturally – perhaps as a result of their experience. Even so, this course should help give these ‘intuitive perceptions’ coherence.

Would it not be easier to simply give the principles?

I believe that describing the research behind the finding helps explain the mechanism behind the principle, which means that teachers will be able to extrapolate in many situations. In addition experiments are like little stories; they are memorable. It is one thing to tell people ‘Love thy neighbour’ and another to tell them the story of the Good Samaritan.

Are there any disadvantages?

There is one, namely the fact that there are few actual techniques that teachers can use with their class on Monday, so it does not offer students a list of ‘classroom recipes’. Rather, the general principles considered are guidelines which can help a teacher make better judgments before, during and after the lesson.

In what way is this course better than more practical ones?

Many of the courses we offer pre-service trainees are a little too specific for reasons of face validity (‘What if you had to teach this in class?’). They are like first-aid courses, with step-by-step instructions of how to, say, deal with a fracture. Unless someone actually fractures a bone (with no expert around to help) all this knowledge may well be wasted. This course is more like principles of how the body processes food. Even if one does not become a dietician, everybody has to eat and everybody would like to be fit and healthy.

Is this course only for educators?

Actually no. And this is what is wonderful about it. This course is about Human Nature. The principles discussed are principles which have to do with every single aspect of our lives. So, if a student becomes a receptionist or a politician in the future, all her knowledge of Linguistics will be pretty much useless. Not so Psychology.

Ημερομηνία δημιουργίας

Κυριακή 2 Αυγούστου 2015