Title:
Personalizing students’ learning experience in a large class: diversity brings quality
Abstract:
One of the main jobs as a teacher, to me, is to help students learn how to learn instead of merely transferring knowledge. However, students have different talents, strengths, dreams, and aspirations. The most effective learning method is also different from student to student. Some students are visual thinkers, whilst others are aural. Some are social learners, whilst others are solitatory. Furthermore, students excel in different ways. Should higher education, then, stick to the more traditional assessment method or diversify it so as to allow students to explore and find their own potentials? The increasingly diverse student population calls for equally diverse teaching and assessment methods. Fully customizing our teaching style and method to suit each and every individual student may not be practical, but understanding our audience can help optimize the learning outcome at the aggregate level. In this talk, I will share some practices I have implemented in my class to help students explore their interests and discover their potentials.
