Effective Teaching Strategies for Higher Education

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By the time teenagers enter higher education, they are expected to be experts on basic school-taught subjects, and show commitment as to what they want to study. Nevertheless, there is still the challenge for the educator, to make students interpret the more complex issues discussed in higher institutes' classes. Whatever the subject, there are basic strategies to help you make the lesson more compelling and its contents easier to understand.
  • Ask Questions of Students
Make students part of the lesson by asking them questions about the subject. Don't just ask if they didn't understand a part of the lesson; instead, ask them to give you examples and how theory can be put into practice. It will open a dialog among all the students who might have an opinion on the matter, which will get their attention. On social studies for example, apart from presenting the structural model of bureaucracy by German political economist Max Weber, ask students to give you an example on how it applies in specific real, modern corporations.
  • Visualize the Lesson's Contents
Using graphs or pictures related to your subject is a major help for students, despite the fact that at this point, they must have the ability to understand texts without their assistance. Our brain can absorb much easier something that can be seen, other than only be imagined. A history student won't be able to fully understand the extent of the second World War, unless you present pictures and discuss them during the course of the lesson.
  • Assign Team Projects
Give your students the opportunity to work with their colleagues to achieve a common result. Their interaction, arguments, mutual help and commitment to the project will help students deepen their knowledge in a specific issue. Further, it will help them realize the importance of team work. The assigned projects must be complex, with multiple variables that students need to examine, which will force them to split the tasks and be an equal part of the team's success.
  • Back to Basics
Explain each issue starting from the basic aspects of it. Just because the students made it to higher education, doesn't mean that they can fully understand all the new terms that they constantly bump into. For example, if you want economics students to understand the difference between free-market economy and state capitalism, then explain what capitalism is first, using simple examples from everyday life, to describe the basic functions of the system.

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