Teaching individual students occurs in various settings: architecture, music, art, physical education, as well as independent study in any discipline. McKeachie (2002) notes there’s relatively little research on one-on-one teaching, but several principles apply:
Allow students maximum freedom to experience successful completion of a task or part of a task, but give enough guidance so that they won’t get bogged down by errors. Learning experiences should move from simple to complex, with steps ordered so that each new problem can be solved.
- Students need practice, followed by feedback.
- Too much feedback may be more than the student can assimilate. Don’t try to correct everything on the first try.
- Feedback can discourage students. Provide some encouragement, as well as identification of errors.
- Feedback about mistakes won’t help if the learner doesn’t know what to do to avoid errors. Suggest what to try next.
- High-level skills are developed through much practice. One successful performance doesn’t signify the automatization that’s necessary for consistent success.
- Practice with varied examples is often motivating and more likely to transfer to later performances than is simple drill and repetition.
- Students need opportunities for self-evaluation with feedback about the evaluation, as well as the work being evaluated.
|
|
THREE KEYS TO
ONE-ON-ONE TEACHING
1. Students are helped by seeing a model of the desired performance, such as an instructor’s demonstration, a videotape, or an observation of a skilled performer. When instructors perform, they should direct students’ attention to crucial aspects of the technique.
2. Students are helped by verbal cues or labels that identify key features of the skill. Irrelevant details usually distract students.
3. Simplified simulations or demonstrations are more useful starting points than complex, real-life situations, which may overwhelm students with too many details (McKeachie 2002). |
