In this class, I observed the same class as my first observations took place, just on a new day. The class is comprised of advanced adult learners, and the class is for oral communication.
It’s interesting to observe a class I have already seen, just at a later date. I think it is good to see how the dynamic shifts as the semester progresses, and to see how the students and teacher have further adapted to one another as time has gone on.
In the class, the teacher appears to have learned more about his students than the previous class. This is seen in their classroom spontaneous conversation at the beginning of class. One thing I found interesting is the teacher automatically repeated key words 3x and would type them in the shared notes. I don’t remember seeing that the first time. I wonder if the teacher has learned to do this from previous classes and discovered it works for the class, or if it was something the teacher already did and just had no use for it last week.
The teacher tried to get student engagement consistently but the students seemed to resist or just not know what to say. Is this a challenge in the classroom or is it something that is more of an issue in online classes? The teacher tried to engage students by asking them questions about what they presented, but I wonder if there are other strategies to use for student engagement when they are listening to their peers.
Part 2 of this class is available, labelled Online Classroom Observation Part 2, Hour 7.
