The essence of training and retraining in educational institutions was brought to the fore at the pedagogy workshop organized by the School of Arts & Sciences on November 8, 2019.
This platform helps faculty remember what they might have forgotten, learn new ways of engaging students, and reinforce known strategies to improve skills.
The workshop featured a session with Ms. Rose Clarkson, on 'Classroom Management and Control'. The presenter noted that effective classroom management can be attained by practice, feedback, and learning from past mistakes. She reiterated the application of teaching strategies to help learners get the desired course content and develop achievable goals in the future.
The workshop also featured three other presenters, including a second-year Communications & Multimedia Design major, Ojonoka Braimah, who shared her learning experience and how she would want to be taught and what will make her learning experience rewarding.
Another presenter, Yusuf Philips, led a session on 'Educational Management', where he talked about generating lesson plans and how to generate questions from the lesson plan. The third, Rabiu Holly Mujah presented “Technology and Instructional Materials as tools for Effective Delivery of Lessons in the 21st Century." The trio of Clarkson, Philips, and Mujah are seasoned educationists with Master's Degrees in Education.
The facilitator of the workshop, Dr. Agatha Ukata, observed that the mark of a good teacher is one able to make students understand the lecture. As not a single method suits all learners, she stressed the importance of a teacher using methods that can make students understand the lecture.
"Knowing the dynamics of the strategies to use is important as it is one way to make teaching effective."
Dr. Ukata, chair of the English Language & Literature program, maintained that a combination of teaching methods is ideal in trying to make a group of students understand a lecture. If students seem not to be paying attention, one can change strategy just to bring their minds back.
The Dean of SAS, Dr. Patrick Fay, thanked the faculty members for finding time to attend the workshop. He also thanked the presenters and Dr. Ukata for their contributions towards the workshop. While listing the benefits of the workshop, the dean said it is a welcome development that would continue periodically, with novelties to achieve the desired output.
Reported by
Omorogbe Omorogiuwa