The Teaching Demonstration

Teaching

1. Find out information about the requirements of the teaching demonstration.

a. What kind of teaching the Department wants you to demonstrate: A lecture? An interactive seminar? Something else? If the Department is not specific, it is a good idea to do a combination of a short lecture and a student-centered activity. Even if you do not usually lecture because you favour a more active and student-centered approach, some committee members will not like your teaching demonstration if they do not see you lecture.

b. How long will your teaching demonstration be?

c. Will your audience consist of faculty members, students, or a mixture of both? How familiar with your field are they likely to be?

2. Prepare a lesson plan.

3. Rehearse it. If you are currently teaching, do the teaching demonstration with your students.

4. Get feedback and make any necessary changes to the lesson plan.

5. While students come to the room, try to greet them, and retain their names. You can write their names –or at least some- down. But do it carefully so that no one will notice. If you get a question from some of those members you should mention their name. They will like this very much. Other students will be impressed.

6. If you planned a student-centered activity and you don't have students, but faculty members acting as students, do not ask them to actually do the activities. Most will fear to be embarrassed if they do not know how to them properly. Simply explain, or distribute a hand-out with, the instructions for the activity.

7. If you plan to use equipment, such as a laptop, DVD player, CD player, etc., prepare a Plan B. Technology fails.

8. Respect the time allotted to the teaching demonstration.