Best Learning Method

Having just walked out of class, here are my thoughts.

It certainly depends on the subject matter, I teach a variety of subjects - all based around Aircraft Electrical/Electronic Engineering.

Some of those subjects are heavily biased towards theoretical learning, a straight lecture just kills students - we NEVER lecture. A classroom session should be about 20 - 30% me telling you stuff, 70-80% me extracting the answers / information from you, you just have to know how to phrase / pose your questioning; it's quite surprising how much the students can figure out. If they're nearly there, rephrase and try again and maybe open it out for the class. Sometimes you can't avoid just having to tell them, next time you come to it though, ask, get them to answer.

The Q&A period can then consolidate learning but it helps to be structured - I like building the questions through the functionality of a system, developing the answers along with the flow of how it operates.

I'm very lucky to have access to some nice teaching aids too, we have aircraft simulators (of various levels of complexity / realism), these are great for consolidation Q&A sessions but I also use them to teach some phases as you can see the system operating; the added advantage is the students are hands-on, improving attention spans and learning.

We also use the aircraft Tech Docs (as they would for real), Wiring / Schematic diagrams and various test emulators (Databus Testers etc). These provide the students with the tools they need and a chance to learn how to use them in a controlled and structured environment.

I also teach the students how to use the 'Electronic Paperwork' software, we do use MS Power Point for some parts but we have the actual software used with a training copy of the aircraft database incorporated; again the students are hands on and it's a guided learning session with the Instructor leading the scenarios, highlighting policy and directing the lesson. Because the students are actually using the exact same software package in exactly the way they do on the aircraft - just in a sterile environment - they find the learning really good.

Added in at certain points in the course are what we call 'Integration Phases', the students will be given scenarios where they work through faults / system operation exercises on the subjects already covered, this gives them a chance to think about each system and how they work together; this avoids the 'Learn/Dump' mentality that comes from learning a subject then sitting the exam for it before moving to the next phase.

At the end there is a big (final) Integration where a number of faults are posed and the student must show how they 'fixed' it using all the tools available (Tech Docs, Databus Testing Emulation, Wiring Diagrams etc).

Before we let them loose we take them to the aircraft for a few weeks to work on the jet - guided at all times by the Instructor - in order to give them a taste of 'doing it for real'.

That answer wasn't in the list above - I picked 'Other'!

Having just walked out of class, here are my thoughts.

It certainly depends on the subject matter, I teach a variety of subjects - all based around Aircraft Electrical/Electronic Engineering.

Some of those subjects are heavily biased towards theoretical learning, a straight lecture just kills students - we NEVER lecture. A classroom session should be about 20 - 30% me telling you stuff, 70-80% me extracting the answers / information from you, you just have to know how to phrase / pose your questioning; it's quite surprising how much the students can figure out. If they're nearly there, rephrase and try again and maybe open it out for the class. Sometimes you can't avoid just having to tell them, next time you come to it though, ask, get them to answer.

The Q&A period can then consolidate learning but it helps to be structured - I like building the questions through the functionality of a system, developing the answers along with the flow of how it operates.

I'm very lucky to have access to some nice teaching aids too, we have aircraft simulators (of various levels of complexity / realism), these are great for consolidation Q&A sessions but I also use them to teach some phases as you can see the system operating; the added advantage is the students are hands-on, improving attention spans and learning.

We also use the aircraft Tech Docs (as they would for real), Wiring / Schematic diagrams and various test emulators (Databus Testers etc). These provide the students with the tools they need and a chance to learn how to use them in a controlled and structured environment.

I also teach the students how to use the 'Electronic Paperwork' software, we do use MS Power Point for some parts but we have the actual software used with a training copy of the aircraft database incorporated; again the students are hands on and it's a guided learning session with the Instructor leading the scenarios, highlighting policy and directing the lesson. Because the students are actually using the exact same software package in exactly the way they do on the aircraft - just in a sterile environment - they find the learning really good.

Added in at certain points in the course are what we call 'Integration Phases', the students will be given scenarios where they work through faults / system operation exercises on the subjects already covered, this gives them a chance to think about each system and how they work together; this avoids the 'Learn/Dump' mentality that comes from learning a subject then sitting the exam for it before moving to the next phase.

At the end there is a big (final) Integration where a number of faults are posed and the student must show how they 'fixed' it using all the tools available (Tech Docs, Databus Testing Emulation, Wiring Diagrams etc).

Before we let them loose we take them to the aircraft for a few weeks to work on the jet - guided at all times by the Instructor - in order to give them a taste of 'doing it for real'.

That answer wasn't in the list above - I picked 'Other'!