Teaching - Dr. M. Emal Alekozai 's Homepage

Questions/ Feedback/ Critics

Your questions, feedback, and critics are always welcome. My lectures can only improve with your feedback! You can contact me:

Before or after the lecture or during the breaks.
Per e-mail 'teaching --AT-- alekozai --DOT-- com'.
Or anonym via the form below.

My Teaching Philosophy

Role of the Teacher

The main role of the teacher is that of a “facilitator” of the learning process (C. Rogers 1951). I set up the binding frame of the lecture, encourage the students to ask questions, and shape with me the lecture.

Role of the Students

During the lecture I will try to create activating learning situations by doing group exercies and by asking general question. The aim is to win as many students as possible as “active partners” (de Shozer 1982). In the sense that the students are actively engaged and see learning as their self responsibility (J. Dunlosky et al. 2013). During the course the students should learn to generalize concepts, ask new questions, and do the transition from surface to sustainable learning.

Learning Agreement

At the beginning of the course the students will setup together with me a “learning agreement” (LA) for the course. The LA gives the students an opportunity to reflect on their goals for this course. The LA will be published on the course website.

Lecture Form

In the lecture the concepts of “theme centered interaction” will be applied (R. Cohn 1975). The learning activities will vary between single, small group, and plenum work. I will try to constantly shift the lecture focus between the “I” (former experience of each student), “IT” (lecture content), and “WE” (develop new structures and pattern as a group) levels.

Lecture Content

The learning objectives and content of the course are defined based on the learning outcome. They will cover in each unit following four “SOLO” levels (J. Biggs and K. Collins 1982):

Unstructured: Focusing on one conceptual issue in a complex case (terminology, list or name something etc.).
Multistructural: Enumerating details (describe in your own words etc.).
Relational: Relating detailed information within a discourse (compare different informations, analyze the difference, apply to new problems etc.).
Extended abstract: Forming new ideas (reflect and generalize concepts, ask new questions, and come up with new hypothesis etc.).

Lecture Design

The attention span of an adult learner can not keep focused for more then approx. 20 minutes (D. Dukette et al. 2009) and the number of new informations which can be kept in working memory is limited to 7 +/- 2 (G. A. Miller 1956). Each teaching unit is designed based on the “sandwich principle” (D. Wahl et al. 1993). Each layer of the course sandwich will last if possible not longer then 20 minutes and is followed by a group activity or an exercise. The new informations presented in each layer are presented such that they can be related to previous knowledge of the learner or are grouped such that the amount of new informations in each group do not exceed 7 +/-2. Particular attention is put on the begin, end of each unit, and the transition between individual sandwhich layers.