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Scholarship July 3, 2025

Trouble-shooting Your Teaching: A step-by-step guide to analysing and improving your practice

The Wabash Center

Author
Squires, Geoffrey
Publisher
RoutledgeFalmer, London, UK
ISBN
0749440554
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction

ch. 1 Trouble-shooting the session
Does your teaching build on the students' previous learning?
Do the students know where they are going?
Are the students getting the inputs they need?
Do the students understand what they are learning?
Are the learning tasks appropriate?
Do the students get enough feedback?
Are the students motivated to learn?
Do the students believe in themselves?
Do the students find their learning rewarding?
Do the students explore what they learn?
Do the students reflect on their learning?

ch. 2 Trouble-shooting the course
Are the students on the right course?
Do they know what to expect?
Have they got the resources for learning?
Is the course manageable?
Is the course well delivered?
Do the students know how to go about their studies?
Are the teachers good models?
Do the students get the support they need?
Do the students learn from one another?
Is there a good learning environment?
Is education valued in the wider community?
Are the assessment criteria satisfactory?
Are the assessment methods and procedures satisfactory?
Are the results as good as expected?
Was the course a positive experience for everyone?

ch. 3 Managing it all
Are things well organized?
Are problems dealt with quickly?
Is there adequate planning?
Is there effective evaluation?
Is there sufficient stability?
Is there enough development?
Is staff morale good?
Is there appropriate leadership?
Are there the resources to do the job?

App. 1 What's going on?
App. 2 Whose job is it anyway?
App. 3 Guidelines for workshop leaders
App. 4 A note for foreign readers

Further reading
Notes
This self-assessment guide will help all teaching professionals - whether in higher education, schools or management training - to assess, critique, reflect on and improve practice.

The book is based on extensive research carried out at the Institute for Learning at the University of Hull. Fully practical, it looks at the generic skills of teaching, and guides readers to consider their own work both in the light of best practice and of their own strengths and weaknesses. In so doing it will help to assess and build teaching that is best for the individual and their situation.

Developed around the basic functions of teaching, rather than the methods used to actually deliver learning, the Guide shows readers how to identify key elements of their teaching, and its context, and uses a matrix approach to suggest routes to bring about change.

"Trouble-Shooting Your Teaching" will help to identify possible problem factors (intake, course, materials, teaching, support, assessment); to recognize agents of change (learners, self, colleagues, support staff, management, stake-holders); and to initiate improvement. It will be a valuable self-help tool for any teacher who is concerned about diagnosing, understanding and developing his or her own practice. (From the Publisher)