Textile Teaching & Learning Initiative

This Site Provides

• Methods of instruction that complement an instructor's teaching style.
• Techniques that maximize communication with students with different learning styles.
• Results of an industry survey on skills that are valued in employees.
• Guidelines for incorporating workplace skill development into curricula.

The examples contained in this site were developed for textile related courses, but are adaptable to other subject areas.

• Appreciate individual learning styles .
• Fine-tune your instructional and performance assessment methods making them assessable for a variety of learning styles.
• Consciously structure instruction, discussion and assignments in order to cultivate higher order thinking skills.
• Acknowledge and enrich your classroom environment by utilizing student diversity.
  

Industry requirements are often not the focus of college learning. When educators focus on a comprehensive presentation of relevant theories, the practicalities and applications of solving day-to-day problems are often neglected. But what does the industry want from its employees? As part of this initiative, a survey of NTC industry partners was conducted to identify critical competencies and trade-offs of classical versus work-centered curricula elements. The respondents rated their level of satisfaction with recent hires according to various workplace skills, ranked the importance of these skills, and determined the amount of relative emphasis which should be placed on these skills compared to traditional academic skills. Creative thinking, problem solving, and decision making are the competencies that could benefit most from increased emphasis in your classroom. Additional information on the survey is contained in survey results and the October 2001 NTC Annual Report.

The links below provide guidelines to maximize critical thinking with varied pedagogical approaches.

• Lecture - formal and orderly expression of thought on a subject.
• Socratic Dialog - systematic questioning of students to elicit a clear expression of a concept.
• Formatted Discussions ­ explore complex ideas, problems, etc. where there are multiple correct answers.
• Group Projects - students work in teams on research projects.
  

Teaching styles are strongly influenced by instructor's personality. Teaching style assessments challenge existing approaches to instruction. These tools are provided to promote reflection and to enable instructors to fully utilize their teaching strengths.