301 Observational Learning Report

For my observation learning report, I decided to observe my institute teacher. He is quite different from the institute teacher we had last semester. At the beginning of class he told us that we needed to find someone we didn’t know and sit next to them. Then he had “get to know you” questions ready on his slides to ask each other. We had one minute to find out about each other. We repeated this until we had met five new people. When he had us sit down, he asked us to all sit in the middle of the classroom and fill up the empty seats. By this simple activity, Brother Gibbs showed that his teaching method involved the class being friends and knowing one another. These activities seemed to bring the class together. I noticed a difference from the way institute was last semester, and I think that these strategies were beneficial. I know that as a learner in the classroom I felt like I could be friends with the people in my class because I now knew who they were and I became excited to come to institute for the rest of the semester. There is a definite difference in the atmosphere when you feel comfortable in a learning environment.

Brother Gibbs also introduced himself and he told us that he wanted us to know him and not think of him as just another teacher we listened to for an hour. We found out that he is legally blind and he told us a little about some of the experiences that he has had. This strategy was similar to the first activity because it was fostering an environment where students feel safe and welcome. While this was a good strategy, Brother Gibbs went off on a few tangents telling personal stories instead of covering lesson material. His stories were interesting, but the reason we came to institute was to learn more about the gospel. He spent about 15 minutes telling us stories, which is one thing that I would change if I were to teach the lesson he did; it took time out of the content.

For the lesson, we discussed one of President Hinckley’s talks about faith, which we all read before we came. Brother Gibbs had a few points listed that we discussed. I noticed, however, that he let the students do more talking than he as the teacher was doing. He was adding comments, but overall the student talk was greater than the teacher talk. This was a good strategy because it allowed the students to gain from each other’s knowledge and insights. It was a good balance and I felt like I learned a lot from what others said as well as what Brother Gibbs said. The lesson that we had on faith was uplifting and I feel like one of the only things I would have changed would have been to have more time for the actual lesson. I hadn’t analyzed a teacher’s style in a religious setting, but I found that Brother Gibbs definitely has good teaching strategies to help his students gain more knowledge.