My most memorable learning experience

My most memorable learning experience was 5 years ago in a workshop called the instructional skills workshop.

This was the first workshop I attended as a faculty at Dubai Men's College. This workshop was organized for faculty to improve our teaching and learning methods. It was an intensive four day workshop where we were required to organize 3 mini-lessons of 10 minutes each on any subject of our choice and deliver it to the other participants(They say teachers make the worst students!!). It sounded simple enough, until I found out that each lesson should contain 5 elements called the bridge, learning objective, pre-test, participatory learning and post-test. This seemed quite challenging in such a short period of time. And to make matters worse, each lesson was going to be recorded!!! A feedback session with the facilitator followed after each lesson with open and honest feedback comments.. ouch.. honesty hurts!

This was my first impression of the workshop. However, when I got into it, it turned out to be one of my most memorable learning experiences and I mean that in a good way! I learnt how to plan lessons, get students to participate, accommodate various learning styles and to deliver something effectively in a short period of time. Constructive feedback from facilitators and peers added value to my learning and helped me to improve my lessons. I also got an opportunity to attend mini-lessons of my peers and observe different teaching styles. The lessons itself were enjoyable like learning about gardening and different ways of tying knots, however the creative ways of delivering those lessons was what captured my attention. All in all it was a great learning experience and not to mention the free lunch, that was icing on top of the cake ;)!


This experience showed me that we can learn a lot from each other if we share our practices and that constructive criticism given in a friendly, honest and open way is an eye opener. This experience also showed me that there is more than one way to deliver a lesson and mine may not always be the best or the most creative one. There is always room for improvement and that's what makes teaching fun and dynamic.