Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers in Photonic Switching

This article aims at summarizing some teaching practices and approaches that, according to the literature, have a large impact on student learning. We will focus mainly on some aspects that are under direct control of the instructor: the clear definition of the intended learning outcomes, which include a model of what the student is expected to do or know after successful completion of the course, and how success will be measured; the importance of eliciting errors and misconceptions from the students, and the importance of frequent feedback to correct these; the importance of feedback to the teacher, who can use it to assess and adapt the teaching strategies. We will briefly discussion the importance of motivation. Finally, we will describe peer instruction, a teaching strategy that, in our opinion, is easy to use and that implements several of these aspects, having a high impact on learning according to the literature. Keywords— Engineering Education.