In my Health Careers classes, guest speakers can provide insight to careers not commonly considered by my students. There are many career paths in clinics and offices that students do not realize until presented by a speaker working in that area.
Hi Maksuda,
Right. And real world exposure can be extremely enlightening and motivational for students. Seeing an aspect of the work world students will soon be entering can get even some of the weaker students to shape up and try harder as the result of a good field trip.
Barry Westling
Field trips show students that what they are learning is important and is used in the real world. Guest speakers can give the students insight and tell them the mistakes they have made and what they learned from it, so that the students don't make the same mistakes. It also gives them a chance to ask questions and get a clear understanding of what to expect from the decision they made.
Hi Adam,
I think you're right. And students view them as such. To be able to hear from someone in the profession, ask questions informally, and get inspired for working in the career field is invaluable.
Barry Westling
Guest speakers can have more creditibility than you as the instructor. After time you can get former students who've been successful to come in then you typically get heightened creditability as the leader.
Hi Jennifer,
Yes, and each time a teacher takes an activity and adds something of (leraning) value to it, they're giving their students more opportunity to be successful both in class and as a worker in their career or profession.
Barry Westling
Hi Kathy,
Great! Dedicated students is always a more interesting class of students to teach to. That resistance or seeming disinterest is not present and the teacher can really present a lot of useful information to a willing-to-learn audience.
Barry Westling
I really enjoyed this section of the module. I had never thought of giving a handout card to the students for notes and to focus their attention to various items. For students to see the knowledge they are gaining in a real life setting is always a valuable tool. It helps them get excited about their career choice, especially now that they have a little knowledge on their side. It starts to make more sense seeing how it all pieces together. I also like to bring in guest speakers as they have different teaching approaches and experiences to share with the students. This helps round out the class experience.
It gives them a chance to see that there are many options of things that they can do within there chosen career field.
In my field, when we plan field trips it is usually to the operating room at facilities where we send students to clinicals. This really gets them motivated and excited when they see how all that they are learning on campus is put to practice. The students will come back more dedicated to their chosen field.
Hi Juan:
Great! When students can visualize themselves in the workplace or career area they're training for, that can motivate to higher levels of interest in their current classes and better performance. Sometimes, a student has only vague ideas about what their profession has to offer. This activity helps overcome that, often with inspirational results!
Regards, Barry
In a field like Graphic Design it field trips work very well in helping students make the connection from learning certain technical information in the classroom and then seeing the actual production of designs. The students become more engaged because they will have a more comprehensive understanding of what they're learning in class.
Hi Noah:
Absolutely - anything we can do to help encourage our students to make it through is just, be that guest speakers, field trips, one on onel interactions, etc.
Regards, Barry
Hi Nikki:
I really like field trips - they make classes interesting, students like them, and well planned trips can be quite motivational. What's good is students may see a situation that would never be seen in the classroom. Sometimes students may even begin to do better in class if they get well inspired.
Regards, Barry
As educators we don't have all of the instrumentation or access to other real life supplies the students will come into contact with. So field trips are a wonderful way to expose students to these concepts. It will make real the concepts that were covered in class and allow students to see how things really work in their future career.
Hi Lorraine:
I, too, love to schedule field trips. Sometimes they take a bit of effort to coordinate but I believe they really motivate most students and, like you've stated, give a perspective about work that can't be duplicated in the classroom.
Regards, Barry
Field trips allow them to be in the mix...something tangible they can see and feel, visualizing themselves in the office....Guest Speakers allows for a different point of view aside from the Instructor....always more than one way to accomplish the same result
Hi Daniel:
I think viewing some aspect of the career area a student is training for makes for an invaluable and (usually) memorable experience. Seeing first hand what they're getting into can arouse interest the student was unaware of, which may lead to a more motivated participant in class.
Regards, Barry
makes them relize what they are look forward to when they get out of school and get itto the real world and what they pick to do for rest of there life
Hi William:
Good perspective about field trips and guest speakers.
I think most students get a lot out of field trips. It's different from the daily class routine. Most importantly, sometimes what a student views or learns from a well planned field trip can be tremendously motivational, enough to even get them to work harder in school.Of course, they may also realize "this is not for me".
As a gust speaker, it's a bit more personal, but the benefit of being able to ask just about any questions is a novel learning activity and I've found students usually like these events. Sometimes, I'll prompt the guest to make sure they touch on this or that, but the open discussion portion is what can really inspire someone.
Regards, Barry
