The first day that I have a group of students in my class I like to go around the room and ask students about their previous experience dealing with the subject matter. Whether its from work, school, hobbies, or family, knowing this info tells me how advanced (or unfamiliar) each individual is with the content. Additionally, once I get into my lecture I ask questions that lead into my next point. When students can foresee what I'm about to teach, then I know they have some experience.
Kelly,
Do you ever encounter students that have a negative perception about the class? For example, a student that says that they enrolled into the course "because I have to take it". If so, how do you handle those encounters?
Tremayne Simpson
I usually do a class introduction and ask the student to introduce themselves and tell the class about their prior experience, if any, in the subject. I usually also ask them what attracts them to the course and what they hope to learn from it.
I often begin with pertinent info about myself and others so as to make student more comfortable
I like to do a short pop quiz the following day. It show's me what the students are retaining from the previous day.
I teach motorcycle electrical and on the first day I give them a short pretest about basic electrical and when I introduce a new topic I play a jeopardy game for that topic to see what they know about it. At the end of the topic I play the game again as an assessment in addition to a quiz.
One of the classes I teach is the first class new students have, the "Introduction" class, if you will. On the first day I have them fill out a questionaire that asks for some basic information about them and their prior experiences, a few 'ice breakers', their basic goals and a few simple industry based questions that are very good to get a base line on their existing knowledge. I then have each student introduce themselves to the whole class, stating not only their name and where they are from but again what their goal is and specifically why they have enrolled in the course and again to briefly describe any prior experience they may have.
By the end of these two exercises, I have a very good general idea of where they are in terms of basic knowledge and it very much helps me gauge where I need to focus my attention and time in the upcoming lesson.
This is going to sound over-simplified but the best thing to do is ask; talk to them and it is not too hard to find out. Pre-tests can also be helpful to determine a benchmark for the class but my experience has been that students are all over the place and it is often easier to start at assuming they have little knowledge and then couch it in such a way as "for those of you who have experience think of this as a review..."
Since I teach Nursing, I already know the progression of previous classes my students have taken so what I do is go around the room and have each student briefly tell me if they have or have not had any experience in the health care field. Thgis helps me to understand what types of instructional deliveries I need to utilize in my classroom. I also go over the syllabus objectives line by line for understanding. I encourage verbal feedback for understanding and I utilize quizzes, assignments etc., for possible instructional adjustments if needed.
Suzanne,
This is a great example of peer-induced learning. Working with other students in the class will provide them with great networking skills and they get an opportunity to hear from someone with previous, animal-handling experience.
Tremayne Simpson
I teach at a vet tech program. I use an ice breaker to get to know the students and see what animal handling experience each student has. Then for hands-on labs, I pair the more experienced students with students who have less animal handling experience. This helps students relax when handling a horse or cow for the first time.
Matt,
What types of documents do you students learn to process in the course?
Tremayne Simpson
Dale,
Nonverbal communication can be an excellent tool for gaging student comprehension. I agree, in some cases students can "mask" their body language, however that initial reaction (usually to a difficult concept) can be quite telling for an instructor.
Tremayne Simpson
what are some suggestions for hand on acticities for a document processing class...other than just working out of the book.
A sometimes overlooked method of recognizing a student is not "getting it" is to be attentive to facial expressions during lecture classes.
Many times students who are NOT "getting it" do not overtly indicate their problems. If an instructor is attentive to that look - we've all seen it - he may stop and tell the student he recognizes a question in their expression. It doesn't work all the time, but it works frequently enough to use as one of the tools in the instructor tool kit.
I have a pre-test(points are not counted towards their grades) for the students on the first day of class to get a feel for how much they know.
Then we go through the learning objectives of course and we talk about the different skills and techniques they will be learning and should be able to answer all the questions they missed.
It not only helps me see how much they know/don't know but it also helps the students see how much they have learned when they see their scores at the end of the class with the same test.
I teach maternal child in a VN program. One thing ask is who has had a baby,seen a baby born or even watched a movie of a actual birth.
This at least gives me a baseline. Also any courses prior that involve A&P or medical terminology gives a bit of a head start.
I teach Cert Prep which is a 5 week course that prepares students for their professional certification. Basically, the first day of class the student takes a cumulative assessment so we know what material needs to be reviewed and focused on as they prepare for their certification exam.
Amy,
I agree. Since the information is highly technical, providing Socratic questioning during the lecture is essential for assess student comprehension. Application of the material can be assessed, by using a "case study" or related activity.
Tremayne Simpson
A pretest is a great way to evaluate a person however in my particular field it might be easier to use guided questions during the lecture to assess how much they know or are absorbing during the lecture. This is because we are teaching something very technicial that they probably have never been exposed to before. Since it is veyr specific I would tend to worry more about how quickly they can assimmilate the information.
