Content and performance Standards
I think that is very important to highlight for students what constitutes content, fact, information. And provide a measurable standard of performance. In my case, in technical college, it provides a measurable guideline to determine satisfactory performance. Students learn to see what are the basic, and the possible outcomes of their performance
Content and performance standard is very important in the field that I'm teaching. Skills that the student learn from hands-on training are measured base on their performanace standard.
David,
I agree. I feel that it is important for the objectives to be written in a clear and succinct format. This will assist the student with understanding how the objectives align with their programmatic outcomes.
Tremayne Simpson
Yes, sometimes the student needs to be patient so they can see the larger picture and how individual parts of the lesson create a larger whole. In my experience, you can't make them wait for too long. The objectives need to be clearly stated in active terms that let the student know exactly how they relate to their career goals. I like the idea of clearly stated standards so students know when they've been successful and their confidence begins to build.
oriole,
Instructors quickly learn that you can't make any assumptions, when it comes to students' retention of information or prior knowledge. Some of the best instructional innovations, come from a discovery in a class lecture.
Tremayne Simpson
Boy,
I made this mistake as a new teacher. I just expected that everyone knew how to read a ruler. It wasn't until midway throgh the class that I realized almost all of students didn't have a clue what 1/4 inch was and wouldn't ask.
Once I realized that they didn't know, I spent a weekend designing a ruler graph with all the measurements blocked out in different colors as well as a tape measure done in the same colors. This was a huge hit, and discussion of fractions and how to read a ruler are now in all my begining and sometime sr. classes.
I try to make sure that my students start by understanding "the basics" and show them the progression of what we are learning is set on the "basics" foundation. For example, currently, I am teaching a math class for pharmacy technicians. We start with basic math (fractions, decimals, addition, etc.) and move onto more involved equations. I need to make sure that the students understand that without a working knowledge of basic math, they will not be able to perform dosage calculations for a patient or figure out rates to determine how much of an IV solution will be needed in a period of time. I also must emphasize to the students how what they are learning today in the classroom will be used by them throughout their career. We try to build upon the knowledge given in 1 module and expand on it in the next.
Melinda,
I agree. Informing the students about the course progression of information can be done by explaning the "hierarchy" of learning objectives (if they are not in order on the syllabus, they should be explained in a progressive format) and the explanation of the learning taxonomy and how it applies to the delivery of course content.
Tremayne Simpson
In any field that we teach it is important to be clear where you start in learing and where we expect the students to be at the end of a course. I always try and make it clear on the first day that you might not understand everything I am telling you today but it will all soon come together when we start working on it. If it's not coming together for you I need for you to stop me and we will go over it again....I have been able to do this because my classes are small....
