Most Learning Takes Place Outside the Classroom
This, probably more than anything in this lesson, struck a cord with me. I know it's true, and I've known it for a long time, but just seeing it now in print made me stop and ponder it anew.
I've been teaching now for about 12 years, and early on I became of aware of something pretty profound. That when I started, I thought that I would be teaching what I knew to the students. In reality, though, it turned out to be that I found out WHAT I knew by trying to teach it.
This really is the same idea as Most Learning Takes Places Outside of the Classroom. It takes place when you try to apply it at home, at work, in real life. It just so happened for me that my work WAS the classroom.
As instructors, I think we all want to help students to learn, but I think it's also easy to forget that we aren't the end-all of their education. Education and learning have to continue beyond the classroom, and, as instructors, it's really our job to help give them the tools and training to succeed not so much IN but beyond the classroom.
I think this has helped me today. And I don't know if I'm just a control freak or what because I'm already trying to come up with some ways now that I can bring Beyond the Classroom situations INTO the classroom. :-D
Hi Cynthia,
I like your approach a lot. This approach helps to create a sense of realism for the students and have two strategies to think about the next time they use a library.
Gary
I know that I really rely in this concept. As a librarian, I am a guest teacher in various classes and will only be in that position once or twice for any given class. I have so much information to try to get across in such a small amount of time that I try to really stick to only the essentials. Still, listening to a lecture on how to do library research can be irrelevant and/or confusing. I work to do as much hands-on as I can and ask students to teach each other techniques they've just used. No matter what, I know that the students will only really learn these skills when it's critical - and sometimes that's 10pm the night before the paper is due.
So really, every time I teach, I know students will walk out feeling confused or as though they just learned extraneous info. I just hope that when it comes time for them to do the research they'll remember my two big points:
1. ask a librarian, it's not cheating
2. research is messy - don't be afraid to dig around
I am an instructor of a very hands-on field. I tell my students all the time that the real learning begins at the job site. I just try to perpare the student for the career he or she has pick. We, as instructors, give so much information that its not possible for a student to remeber it all. The more a student performs in the field the more they will remember what was taught in the school.
Hi Sarah,
Great tie in. I like this approach. This really helps move the student along in understanding how what they are going to learn in your English Comp class is going to apply to their lives.
Gary
I like to acknowledge this on the second day of class in English Comp. The writing prompt for the day is to describe an example of something important that they have learned outside of school. It potentially ties in well to the first assignment, which is a personal narrative, and it lets my students know that I don't think they're ignorant.
Hi John,
What a great example of how learning really occurs in many different settings. Thank you for sharing it. It will make us instructors take pause and then consider how we can make out of class applications so our students will see the relevancy of what they are learning.
Gary
