The learning environment plays a critical role in the instructional process because it helps the student gain a practical understanding of what he/she will experience in the work force. While nothing can provide more benefit that real world hands-on experience, the educational learning environment will help them be more confident and controlled.
Hi Eulalia,
Right you are about helping to connect the content of your course to the future of your students. They need to see the reason you are teaching what you are and how it applies to their career preparation. When you help them see this connection their motivation levels will rise.
Gary
In addition to making the learning environment comfortable and conducive to learning, I also try to bring the work related learning tools and activities to the class. I believe that we should build a good foundation in relation to the students starting their new careers. I introduced practical problem activities to give students visual version of the work related daily activities they will encounter in the real world environment. This should give them confidence in their career goals.
To be able to give students real life experience to compare what they are learning in class and be able to apply it to the real world.
Hi Deborah,
You are right about the challenge of reflecting the work place with the courses you teach. I really like how you are focusing in on helping your students develop the "soft skills" of career success by teaching them what it means to be a professional. This will transfer to their work life and enable them to get a start on their careers because they know what the expectations are.
Gary
i agree it needs to be a close as possible to the rral world workplace.
I think it is possible to mimic the "real world" work setting in courses such as those of the medical, message or vet tech programs where the courses are taught in a clinic setting with hands on experience. For instructors such as myself who teach business, it's a bit more difficult to mimic the real world setting. No one knows if these students will work from home, in a large corp or small family owned business. However, one way we can help them is to demonstrate professionalism. No cell phones, be respectful, dress a bit nicer when doing a class presentation. We can also lead by example.
Initially this enviroment is intimadating for the student, and for a first time instructor, Idealism and reality sometimes do not meet in the middle. Students do need to have real life experiences to compare the theory with, the recent "internships" have allowed for the ideal to meet reality, there is tremendous valaue with this approach, the only thing is to insure the preceptors are quality folks to assist with the process.
We should make it as close to the real working enviorment that the students will have when they graduate.
Hi Beth,
You are helping your students to acquire the needed career skills along with the customer/client skills needed for career success. Both of these are essential and the quicker the students realize this the more they can work on acquiring them throughout their education.
Gary
In a brick & mortar setting, it is crucial for the atmosphere to feel safe and comfortable. In an online setting, the voice and tone should be friendly and the navigation process should be user-friendly. ~ Sandra Frempong
Essential role. I teach massage therapy so in addtion to the practical skills they learn; I teach them appropriate dialogue in the classroom and set the tone for using that dialogue during class so it carries over into the "real world". They know that professionalism in the classroom and proper dialogue/tone etc. will become second nature when they leave the classroom.
the learning environment should be as close to a realistic job experience as can be. ours i believe is very close, I believe once the students leave they appreciate this more.
To prepare students to take their classroom experience to the field.
I think the instructional process is effected in many ways by the environment. The main way would be if the setting is that which facilitates the lessons to be taught - ie the proper lab equipment available, a comfortable yet apropriate room for lecture, etc.
In order for students to obtain the most positive and effective learning possible the instructor must create an enviroment that the student feels comfortable and confident in order to maximise the best learning potential.
I think that the learning environment should foster not only learning, but further investigation into a subject, igniting the students desire to learn more on a topic just touched on in class.
You have a good point Kelly. Students should also be ready for the fact that work places may differ from one to another. They need to be ready to adapt the change.
Learning environment should be done that support s the learning in oppose to a being struggle for the students.
Some fields may allow you to do that, however what I look for in a classroom is space (to spread out the textbook and working papers), temp., lighting and being able to shut off distractions. In beginning accounting, we need to be able to teach the basics just like in baseball or basketball. If the students do not understand the elements of a transaction (what happened?, what accounts are affected? and how does this affect the accounting transaction?) It is hard to prepare them for a client dropping Wal-mart plastic bags on the table and saying "Well, here are my records, can you tell me how much of a refund I can get?"
