Motivation
In our courses the students seem to be more motivated when we are doing hands on work. A majority of our students are just out of high school and are tired of book learning
This pertains to me in many positive ways, such as: Exsperience with dealing with teenagers in prior teaching situations I have come to learn that excitement is a great motivation in the class and can provide great learning atmosphere. Hands on work is a joy for the students in many ways, it sets the tone for positive work as well as intense learning.
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I agree with the hands on work being more attractive for the students we currently have attending the school. Most are fresh out of high school and in some cases can't correlate book/theory with a technical career. They feel the only way to learn is by doing. As an instructor, my job is to deliver technical information that will enable a student to perform the hands-on activity without them becoming frustrated. While it is ok to make some mistakes while they attempting a project, it can be a negative experience if too many errors occur during the lab experience. Preparation is one key to a successful outcome. Motivating the students by acknowledging their successes stimulates them into being more active in both the lab and lecture environment.
I beleive that we as educators are a great source of motivation to our student, if you are excited by the material you are presenting or demonstrating, the more excited you are the more motivated the students are.
Another big motivator is competitive games in the classroom to test skills and knowledge. Especially if there is a fun reward to the winners.
I try to motivate my students before I take them to lab by laying out the monitary rewards of what they are about to practice.
Some of the subject matter that I teach is not aligned with the reasons that some of the students came to this school, or so they believe. In reality it is information that will be helpful if not necessary through out their lives as well as careers. The trick is to verbally get them to see some importance then to create a safe, simple but some what difficult lab task that creates questions about procedures etc. Then by guiding the Q & A session to support the subject matter the student buy-in is usually better.
I also see more motivation when we get them to a lab setting to practice wat they have learned. This helps keep the excitement up and keep them involved and anticipating what is coming next.
What I love from the class the I'm teaching currently is the is the first production class and they are very motivered to get there hand in to it.
I think there needs to be a combination of all methods to keep everyone interested in the coursework
Onces they get to my class thay our at the end of the school and it is hard to get them motivated to work hard. they figer that it is the end and they do not have to do much.
I ALSO EXPERIENCE THE SAME, MOST OF MY STUDENTS GET MORE MOTIVATED WHEN WE DO PRACTICAL EXERSISE, THEY GET VERY EXITED WHEN THEY HAVE HANDS ON COOKING.
I agree with your comments. My course is the first production kitchen that the students come to and they are so excited to get their hands dirty.
Hi Robert,
This is common with this group of students and I think it is a great opportunity for them to start to see relevance to what they learned in high school and will now learn in the post secondary setting. They get to tie together both the knowledge and the application part of their ongoing educational journey.
Gary
