Learning styles...reading
I find many of my students don't want to read to find needed information in a technical manual. I have to use the threat of a grade deduction to force many to use a manual and to read a proceedure before performing a task. Does anyone have a tip on how to motivate these students to grab a manual and find the information on their own? I feel they are only using a manual because I'm grading them and when there's no threat of grading (when they enter the workforce) they'll just rush into the activity w/o reading the proceedure first.
That is a great idea Marc, but you have to be careful. You have to include an instruction that will instruct them to read all of it first. For example the last instruction could be: Read the all forms before starting. This should be the last instruction on the list. This will keep the students from just "following the instructions".
Another factor to add to the mix is to put a time limit on completion. This will get the students to rush and more than likely skip reading the instructions all together.
RW
I think that you are on to something. I have had several students that were reading only at a elementry school level eventhough they are high school grads. However as an automotive tech they will have the need to acess vast amounts of technical material. I do my best to encourage the use of the course book through review sheets that require them to lookup information. Most of my students feel more at home in the lab with hands on work and being able to use their verbal skills instead of reading.
It seems to me the majority of our students are from the show me generation.They want the instructor to show them where to find it in the manual how to perform the task and then stand by guide them thru the process while they do it.Mean while they refuse to take any notes to help them self.Some students it seems that there reading skills are so poor that they are embarrassed to admit they can not read what is required of them.We need to inforce the benefit of self education in the feild to be productive and to continue advancing there knowledge.
I LOVED that Marc! Thanks for sharing.
Several years ago I had a teacher that was very frustrated with the students because the majority of them didn't read the instructions completely before beginning an assignment.
He decided to give an assignment in class and he made it abundantly clear that the students must read all instructions before beginning and those who didn't would receive a lower grade.
The assignment had 3 pages of instructions but after reading the first paragraph the students had enough information to do the assignment, or so they thought.
The last paragraph included the line "if you've read this far, turn your paper in blank and you will receive a grade of 100%"
He finally convinced the students to read all instructions before beginning an assignment.
How about separating your class into two groups? One group reads the manual and then does the procedure. The other class just does the procedure. You might also have a third group that assesses the 2 groups on time utilized and effectiveness of completion and bottom line of course which group did the best overall job. Prizes would be an additional reinforcement.
