Adult learners need to make that connection between classroom content and real life experiences. I spend quite a bit of time making connections between course material and personal experiences. I encourage my students to share their own experiences, as well as share my own.
Mary,
yes & when we provide ways for them to share this information it validates their experience & encourages them to be even more engaged.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Most of my students are mid 30 age range. Their life experiences are varied and full of information to mine in my microbiology class. When what I teach is validated by their experiences that's the information that they remember.
Adult learners have gotten past the "I have to learn" stage of their lives, and now it's the " I WANT to learn " to advance or change a career.
As a child, it was hard to understand how some learning applied to anything relivant.
By using life experiences as examples, an adult learner can demonstrate personally why some things are important to life as they have lived it.
Being able to relate new content of study to previous life experience will help the student to grasp the content and quickly learn the application of the content.
It helps everyone to understand each other a little better and maybe be more tolerant. It also makes the person feel others care about them.
Using life experiences allows students to feel as if they have something to contribute to the class. Hopefully this will motivate them to contribute in other ways as well. Also, using life experiences in the classroom keeps students interested in the material.
I believe students crave to share their life experiences because they want to give their "2 cents" and feel that they are contributing to others learning. It also gives them motivation to keep learning.
Using life experiences in the classroom provides students with a much better positive outecome about life, with understanding no one is perfect so learn from the mistakes and keep moving in life situations.
Adult learners have tremendous life experiences and including those experiences in the classroom inmproves contextualization.
Many times students prefer to hear life experiences of fellow students as opposed to only those of the instructor - in part because they may seem more connected to "the real world" the way it is now - not back when the instructor was out there. That isn't always true but if frequently the perception. Many times their stories bring up vital points that the instructor and class can expound on. Almost everyone likes to talk about their successes and some don't mind sharing failures or stories with a less than ideal outcome if they feel their class mates can learn from their story.
Hi Jim,
It always amazes me to see the less experienced students perk up when listening to life examples from those students with life experiences. It gives them something to shoot for. They are motivated to continue as they hear these stories.
Velma
Hi Eddy,
I agree with your comments. Students really enjoy hearing about the experiences so that they can get a feel of what life in that career will be like.
Velma
Using life experiences in the classroom helps the students to better connect with the material. It allows them to feel that the information they are learning is relevant to their lives, and this will motivate them to continue to learn. As other share their life experiences they become engaged in class and other students are able to learn from those experiences. They can then connect those examples to the subject they are learning.
Velma
It also may be encouraging for students to recognize while the classroom may be very diverse in student backgrounds, sometimes they struggle through the same things.
I FIRMLY BELIEVE THAT WE ALL CAN TEACH AND SECONDLY, CAN LEARN FROM ONE ANOTHER IN ANY CLASS. FOR EXAMPLE, ONE OF MY ARMY VETERANS IN MY HUMANITIES CLASS THAT EXAMINED ART HISTORY FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE 14TH CENTURY TAUGHT US ALL WHERE THE BIBLICAL PROPHET, JONAH, IS BURIED IN IRAQ BECAUSE HE HAD BEEN THERE. THE LOCATION IS MOSUL. THAT WAS NOT IN THE TEXTBOOK BUT FROM HIS PERSONAL LIFE EXPERIENCE. HE FELT PRETTY NICE AFTER HE SAW THE CLASS' REACTION TO HIS INFORMATION. I LEARNED WHAT I HAD NOT KNOWN UP TO THAT POINT AFTER MY 52 YEARS OF CLASSROOM TEACHING EXPERIENCE.
Michael,
these are all great reasons to encourage the students to share those life experiences & provide rich material for discussion & reflection.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
It helps students relate to what they are learning. I always use my career experiences as examples in the classroom to help them understand a particular situation and to get an open conversation going in the classroom.
Adult learners sometimes feel out of place and that they don't know much. Their life experiences enrich the class and give application to what is being learned and helps them realize that life has taught them many things.
I share life experiences, both of success and failure, so the students know that I can relate to them wherever they are and wherever they've been. I want them to know that success is not guaranteed and failure is not final. I want them to hope and expect success as they apply the knowledge and principles they are learning. And I ask them to share life experiences so we know each other better and appreciate the journey of learning we are on together!
