Adriel,
So true in relation to comments about having to remind students about how all of their courses contribute to their career growth. They often get bogged down with being students and forget that they are in fact making progress toward their stated career goals.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
As a pharmacology instructor I often have to remind students to recall their classes in anatomy and physiology, biology, microbiology, etc to understand class content. with patience the student will see that the classes are meant to strengthen his/her knowledge and give a broader understanding of the course as a whole.
Sara,
I do to. These are the moments that keep me coming back to the classroom day after day. I like the way you relate your content to everyday items like car motors. Sounds like a fun and interesting approach.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I love those moments when they "get it"! I always try to find ways to relate learning to something that they know about already. I teach Massage, so body systems are sometimes hard for them to learn. I try to relate it to things like braker boxes and motors of cars. And they eat it up!
Christopher,
Repetition and reinforcement are two key elements of learning. By the end of the course the students will have the key concepts buried in their working memories.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I repeat the main points in class, over and over. I continually question and asses them over the same main points that I repeat and emphasize, during the lecture.
As an instructor, it would be an important process when completing the daily lessons. Students need real life scenarios and examples to completely understand this lesson.
Marita,
Your strategy takes me back to my elementary years when we used flash cards and drilled ourselves on them for math and spelling. They were highly effective then and still are today. We tend to forget about this method because of all the technology we have available. This is very low tech but results in good return.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
utilizing multimedia examples, movies and visual data
I agree that repetition is a great way to learn. I encourage students to take 3 x 5 cards writing a question on one side and the answer on the other. These can be carried anywhere and the student can lay aside the questions they know, concentrating on what they don't know.
After lecturing, have the students apply what they learned. Sometimes this is done through group discussion, worksheets, or even a game or some sort. For instance, in medical terminology, students hear the lecture, they play games in class with flashcards or jeopardy, etc. They may also be assigned sheets from their workbook, to reinforce what they have learned. The next day when they enter the classroom, throw out a term at each of them as they enter the room, from the lesson the day before, and have them give the meaning, combining form, etc. This will also reinforce their learning, help them to apply it to their relevant field, and they will look forward to meeting that daily challenge.
There are many ways to help students retain information. The most important thing, in my opinion, is to figure out what is going to work on your students. One valuable way is by repetition. The more you see, hear, and say something, the better your chances are of remembering it. I prefer to do many different things for repetition, but remember to only utilize what works for your students.
Jennifer,
You have a great way of engaging your students and getting them to focus on their futures. From then on it is a building process in terms of respect and rapport. Keep up the good work.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I teach Medical Secretaries. Most of the knowledge they receive in my class is new to them. Showing enthusiasm for the subject is the best way to get them interested. Once they are interested it gets easier. I ask them during the first class what they want to get out of their education and then play to that answer. If they are looking for a job that they won’t be laid off from, the fact that the medical field is hard to outsource is the angle I use. If they want good pay I tell them how much certified coders are paid at a local hospital.
One of their first projects is to write a report on 20 Wonderful things about themselves. It’s easy to come up with bad things about yourself, much harder to come up with good things. This gives them a positive feeling about themselves. And gives me more to work with about them.
Give them a project to do that uses the new information that is personal to them.
Students are given classroom learning in lectures, group discussions, computer application etc., along with virtual laboratory hands on application and clinical experiences associated with the appropriate subject matter. This repetition helps facilitate the application of new knowledge.
To retain new concepts I have found that review is needed the beginning of each class. During this review I ask the students for examples of the concepts we have learned during past sessions.
Michael,
You are meeting the instructional needs of your students in the setting in which you are teaching. With the volume of content you have to cover your approach gets the students through it but you are aware of the volume and are striving to engage the students with change of pace and variety. I commend you for this. Many of us have to work in less than ideal instructional settings and I believe our creativity and professionalism enables us to adapt to such settings and still do a good job of teaching. Keep up the good work.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I unfortunately overuse powerpoints because of the tremendous amount of information, but stop often with many breaks and tell a short personal story from my professional life and ask a question. Since critical thinking is such a large part of nursing, I want the student to use and develop it early and associate it with any and all of the concepts we teach. This gives them a chance to use the nursing process all along their student career and apply it in both didactic and clinical situations. Apply the theory where they will need to in actual clinical situations so the two are congruent. I am able to support them and slowly withdraw that support as confidence and ability increases.
Kevin,
I like this approach a lot. You are letting them have fun with a common task but applying it to a technical skill area. The end result is knowledge acquisition and content retention. A win win for everyone. Keep up the good work.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
