I compleatly agree. Most of my students are straight out of high school and have little idea outside of fast food service, what really goes on in the industry. The students that have worked in actual kitchens have a natural advantage. They know the drill when they walk into the classroom. Even something as simple as a field trip to a local bakery would give our students a heads up of what they will need to learn.
In my writing classes, I use an "anonymous praise" system. After a major writing assignment, I will compile brief excerpts from the students' work into a page or two, and distribute it to the entire class - excerpts that I find particularly interesting, compelling, or well written. I introduce it by saying it consists of "what some of your colleagues had to say about this topic" or something similar. Use of the word "colleague" is intended to empower the students, to get them to think that they're more than JUST students - they are, more often than not, working professionals, and in that sense, they ARE colleagues with their fellow classmates, sometimes literally, in their workplaces. I also want the whole experience to be a bit of a reward - it's fun to see those students who recognize their own excerpts frequently admit to it, and I can see the pride in their faces as they do so. I also tell them that its not even a "greatest hits" collection, and that some of the portions I might even disagree with. The point of that is to reassure them that their comments do have validity even if I (as Instructor Guy) disagree with the viewpoint. They're so conditioned to think in terms of "correct" and "incorrect" that I want to reinforce that in my field, at least, success is not so determined by "correctness," but rather, by effectiveness - so I try to highlight individual displays of effective writing.
I also believe integrating more hands-on, "lab" experiences (I use this term loosely, since a lab in biology and a "lab" in an IT class can be different things) will help motivate students. Career college students want to use the information they learn in a variety of ways--just sitting in the classroom is not one of them. Students want to interact and apply the knowledge they gained; if they can't, they typically think the information and class was a waste of their time.
I teach CADD and the first couple of terms I taught, I couldn't get away from students asking me what I want on an assignment, or a particular project. What I wanted was for the student to use their newly aquired skills and creativity in order to solve graphic problems with the use of CADD. There were no "wrong" answers, but as long as it was me vs. them, they seemed to do the absolute minimum. So I started putting the assignments/projects into the context of a real project, where they were going to meet with a "client" and present their solution. This made my role more of a facilitator in order to ask potential questions that a client might ask in order to help prepare them for their "meeting". Creating this fictional "client" really took the focus off of what I wanted, and made the student ask what a make-believe-third-party-that-isn't available-for-questions want, which in turn seemed to drive them to start asking and answering as well as creating and solving their own problems.
I follow a pretty basic process for homework assignments in my class. I teach the topic and then give students an opportunity to work a problem together in class which I go over before class ends. Then I assign homework that starts with easier problems, then more difficult, then fairly difficult.
I do it this way so that if frustration happens, the student have already had a lot of success on the topic -- since the frustration doesn't usually happen until the last problem.
I think field trips to sites exhibiting what is being learned in the classroom are great motivators for students. They are able to see how what they're studying is applied and may also be able to picture themselves at their future jobs. (Plus, sometimes just a change of location does wonders to make studies more interesting.)
I like to ask students to share with the class their successes in their career. What they have found works and what does not work and why. This approach really works when they return back to class from an Externship. When you manage the conversation and they start sharing what went right they all learn and are motivated to go back out to extern and put in to action the items discussed.
One of the best ones I found was to have a guest speaker that was a former student of mine come in and discuss what she learned is school and her current position. The students could have listened to her for hours.
I have a restaurant for a classroom. It is quite easy to show the relevance between the learning process and the career field. I can show them on a day to day basis how knowledge and skills can be applied directly. I challenge to use these skills as they are working while taking my class.
I like to give examples of how the lesson we are working on or information I am giving them will help them down the road in their career or jobs.
I also share stories from graduates. These stories tell how a particular class or infomation that they learned in class was relevant to their job. I find this to be motivating for students who do not think what they are learning in a course will help them in the "real world."
Giving students hands on projects that will relate to their future profession. Allowing them to setup a proposal for a fake restuarant for instance and experience getting the business going from the ground up.
Develope a knowledge and understanding of students, needs and problems. The understanding of each students current (and past) situations will help the instructor creat a positive learning environment.
Periodicals pertaining to their chosen field often sparks interest, or rekindles interest by allowing the student to see the practical aspects of the material covered in class. Weekly discussions of current events (those pertaining to the class) with critical analysis of these events will often lead to some interesting discussions, which starts the class off on the right foot and tends to motivate the work of every student.
Hi Jeff,
What are some of the ways you have found that students are motivated in using seasonal ingredients to prepare meals?
Gary
Instructors can always go with the seasons and motivate students by relating the seasonal stuff that is prevalent in the worls. In a cooking school that means food that goes along with the seasons and motivates the student to make things at home for their family.
Using examples from real life helps individuals to understand the material better. Real life examples are some situations or examples that many adult learners understand. Being able to relate the material to what they have done or will be doing helps the individuals to understand the material. Discussion with the students input is an effective way as well as long as it does not get too carried away.
I think showing enthusiasm is a great technique. I try to be enthusiastic in my teaching. Also, I think giving the students examples of how they can use the subject material in the real world is helpful. This can help motivate them to learn the material.
hands on learning and life experiences are great techniques, also acknowledging the progress when students struggle with daily assignments. It helps them relax and you might get a smile out of them.
Hi Mike,
This is what application and relevancy is all about for students. They are doing "live" work for real customers. They are getting valuable experience from having these opportunities.
Gary
Hi Gina,
Good point. Examples of both kinds of experiences help the students to see the value of the education they are engaged in. Plus they can avoid some of the pitfalls through these examples.
Gary
