Ed,
Good way to get and keep student interest. The more connection you can make to their future in terms of stories and applications the more they will be engaged.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
For me, retention means keeping the topic relevant. I base much of my instruction on my personal -professional experience, and the students respond well to that.
Daniel,
Student success is why instructors keep coming back to the classroom. Love it when the light bulb comes on and you know they "got it".
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I agree its a great feeling when students succeed
Valarie,
I am a big fan of stories from the field for the reasons you list. They help to capture the attention of students and get them motivated when it comes realizing the value of the course content being shared.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I agree that telling them stories helps to keep them motivated and interested. I use stories from my years in the Cosmetology and Human Resources fields often. It helps the students to see real life side of the career path they have chosen. It usually gets them to add their own stories, and helping them to make real life connections.
Fiorella,
Thank you for sharing your comprehensive approach to providing support to your students. This way your students can see how and what they need to do to achieve success in the course. Then it is up to them to put forth the needed time and effort to be successful.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
These are some things that I do in the classroom:
1) Establish clear expectations of assignments on course syllabi
2) Get to know your students (ie their name, major, etc) and relate topics by major if possible
3) Talk to students aside if you notice them "slipping" and try to link them to campus resources
4) Be consistent with student, your expectations of them should be their expectations of you (i.e. grading, feedback, timeliness, etc.)
5) Relate your experiences in the field to the classroom and if possible, take them on field trips.
6) Help them see this as a stepping stone to graduation and remind them of the "end goal"
Katina,
You do have a challenge there trying to connect your content with the career choices of your students. It would be interesting to see if you could develop some assignments that have each of the different career areas researching how clothing, games, and designs came about as a result of cultural and physical changes over the years. For example I had my students research why the Coke bottle is shaped like it is verses a Pepsi bottle. Clue: It has everything to do with the human hand and the opposing thumb.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I teach a Gen Ed class of physical anthropology. I am often struggling with how to find relevancy to my students who are majoring in fashion design, merchandising, game design or graphic design, when their textbook is mainly about human evolution and primate behavior.
Raina,
Good strategy because without relevance students do not see the value of what is being taught. The more examples and applications you can make the more relevance they are going to see and this increases their ROI for the course.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I agree. I try to work in the relivence of each topic to there chosen field wihtin each lecture. It's important the student understands why it is they need to know the inform ation, and what it will do for them in the end.
Richard,
Good way to show students that they are missed and that their attendance and success in school is important to everyone, especially their instructors. This is the human factor in action.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Our school actually mandates that instructors contact the students that have missed class. The goal is to reach out and demonstrate support and caring...all with the aim of retention.
Paul,
I agree with you. We do the same in my classes. This helps increase the motivation of my students.
Nieva,
Three great ways to increase student excitement about the field and to get them engaged. I use all three in my classes for the reasons you list. These three really help to get students motivated and seeing the value of what is being taught.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
It is important to reinforce the students decisions on the course of studies they are in- make them feel they had made the right choice-
1 Inviting guest speakers
2. Go on field trips
3. Have students research on relevant topics that are very much the same as their choice of career and the positive outcome of the choices they make. They can discuss this in class a way of sharing with the classmates.
Brian,
I am a big fan of these stories of application. When you share such a story you are increasing the value of the content for the students. They start to see the relevancy of what is being taught and how it will help them move forward in their career development.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I like to support concepts with discussions about career relevant experience. I agree that students need to apply knowledge to real life situations that will be presented in the career field.
I hear this every day in my classroom. The students ask me "when am I ever going to use this" and I always have a story to show them where it is applicable in their lives. A lot of times, they are surprised because they never realized that math is more relevant in their lives than they thought
