When my student can make the connection between didatic and clinical I praise my student. With this you can see their confidence build and they are more eager for work with patients.
Kathy, nothing wrong with even letting your students know it is OK to be confused early. The learning process is designed to plant seeds of knowledge and then further develop that knowledge into understanding and eventually application. The more students understand the learning process the more they will feel comfortable that being confused sometimes is somewhat by design.
James Jackson
David, the more you can relate the "real-world" to what you are doing in the classroom the better chance you have of making a real connection with your students and then the classroom becomes more than just a place they have to be at a certain time, you will create a place they want to be and look forward to the learning process.
James Jackson
Frank, great job building a critical bridge between knowledge and application. These are essential techniques in the learning process. Thanks for sharing.
James Jackson
Allen, very true. Many students have very poor support resources. Positive energy and continual guidance from an instructor can be a major difference maker. Dr. Joe Pace from The Pacific Institute teaches that it can take as many as 11 positives to make up for a single negative. The more positive energy an institution can provide to students the more successful they will become.
James Jackson
Kenneth, excellent methodology and good use of cognition. The human brain needs constant reminders and the ability to "view" new materials from different directions to truly commit new information to long term memory. Remember the three "T's". Tell them what you will teach them, Teach them, Tell them what you taught them. Repetition is a great technique.
James Jackson
Ellen, I like your comments on small steps. Another term is small wins. Create small and manageable winning scenarios that build upon each other and students will gain in their confidence.
James Jackson
Icompletely agree,having confidence in your own abilities shows the student that they can build confidance in their own skills and abilities.
In the classes I teach, a lot of fine-detail decorative work is involved, which is usually discouraging to students who aren't used to working on such an intricate scale. One student in particular was becoming increasingly frustrated with the quality of his cake decoration, so we chatted and decided on a "piping practice" schedule for him. Now he comes in daily with a practice board for me to critique, and his class decoration work has improved remarkably. I found his own motivation was there, he just didn't quite know how to channel it properly.
Self-doubt is an issue that I have to deal with every day with my students. It is frustrating to see my students in the classroom perfect the task at hand but then as soon as they are out of the classroom and on the clinic floor they crumble. I know that they have the ability to perform the service but they doubt themselves so much that they seem to forget what steps need to be taken. Which then makes them look at me and ask me what they need to do to give the client what they desire. The first time one of my students preforms a service on a client they look to me and depend on me to help them because they doubt themselves but after a few clients they no longer need my help. They go from needing me to be right there by their side for each step to just needing to check in with them and check the end result. Seeing their confidence build as their self-doubt disappears is a very rewarding feeling as I see my students form into very talented stylist.
I frequently ask the students to go back to the first day of class and think about how much they knew about surgery on that day. Most students say they knew nothing about surgery on the first day of class. I then ask them to tell me everything they know about surgery now. The hands go up and most if not all students become aware of how much they've actually learned. I remind them that it's more important to focus on what they've learned and not what they haven't.
I had a student who just did not get it. I called him aside and asked him what the problem was. He replied that he wasn't into the subjet at hand. We chatted more and during our conversation I found out what his passion was and, more importantly, I found that I had the key to spark his passion. I told him if he passed my class could and would make his dream come true. It all worked out in the end, he passed my class, I upheld my end of the bargain and he went on to become successful.
Our program has a lot of students that have not been in school for a while and the first few classes can be challenging for them. Especially, in classes where you have students coming out of high school mixed in as well. It is a great feeling to see a student that doubts their abilities overcome those feelings by passing their first test/exam or doing an amazing presentation. I try to make class as active as possible, with assignments that are challenging, but not too difficult. Sometimes even passing an assignment with a B is all it takes for someone to start believing in their potential. SN
Robert, leading by example and always being prepared for class is a key element to achieving student learning outcomes. Great topic to bring forward and is directly related to student confidence. Students gain confidence in knowing their instructor is a professional, knowledgable and willing to transfer their knowledge.
James Jackson
I'm with you on this. It is important to show students my confidence and help them see they have there own.
Self doubt comes in many times in the clinical setting when students are trying to experience new techniques. Being very confident and building their self esteem as well as improving on the ability that they can do a task is so motivating to the students. Walking thru the procedure and then being present to guide them really helps this problem.
Rose, great that your student can feel comfortable making mistakes in a controlled classroom where learning can take place. Mistakes in an actual work environment can be more costly.
James Jackson
I use many of the motivators discussed in this class and they are very beneficial when in the beginning you see blank faces then as you relate it to things they already know, the gears still going, their faces change and light up and they start actively participating in the discussion. Sometimes it takes off on a tangent but when I see others nodding in agreement I know that they now understand the concept and their self-doubt changes to "I can do this" attitude.
As an auto instructor I can build confidence by sharing real life senarios I have seen in the field. I agree wit when he says that he lets his students make mistakes. By not humiliating a student and when they do make mistakes saying "I have seen much worse" or "when that happened to me" they can realize making mistakes is part of the learning process. Ward's comment "I love what I do, I pick them up" should be engraved in every instructors brain.
One of my rewards in teaching is to see the philosophy that there are no stupid questions, bare fruit. Electrical theory is case in point. I guide erroneous questions back to the theory that is present to them practically. Students see the application in the rotating of a motor and are amazed by the simplicity of it. When they make the connection of theory to application they stop doubting and become engrossed in the learning process.
