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Ask a question from your peers to help you in your professional work. Seek different points of view on a topic that interests you. Start a thought-provoking conversation about a hot, current topic. Encourage your peers to join you in the discussion, and feel free to facilitate the discussion. As a community of educators, all members of the Career Ed Lounge are empowered to act as a discussion facilitator to help us all learn from each other.

Adapting Instructor Skills.

The students that I work with are either visual or hands on. Luckily I can fulfill both styles at the same time. Being in a tech school my student are rarely analytical and they want to be shown everything! Because of their learning styles I really enjoy my job!

The Process of Un-Learning

One Challenge that I am not sure was addressed in the class was how to teach something to someone when they are convinced they already know it and or what they know to be correct is actually incorrect. For instance, one of the biggest challenges I have seems quite simple, the colours of light can be broken down into 3 colours, Red Green and Blue. However when it comes to pigment we have been taught since kindergarten the 3 primaries are Red Blue and Yellow. I use a mnemonic device that I created specifically for the issue that works for 80% of the students right away, 18% of the students eventually understand the relationship of the colours, yet 2% just cannot make the switch. This is a relatively benign issue for a graphic artist or photographer, yet it could be a matter of life and death when it comes to medical training and the like.

Personality types

Gary, Do different personality types need to be taken into consideration when teaching/adapting a leson plan for adult learners? For instance. my wife prefers abstract and emotional ways to learn things and I prefer more logical step-by-step methods.

Student Centered Learning

Student needs have always been the same. There have been times in history where progressive educators tried a more holistic approach to education, but for the most part educators have conducted courses that were instructor centered rather than student centered. We can be grateful that institutions have relinquished their ideology regarding the strict, severe, and aggressive methods in which courses are developed. Educational psychologists recognize the different learning variables student’s bring to a classroom. Student’s are predisposed to learn in particular ways and have varying levels of familiarity with any given subject due to the vast amount of information that is now available through technology. Although, familiarity does not equate sympathetic engagement unless an instructor is able to assist a student in finding personal relevance in the course materials and learning events.

Understanding Students

As instructors we should know that there are different learning preferences, so as we prepare our classes we should make sure to try and incorporate all of these different preferences into our lesson so as to reach all of our students.

past expierences

how often do you have a student use thier past expeirences to relate to the current subject being taught/

previous educatiomn

how important do you feel previous education is to your current student?

Learning

how often do you find that it is easier to work with a student who is older rather than younger. I feel it is mcuh esier, becasue they seem to care more and are generally more dedicated.

retention

remembering information is one of the hardest things for students to be successful with. There are ways that I try to encourage students to do this. I suggest re writing notes, studying with a friend and organizing the information so it makes more sense.

Learning throughout life

The beauty of learning is that is occurs on a daily basis. What is most difficult is managing all of the styles of learning in a class setting. I find that the older students while mature have a disadvantage in that they are set in their ways and take a little longer to adapt at times.

inspire

To truely inspire, the up most dedication and passion must be there. Inspiring takes more than knowledge on a topic, but the passion to motivate others to be equally passionate as well

Building on existing knowledge

I like the information that referred to students using their previous knowledge and life experiences as places to build their knew knowledge upon/learn new knowledge. For example: A student works on cars and has an understanding of pumps and how they work....he was able to apply this to how much air in the chambers of the heart it might take to make it sputter/quit (air embolism)....I thought that was awesome. He was able to use his previous knowledge to make understanding and application to his learning of the functioning of the human body.

do we inspire

I think it is important to connect with the students I have been in training classes where the instructor simply read the presentation there was really no life to speak of it was monotone, dry, and painfully boring! If we are going to be good at this our students need to be moved by our words there needs to be passion and a measure of excitement in the atmosphere of our class room the leader sets the tone for the class in the first few days being able to move and inspire people is far more than knowing the material a highly knolawageable person with no ability to move a crowd makes for a very poor teacher. we need to ask ourselfs when the students leave us have they been changed? do they have a strong desire to be more then they are now? or is this just another class they have to get through the answer to this will show the true leader and the person just collecting a paycheck.

Generalization and Episodic memory

It seems to me that the use of generalization can be an aid - perhaps even a bridge for the semantic learners - to getting students to glean more information from episodic experiences in their lives. If you can call up your own experiences, and get the students to call up theirs (perhaps through writing activities), it might help bridge the gap in some learning situations. -E.A.W.

Students participation

My students seem to participate more if the lesson is on a componet that thay can see in the feld and comprehend more when they can relate to. in my class it will be a car or a truck trans.

Help mental processing.

Help the students processing what they learnig is very important for them. For this reason the instructor needs to provide all the tool for their learning processing.

Learning Tools

Its ei very important for the students the learnig process, because the need to have a lecture 15 -20 minutes, see a demonstration and practice.

Using Graphic Organizers

How can the use of graphic organizers help students to organize their learning efforts?

Making it relatable

I think that if I can make the information relatable to something a student has experienced through their own life or someone elses, it helps them to retain the information. My students seem to participate more and comprehend more when they can relate "personally" to the topic. I realize this cannot work with everyone and every topic but it is a great stepping stone.

Multiple Intelligense

How is important use the multiple intelligence in a classroom?