Field trips are a great way to give the students a closer look at the real world activities they are learning about. That visualization helps drive home many of the points that are made in the classroom.
Guest speakers are a perfect way to hammer home many of your key lessons. Many times a different voice is what is needed to break through to many students. The guest speaker has a bit more flexibility with regards to the delivery of the information. Lessons coming from an active professional in the field of study helps the students put things in perspective a bit more.
It puts things in prospective and helps diminish apprehensions and misinformation on the profession itself. The importance of having a guess speaker for the student is to allow the student to project the idea of them self on the profession.
Field trips and guest speakers break things up and are something my students look forward to. It also helps with retention, a reason to come back everyday.
Hi Erin:
One thing that might be very interesting is have the speaker discuss if his training has him view the world in a different way than most.
Regards, Barry
Hi Reginald:
This is especially true for career oriented course work where students are training to go directly into the workforce.
Regards, Barry
I teach the surgical technology program and field trips are the best way to keep students motivate and focused on teir goals. During the didactic part of the program some students loose focuse and interest, a field trip can help them get motivated again.
I think Todd said it best "the best thing i have seen is a renewed intrest and motivation as to why the students are in school. It seems to generate more enlightened questions."
I am a huge fan of field trips. They allow students to physically see how the topics being discussed in class are actually applied in the field. It also emphasizes that we are teaching the concepts for a reason.
I think this is great. I also think guest speakers give great presentations because they are excited to share their knowledge. Plus, it's a chance for students to hear another voice and perspective on a subject.
students enjoy a change of place. Keeps them motivated and wanting more
I agree, Nancy. I think students forget that their instructors are also professionals in their respective fields; hearing similar information from an "outsider" can validate the instructor's credibility.
I like to invite a small group of prior graduates (3-5 people) to visit my classroom and participate in a group panel discussion. I provide the panel members with specific questions to discuss; after the discussion, the panel answers questions from the students.
Taking a field trip will give the students a glimpse into their future. They can see how to dress, the atmosphere in the office/building, see the work area, etc.
My students are going into the medical field and with that said they are challenged in multiple ways. Seeing their field up close and personal gives them great insight, motivation and as said by another thread they are prompted to ask appropriate and enlightened questions. I love the roundtables we have afterward. Their eyes shine!
Attending a field trip or inviting in guest speakers does two things for my class. One, it allows them to see others with similar backrounds and education actually participating in the field. It makes the academic excercises all of a sudden releavent. Two, guest speakers are typically Directors/Managers/Supervisors in the career field and they bring to the class management's prospective on what is expected, what is impressive and what is least desirable in a potential employee. It is rare to get that kind of insight from someone that may be interviewing you for a position in coming months.
Taking students on field trips is so exciting. My student’s motivational levels usually increase after each class trip. They become more excited about their career path and seem to work a lot hard to achieve what they sat out to accomplish. Class trips can help student losing interest reconnect and get focus on the big picture.
When students go on field trips, they can see the course material come alive. 3D if like to put that way. When they touch and feel something you have lecture on, or continue to lecture on, stundent have a since of realism. Best thing any class can do.
the best thing i have seen is a renewed intrest and motivation as to why the students are in school. It seems to generate more enlightened questions.
I actually had the opportunity to take one of my classes out to a work site to check the employees vitals signs, which is a part of the course they were in. They had a chance to interact with people other than their fellow students, check their vital signs, answer questions regarding vital signs and heart health.
The students acted very professionally and were very excited to have the chance to approach someone as they would an actual patient. They discussed the different blood pressures they heard, pulses they felt and just the different demeanor of the employees as they sat for them. The students loved the different evironment they were in for a short time and wanted to be able to go out in the community again. I think that it is important for them to get out of the comfort zone of the school and realize what it can be like when they do get out into the working world of their chosen field.
Allowing students to visit real life health envirionmens makes what they learn in lecture real..
This practice helps the learners to see how the information they are learning in the classroom will relate to their career as they come into the work world, it provides motivation and encouragement and a role model for them selves and can help them to begin tio relate themself to the field.
