hands on learning
I like to involve my students actively in the classroom by having open discussions about that day's course content. I list key points on the board and repeat them throughout the class time to ensure the students are hearing and seeing the key points multiple times.
Trina,
Hands on labs or skills developments complements the theory or facts portions of our lessons. It's been said, "knowledge without application is of no use". That may not be entirely true, but the sentiment is valid: students benefit by application of their training. Some simple tips: handling equipment, instruments, parts during a lecture; breaking up the lectiure to go practice, then return for more lecture (this is called chunking); speed driulls; questions why something works or doesn't work; posing situtaional stes during lab or skill practice.
Barry Westling
when it come to hands on learning..I usually asking another instractor if they know some other tips or examples to add in order to make my demo more beneficial.
Mihaela,
Physical manipulation, or just the sense of touch can be a powerful memory inhancer. Transfering short term to long term memory can be improved with lab, hands on, or just demo's where handling equipment occurs.
Barry Westling
One way to keep our students active and engaged is a lot of hands on activities. We use samples and procedural models, and we do demos of certain performance tasks. We find it to be effective with the students viewing a technique and then practicing it. It also keeps them motivated to improve their skills through repetition.
Carrie,
Hands on or related activities that involve movement, or application of theory are fun, enjoyable, and make the class more interesting. Retention is better when applying or doing too.
Barry Westling
I'm a hands on learner myself, so I like to teach hands on, I feel like the students are more receptive than just sitting in the classroom having lectures.
Allen,
An interesting way to describe the benefits and limitations of hands on-on learning. In truth, the more senses and variety used contribute to better student outcomes. For instance, learning by lecture is low on the learning pryamid. Discussion is about middle. Teaching others (assuming the correct information is being taught is at the top. So, integrating a variety of learning strategies will yield the most consistent achievement of meeting student outcomes.
Barry Westling
I get some students that say, "I'm a hands on guy".
I ask them, what does that mean? Do you have hands with knowledge in them? Wow, show me.
I hand them a component that they learned about in another class and I ask them to test it to see if it is defective and if so, why.
After they get tired of trying to test it and then admit they forgot how, I ask them why did their hands fail them.
I say to him, "Why do you spend this kind of money to just train your hands, it's not working for you".
Then the light comes on, usually I see this in other students in the class that had the same excuse. We have fun with this.
Kenny,
Great. Continuous review and repetition is a good way to rememember information.
Barry Westling
I will list the objectives for they day on the board. As we cover each objective I will check them off, and then at the end of class, the list serves as a mechanism to review the material for the day.
Hi Eleftherios,
In medicine there's a saying (I think mostly about ED doc's) that goes "see one, do one, teach one". It conveys that in the hurried world of emergency medicine individulas often learn on the fly. But it also reinforces the idea that to get to where someone is proficient they have to practice. And, it also suggests that by teaching, that's one of the best way to learn something (as in, "the teacher always learns the most").
Barry Westling
The school I work for is pretty much centered around a method of teaching that combines theory with hands-on. Once students get to a certain subject, there are lab projects that support this subject. I go over these projects in class and emphasize how it's in their best interest to get these done well before the due date, so that they can better solidify what they've learned theory-wise.
Hi Marvin,
Good - when students begin to ask "why", they are beginning to use their critical thinking skills. Much of what is taught is task oriented. More and more, many professions are moving to application oriented, where they first have to why or what is needed, then the task or procedure is carried out. This requires that students start using their brains along with their hands.
Barry Westling
I too believe that the use of several of our senses do help our students in the retention of the information we are trying to teach them, I use a lot of power point, combined with lecture, and a large amount of our class time is spent in lab. Eventhough I use all of these learning aids I still feel that the biggest way to get them to consume the information willingly is to incorperate the "why is this important to me", I tell them how it helped me or how not knowing it caused me to preform poorly in my career.
Hi Justin,
I think "how do blind from bith children learn about the world around them - through touch (and hearing)". So, it ought to be effective for teaching students who can see. I call this sensory awareness, which is simply learning to tune in (in this case by touch) to the sensory stimulation of whatever activity they are involved with. Even just reading: feel the spine, the feel of the pages, the texture of the paper. Basically it's associating touch with the material being read. Adding senses to learning reinforces retention of information.
Barry Westling
I always use tactile learning in my lessons. As the students are working on a project I'll explain to them what they are doing and what chapter in the book will give a more in depth analysis of that lesson. Most of the time they seem more receptive to the readings after they have attempted the lesson.
Hi Victoria,
Yep! Withouit application, it's like knowledge in idle!
Barry Westling
Awesome point and not only do most learn better this way but more retain what was learned because they have applied the knowledge in doing.
Hi Susana,
Combinations of a variety of learning activities does add to better retention of information.
Barry Westling
