Attentive Studetns: General Education in a Career World
I'll be honest, I frequently have trouble holding the attention of my students.
I not only have a Plan-B, but C & D, for most days because my students are geared up for hands on application / skill - based learning.
I try to have activities, visuals to support lectures, and group work; however, (and the students often let me know) they are culinary students first (which I think is honest and okay).
The students want to be up and about with a knife or rolling-pin in their hands, creating something. They do not come to my class with the skills to focus on task that don't connect to their hands.
I would like nothing more than to keep all of my students engaged all of the time, but honestly engagement is not the one way street that module 3 implies - Instructor to Student.
Students also have a responsibility to come to class prepared, which means more then just brining the texts, a notebook, and pen. They also need to bring a positive I-want-to-learn attitude.
I do my best to connect my course with their career interests, and I feel I keep the pace moving and changing to engage all learning styles and preferences.
I guess what I'm getting at is that module 3 is too basic. I'm looking for more depth: how can general education instructors keep student interest their courses?
I think Doreen brings up a great point. Career college students often come with a wealth of knowledge that can be applied to general education courses. By letting the students showcase their knowledge you should increase buy in to the lecture and topics. You would also be creating more relevancy of the material to their own previous and future experience. For example if you are a GE instructor framing your topics to the career field and utilizing examples from the field should keep the interest of the students because it is obviously what they are interested in.
Hi Doreen:
Show and tell, and many similar career-related examples can be used effecively in GE courses to provide useful problem solving ways to lapply to the real world the students are being prepared for.
Regards, Barry
I feel that your students would benefit from 'show-and-tel'. This way you can introduce a topic, show and now let the rest of the class show and tell their way. Show and tell prevents students from boredom and frustration while allowing them to teach others their 'skill'. Show and tell also stimulates deductive, inductive reasoning along with critical thinking skills. After show and tell you can have all your students evaluate each other like a cooking contest would be evaluated and this gives them that 'hands 0n' atmosphere. Try it and see how everyone becomes enthralled with learning. in other words, Let your students think like a chef while thinking outside of the box.
Best Regards,
Doreen Giglio
Hi Aaron:
In my experience, the best GE classes utilize instructors who understand the students they're teaching to, the vocational program they're taking, and most of all, those who try to interject profession specific examples into the GE class principles being taught. This takes time and familiarity with the subject. I imagine there are some schools where this is not possible or practical, especially if it's a large class with a mixed group of students. Sometimes though, all the GE students are in the same program. In that case, there's an opportunity.
Regards, Barry
