Hi Lisa,
I have realized that students really retain their information if they do something fun in order to prepare. Students love playing games to learn. Bingo is also a good game to play for learning.
Patricia Scales
Hi Sara,
Students have to be kept busy in order to stay engaged. Students also like doing hands-on activities. Pure lecture bore students, and they become uniterested and disengaged.
Patricia Scales
I have used hands on lecture to get my students more active. I let each student get a motorcycle ready to work on before I start lecture, after each subject in the lecture I have them all perform the task on the bike in front of them. It works very well to get them involved and use all of their senses to learn at the same time.
Medical terminology is evaluated quite well by using a game for evaluation. We usually play Family Feud, but sometimes Jeopardy is fun, too. The students love it, and they do very well on quizzes and tests using this method.
Keeping students engaged is terribly difficult, and I work in at a culinary school. Keeping the students on their feet and engaged within 15 min spans seems to work well. also having student leaders is vital in the classroom environment because it takes student learning to a whole other level of engagement.
Hi Ma. Louella,
Students love having fun while learning. Students tend to retain more if fun is involved while learning. A great combination is fun and learning.
Patricia Scales
In Medical Terminology classes, I incorporate games such as spelling bees and jeopardy. It encourages the students to pay attention and participate more,.
Hi Michelle,
Awesome! Peer teaching has proven to be very effective. We truly have some creative students, who can really teach a concept effectively.
Patricia Scales
We go over vocabulary words in lectures during the term. But one of their projects is to choose a group of vocabulary words from a list (the words are pre-grouped and include words that we did not go over in class) and create a powerpoint presentation to give to the class about the words, as if *they* were teaching the lecture. They are to be as creative as they like and use whatever they can fit into powerpoint slides. One student even came up with a gameshow quiz for her terms.
It's interesting to see what they come up with, and the students seem to enjoy getting a chance to teach.
Hi Paula,
Wow, this is a perfect combination. Lecture for 15 minutes and have the students immediately apply what you have just lectured on.
Patricia Scales
For a building codes class for interior design students, I have broken up the lecture information into short segments (15 mins max) followed by a group application activity that involves applying the knowledge in real-world design situations. I find this really helps them retain and understand this highly technical information. It also keeps them engaged and interested in the subject matter.
Hi Edward,
You have really come up with some clever ways to get your students involved. These are great ways to promote active learner. Students love doing, and they learn more by doing.
Patricia Scales
One of the basic teachings of my "How to Draw" class involves lecturing on the R-Mode or right side of the brain drawing method. I normally ask my students to take notes, following which they do exercises implementing the teaching. (During my lecture, I am actively illustrating every point I make.) I know that the exercises are active learning tools, but I need to re-assess the initial lecture. Since the initial lecture specifies four basic R-Mode techniques, I could have the students enter into a discussion of the importance of each of those four essential areas. As such I could evaluate whether they are correctly understanding the importance and nature of each component that is important to drawing well. I could also ask for student volunteers to come forward to draw on the board an example of each of those four essentials. I understand that this could be one of those higher risk activities, but maybe if three or four students are up front at the same time, the risks would be lower. I could then point out the pros and cons of each student's efforts to the edification not only of those up front but of all in the class room as well.
Hi Monica,
Great way to promote active learning. Students learn best by doing. I love it how you lecture on a topic and then have your students do what you have lectured on.
Patricia Scales
The way I teach air conditioning and refrigeration is through active learning: I lecture to my students and as I'm lecturing I have them doing hands on, on whatever topic I'm teaching that week. I have to teach this way because some of my students are not mechanically incline..
Hi Daniel,
Love it! I can certainly tell how your students thoroughly enjoy this activity, and not only are they learning, they are having mega fun. When students have fun while learning, they really retain more of the information. Fun learning is an easy way to recall information.
Patricia Scales
Hi Glenn,
Students learn better from visuals. Most of our students are visual learners. Visual aids give students a better understanding.
Patricia Scales
When teaching medical terminology to a class it was very easy for me to get into lecture mode on roots, combing vowels, suffixes, prefixes, etc. and simply diagram their relationship to each other. Then when we had terms to learn throughout the year I have asked the students to refer back to their notes when trying to break the words down into parts as practice. I have incorporated some active learning into the process that works well. I have the students break into groups of 3-4 students per group and ask them to make words that can mean anything for example asking them to make a word that literally means a saying like having one’s foot in their mouth. They are instructed that they have to use the proper rules in forming the word. Each team then makes 3-4 words per team. Their goal is to stump the other teams. This promotes a hands-on approach to medical terminology in a fun way and helps the students learn how words are broken down. The results have been amazing!
I use lots of training aids and props to give the students a visual representation of what I am lecturing about.
Hi Dale,
I understand. Your hands are definitely tied. You may want to try various websites that deal with simulations.
Patricia Scales
