Students perspective versus the real situation.
I find that perception is everything to define clear meaning in a classroom situation. I have found that a student can be really off base in what they perceive, but their perception is their truth. This steers many behaviors in the classroom, and the outcome can be seen often as Instructors trying to defend themselves or reacting. I have found asking open ended questions to check if the meaning we originally conveyed was received accurately! For instance, I told students they could use a specialty office in internship for 1/4 of their intern hours. One student thought that meant they could work for a specialist the whole internship?
I find with this busy society students minds are racing a mile a minute and they check in & out without us knowing. asking open ended questions teaches more about what they got than what I actually taught.
Jeremy,
This is so important and thank you for bringing it up. They need to have the potential end results pointed out so they can see why they are doing what they are doing to be successful in the course.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I have found that clarifying the outcome, the end result helps to establish an environment of understanding. If a student has misunderstood or interpreted something incorrectly, then the end result can be discussed in relationship to what the student understood. From this comes a real dialogue about process, sequence and a real understanding about how what is being described by the instructor supports that end result. In this way the end result becomes a touch stone for reality and real learning can take place.
Michelle,
You make a very good point about students listening and not listening. They may hear physically with their ears but cognitively they are not processing what they heard. We do have to check for understanding on a regular basis if we are going to be effective.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
