I teach medical terminology for the surgical technologist. To keep my students motivated, I give hand-outs of Operating Room schedules to show medical procedures by name. This way the students see why one reads the suffix first, which tells the condition of that procedure and then move one to prefix which tells a time frame or location. I believe by giving this hand-out it makes a connection between the cause and reality, for learning the medical terms.
Hi Jeff,
All good strategies to keep the students engaged and focused on acquiring new knowledge and skills.
Gary
Present yourself and your instruction/lecture with confidence and inflection. Move about the room. Use vignettes when ever possible, by tieing learning points togther through them. Thanks
First of all you have to make sure you're organized and have well planned lesson plans. Also, you have to make YOU'RE motivated...so your students can be motivated!
I like to do role playing and put students in real life situations. It gets them to engage in the activity as well as see what they have to look forward to. This allows me to show how my course is relevant to their career path.
Motivating students is one of the most challenging things to do. You not only have to keep them motivated but you also have to remember how many different learning types you have in one class. Some are visual learners and some are technical learners. Meeting all of the learning types in one setting is how you set yourself up for achieving your goal as an instructor.
Motivating students begins on the first day of class. The educator must not only be interested in the subject but be enthusiastic about it, and the students must be able to ascertain that enthusiasm from the start. We cannot expect students to be enthusiastic if we are not. In part that comes from the educators demeanor toward the subject and explaining the relevance to the material to career goals.
I teach "soft skill" courses, e.g. PSY, SOC, Interpersonal Comm and I stress how the material we're going to cover relates to the real world and how they can begin to apply the learning immediately, not only in their work lives but also personally.
Hi Siamak,
I do agree that bringing the world into the classroom helps students to see the connection between school and their future.
Gary
I hope you agree that we have to bring "the world" to the classroom to make them ready!!!
My startegy has been simple: Be there every day...talk about the issues of the day and make sure the students know that they have a partner....
Show the relevance of your lecture topics to the students career goals by sharing real world experiences and introducing hands on skills early and steadily throughout the course.
Hi Beatrice,
It is so important to help students to "connect the dots" between course content and their future. The more instructors can do this the more value students will associate with their schooling.
Gary
I think that the best way to motivate our students is making sure to relate the course content to the overall objectives of the educational program and its relation to their future career.
1. Explain the purpose and reason the student needs to take the class. The why's of the course
2. Create an atmosphere where students are actively involved in the teaching/learing experience.
3. Re-enforce learning by giving feedback and letting students know how much you as the instructor value their feedback.
4. Have fun with your course!
Wow, there are many factors to consider. It may be relatively easy with certain very homogenous groups; however, very challenging with more diverse groups. Some may be self-motivated by external and internal factors, while others may not have any motivation at all, so what to do with those cases where there is no motivation to learn?
Share clinical "real world" experiences with students.
Keep the pace. Don't let the lessons get bogged down in technical details. Find your own "big-picture" approach to the subject that teaches the "why" more than the "what." This will keep your students focused; they can find the smaller details themselves as they continue learning.
