Making the Course Relevant
What are your strategies for making the course content relevant to the learning needs of students?
Margaret,
Like the way you bring in current cases and issues related to juvenile justice. I am sure this gets your students engaged and excited about discussing how these cases are impacting their field. This is what relevancy is all about.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I teach both a research course and a juvenile justice course. I bring in current case law and news to class so that the students can apply what is in the books they are reading to everyday life. I am passionate about what I teach and I hope the pass that along to those who I teach it to
Patricia,
Tie their assignments directly into their fields. This will show them application of writing in a direct and realistic way. In addition, I use some activities that my students like such as having them write one minute papers on something we are studying. The time limit gets them to focus their thoughts and lets them express themselves but doesn't overwhelm them.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
What are some ways I can make writing more relevant to the needs of my students?
James,
Good to hear about how the change of instructional pace is keeping students engaged. As you know students need variety in order to stay engaged so by getting them up and moving for the lab.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Relevance and interaction are fairly simple to manage in an audio program. A lot of back and forth from the presentation slides to demonstration and student hands on activities go a long way towards keeping students engaged. The only real problem is if they happen to fall asleep during any of the mini lectures they tend to awaken to a lab activity that they need to catch up on which in turn can distract the class. Since we've adopted a 'no student left behind' approach, the class as a whole can often times be crippled by a single students lack of attention span or mere lack of sleep outside of class.
Students learn in a much different way today. It is important to find out their learning styles or preferences students have. Then the relate the subject that you are teaching to their lives or things going on in the world. I teach Strategies for Success. It is a way to help students think positive about themselves and their views of things so that they can be more successful. As they state things that are going on in their lives, I relate the course material back to something they stated. This seems to grab their attention and help meet their learning needs.
Learning is achieved through listening, seeing and writing. So to make sure that the learning needs of the student are met I usually incorporate three different styles of getting the material across during my lectures. First visually seeing power points, hearing my lectures and them writing through application of handouts or projects to get them actively involved. I also relate projects to the course content so that they understand why and how to accomplish what needs to be.
Sharing with the students the positive and negative work experiences from past students, other instructors and my own experiences. Having past graduates come in and speak to the students is one of the best ways to communicate certain concepts with current students.
I like to incooperate simulation for all the students when working on any particular skill whether it be venipuncture or ekg this allows the student to combine what they learned from a demonstration and practice and eventually applying the skill themselves through actual thinking and doing it really gives then a different perspective on learning
Hi Andy,
I like to use guest speakers as well. My students really like it when the guest speakers tell them like it is, even though I have been telling them the same thing it is just more relevant when someone from the outside tells them the same thing. It is much like when your parents tell you something as a kid but you don't listen because they are your parents and then someone else tells you the same thing and you listen.
Keep up the good work.
Gary
I always attempt to mix up my delivery methods for each class and include a variety of teaching techniques (as I'm sure we all do). One thing I have found to be useful is utilizing guest speakers. I have a handful of guest speakers who have the ability to hammer certain concepts into the students head and let them know why these concepts are relevant to their future employment in the field.
Andy
Hi Nicole,
I think this is a great instructional activity. School based enterprises show the students what they are going to encounter upon graduation. While working through the running of these businesses the students have the benefit of you being there with them as a business consultant. What a great learning support this is.
Gary
I try to engage the students by having them create a business of their own. During the lectures I ask them how they would handle certain situations with their business. Having the student create ownership of their business helps them to apply the material we are learning.
In the first week of class we spend a lot of time getting to know each other. I take careful notes as to remember students majors and areas of interest. Then, with my class material, I find real world applications as they fit within these majors and areas of interest. I like to continual choose subject matter that is relevant to the students to keep it interesting and to show how they can apply this subject in their daily lives.
In addition, I find other present day pop culture references through the media to tie in our subject matter. If students can see the material being used outside of the classroom and if I can make connections to how they can personally use it then the course content seems more relevant to them and peaks their interest.
Hi Chris,
I agree with the work experience factor. This really helps to make it "real" for the students. They can see the application and relevancy of what you are teaching this way.
Gary
I believe it is vital that you have some actual working experience in the field that you are teaching so you can give real life examples. Students get tired of seeing outdated information and when you can relate current events and case studies to the students, they'll see the connection and learn faster.
Hi Roger,
This is a great way to make it real for the students. What types of real life examples seem to appeal to the students the most?
Gary
"What are your strategies for making the course content relevant to the learning needs of students?"
One of the techniques I apply in chats is bringing in real life examples which gets their attention, and frequently spawns related stories from other students.
