I believe encouraging adults to utilize and share their life experiences in class is very helpful because it can both help motivate the adults and other students, as well as help that student relate to their new career concepts.
It helps them to be able to relate their new aquired knowledge to what they have already learned in life. They begin to understand why thier career path is important and what the end result needs to be.
Very important for the class, you to teach and they see that you have been in that situation which helped you to learn from this.
Using life experiences in the classroom helps to ease tension and help other students relate to each other. It is especially important for working adults to share their experiences with other working adults because it allows them to know if they have some experiences in common and how to manage different real wor issues.
Life experiences gives the adult learner a sense of accomplishment and completion. Regardless, of the size of the accomplishment it needs to be recognized. Recognition gives an individual the sense of the ability to complete something they have started. Accomplishing something builds confidents and the idea that anything is possible if you put your mind to it.
I like to share my life experiences, which are many, in the healthcare field as well as throw some humor into the mix. I feel that it shows I'm as human as the rest of them.
It helps to take the lecture, lab, or skill and show it's applicability to "real world' situations. It demonstrates the application of the material.
Sharing their personal experiences in the classroom, helps that individual's self-esteem and drive to stay in school. It gives adult learners self-worth and motiviation to continue their education. It makes them feel good about themselves because they are helping other students in the class. Leading by example and sharing life experiences is something I do all the time in my classroom.
Everyday, we learn through experiences from others, whether it be from backgrounds, educations and/or work. It is like hands-on training(examples) in our lives. Students can learn to apply those experiences useful for success at a particular time.
In each of my classes, the students are asked to share one personal or work-related experience. While concluding the talk, they are to give the moral of the story.
The students in the class learn from the experiences of others.
Sharing my personal life stories helps my students see that I have been where they are and they can overcome the same challenges I faced. I have also found that it is far better to learn from the mistakes of others that yourself whenever possible. If I can pass this knowledge along they may not have to face as many struggles as they get started in thier field.
I presently am an adjuct faculty member at a college that I use to attend...at the beginning of each class session I introduce myself and be sure to include to my students that I am a former student of this particular college. Each time I do this my students are astonished by the fact that a former student is now teaching the class. I feel that I am knowledgeable of the classes that I teach and my students are well prepared when they complete my course therefore the students get to see that if you pay attention and do your work, come to class and participate you can go on in life and become something of your choice.
Adult learners tend to have a focused strategy for success in their career college education. Part of that focus is understanding the material. It's much harder for adult learners to retain information that isn't somehow relevant to their goals and their previous life experience.
Adult learners need to know why and how its pertains to their circumstances. They want a purpose for being there and they need to know that they can be successful.
I think it is important because it helps them to feel important and successful. It is important that they feel like they are a part of the class, and sharing life experiences is often a good way to make that happen.
When adult learners can draw on life eperiences they are more apt to fel they will have success in the career they are learning.
By using life experiences, it helps your students to relate you, the teacher, better. The experiences can show your students that at one time, you were just like them, looking to accomplish a goal in learning a new career and advancing in it.
It provides real and concrete examples and experiences. I provide a human touch which the student can relate and appreciate.
When a student uses something from past experience, he or she usually has knowledge base or a skill set from which he can draw. Being able to identify with something which is not totally foreign will give a student more of a footing to go from. As an instructor, you might relate, through an introduction, those transferable skills and experiences which the student might have to "force" a foundation upon which the student can build. If you get to know something about the student, and or the program, you can refer back to the student's past experience.
Since I have students of all ages and varying levels of experience in the field, I invite the students with more experience to share their work experiences with the class. This helps engage students who might be very advanced and not find the material as exciting, and it helps beginning students learn from others' experience.
I also use my own life experiences whenever possible to illustrate points and give concrete examples. Sharing life experiences can add context and depth to the the course material.
