I've found that explaining experiences when I made mistakes are especially helpful. It makes the studnets realize that, despite almost 40 years of experience, I was where they are now at one time. Infallibility is not necessarily something students want to see in their instructors. Admitting mistakes tends to make you more human and shows the students that everyone makes mistakes, but can learn from them.
Greetings Joel!
Great observations! It also provides them with a sense of being connected in some way to the group. They experience a sense of belonging.
Keep up the good work!
Jane Davis
ED106 Facilitator
Absolutely!
Jane Davis
Ed106 Facilitator
Great job again Betsy! Being able to apply classroom learning to real life experiences is a perfect learning opportunity.
Jane Davis
ED106 Facilitator
Hi Marshall!
I totally agree! Keep up the good work!
Jane D
I ask my students about their previous experiences, and link this with the lesson at hand. It helps build confidence, rapport with other students, and helps the students feel their prior experience is relevant towards building new skills.
exactly. the trick is, of course, to encourage the true adult learner to participate in a way that validates his/her experience in the context of the course--and challenge the younger students to consider experience that is vicarious--while being careful to also validate the experiences of the younger students. it is too easy for an instructor to rely too heavily on the adults in the class, and seem to be saying to the younger students: "you need to listen to so-and-so; his experience is what is important; you haven't lived enough to have anything worth contributing." though none of us do this intentionally, we can do it accidentally. then, the younger students shut down and allow the older students to dominate all class discussion.
Life experiences help the adult learner and even the adolescent learner to tie what they are learning into real life. It makes the class work become part of life...good way to make sense of text book facts.
Having students share their life expereicnes is important because it fuels participation in discussion, can get other students motivative, and gives the student that is sharing feel he or she is contributing to group learning.
Life experiances may bring realism and relivancy into the classroom. Shared experiances and knowledge enhance learning. However, instructors have to be carelfull not to laspe into "war stories" and infotainment. Infotainment is stories that entertain but do not directly relate to learning outcomes. I recently evaluated an instructor who received outstanding student evaluation. He was engaging, entertaining and funny. He failed to cover even a single learning objective or outcome as specified in his lesson plans. By utilizng the diversity of student experiances and knowledge, learning is enhanced. Just don't allow the subject to wonder too far from the subject without bringing the discussion back to the point.
Life experiances may bring realism and relivancy into the classroom. Shared experiances and knowledge enhance learning. However, instructors have to be carelfull not to laspe into "war stories" and infotainment. Infotainment is stories that entertain but do not directly relate to learning outcomes. I recently evaluated an instructor who received outstanding student evaluation. He was engaging, entertaining and funny. He failed to cover even a single learning objective or outcome as specified in his lesson plans. By utilizng the diversity of student experiances and knowledge, learning is enhanced. Just don't allow the subject to wonder too far from the subject without bringing the discussion back to the point.
It gives the adult learned a sense of connectedness to the classroom. A majority of the adul learners that I deal with have been out of school for over ten years and this gives them the opportunity to contribute to the courses.
Great observation Louis and I couldn't agree more. But as a non-traditional/older student, i found that younger students had a great deal to offer - for one thing really good study buddies since they had established study habits which I had long lost.
You sound like you are a very interesting and engaging instructor. I wish there were more of you.
GOOD WORK!!
Jane Davis
ED106 Facilitator
Many of my students are coming from careers that they have held leaderships role already like doctors or lawyers and are looking to get out of that field and into culinary arts. This is great, viable, tangible knowledge and information for those that are just starting out in a new career like recent graduates of high school.
Our classroom setting is so diverse that we get 17 years old all the way through 60+ years old. The knowledge or 'life experience' that the older students can provide is priceless and by involving/engaging these students, it makes them feel that their path in life has been a good one.
~Louis
It is important for adult learners to use life experiences in the classroom because it enables them to relate to the material/topic on hand- giving them a better understanding of it.
It helps the student tie in their learning objectives to real ife experiences. This is a great learning/training tool to make the learning experience more practicaal and exciting.
This gets the students involed in there learning and makes them inclusive to there involment with the rest of the class.
When teaching i find my self telling stories from when i worked in the feild. This seems to help the student pay attention hoping they will get another story.
Hi Bob!
Great observations! Connecting to students through the use of life experiences certainly makes learning more relevant. I - like you - believe it helps student and instructor connect for positive learning outcomes.
Keep up the good work!
Jane Davis
ED106 Facilitator
Life’s experiences add credibility to the content. Students need some level of assurance that information has meaning in their direction or the value of the experience is lost. Not to mention attention. Those experience or the link that suggests to the learning that one first hand knowledge & the communication validates one’s position. I have also found that communicating one’s successes & more importantly, one’s failures in a given subject has multiple values. The most important of which, in spite of the perception of perfection & expertise a student may have for their teacher/instructor, listing some failures will let the student know that one is human, and mistakes can happen at all levels of experience. This often is the only thread needed to relieve the distance that exists between student & teacher allowing communications that a teacher/instructor may use to develop a working relationship thereby discovering some learning issue that may otherwise go unnoticed. It is easy portray illusions of grandeur; however, the process is most disconnecting.
