They can relate the subject matter and put the course material in better perseptive. Relating to their own experiences or what they have heard from someone else gives them the feeling that hey, what I'm learning is real.
In our nursing program, the majority of our students have had previous experience as nurses aides, medication aides or caregivers. Their life experiences in these fields offer an insight into the nursing program. I encourage them to participate in the class room discussions about their past experiences of problems/ concerns and their triumphs.
They feel motivated when they are sharing their own life experiences, sometime they are not aware that they have a lot of experiences to share, until they start talking about them.
People can relste to you a lot better when they know that you have done it before,or seen it before. It makes it easier to share subject matter when you have experience it before!
Using life experience can help reinforce the take home points from a lesson plan. This helps the students retain the information.
I feel it helps them relate better. This way they connect in some way with the instructors.
gives real world examples of where the knowledge gained will be used
I think it's important for students to be able to share their life experiences with other students because it shows how we are all working towards the same goal and how we can learn from each other. Everyone has a great deal they can contribute.
I woked in the ER for four years and i've noticed when I give them a story of an experiance they understand a little more of what we are discussing. Sometimes I will start my class with a story from one of my many experiences and it helps getting there attention.
I agree that a students life experiences will help them succeed toward their career goals. Many students use this as a coping mechanism for their learning or their lack of learning. Their life experiences and chosen career field may be very closely related and may be the motivation for them enrolling in the course.
Entering into a new adventure like learning a new course is stressful and full of questions and anxiety.
Relying in the past experience gives the students a sense of bearing of what to expect and projection of his abilities to accomplish.
The use of life experience can add to the learning process in a very positive way and a great tool for the teacher if he is aware of it.
It is very important for instructors to create an atmosphere in class which allows adult learners to apply the concepts presented to their life experiences, and to be able to share those experiences with their classmates. By relating the newly acquired knowledge to their life experiences, adult students can reinforce that knowledge and retain it better. By sharing that knowledge and its relation to their experiences, adult students will again reinforce that link and that knowledge will remain with them much longer than if they had not related it to their life experiences.
I frequently have a diverse cross section of students-culture, gender and especially age, often 18-55+. The older students bring not only experience from previous careers , but also life experience. The younger students bring youthful energy-which positively affects both the Instructor and fellow learners.
I teach law and ethics in business. The concepts are very straight forward and relatively easy to understand i.e. "The Golden Rule". However, situations where actions are legal but unethical are harder to understand so relating them to their experiences at work or other real life situations reinforces their learning.
I have found that especially in the medical field students appreciate and understand procedures more if the instructor has actually had hands on life experience in what they are teaching. If you have only read about what you are teaching the students at times think you may not know really what you are talking about.
it shows a real life correlation with their life and success. It gives them a chance to really be a part of the whole class and discuss topics that involve them. People like to talk when it involves themselves with others. It is also a great ice breaker in the first couple of classes.
Life experiences are always a very positive addition to the classroom. By sharing life experiences the students can often relate better to each other.
Because that helps them understand better understand the topic and the relevance of the topic being discussed in class. Also when instructors use their own life experiences as examples it provides adult learners understand the importance of the topics and how they relate to day to day activities
I think this gives them a sense of accomplishment and a confidence to add to their knowledge on the topic at hand. I do find however, some life experiences are not appropriate for the topic at hand. The student could have been given incorrect information which does not need to be shared with other students as correct.
It is critical to make students understand that they can learn as much, or more, form poor experiences as they can from positive ones.
With that premise in place, I find it is easier to correct the information immediately without either insulting or embarrasing the student. But, most importantly, the ability to correct information insulates other students from assimilating incorrect data.
there is no replacment for past expierience in my field (automotive) past expierience is a must for saftey and direction of training so that the student understands the percise princibles he has to learn.
