Hi Michael,
Great to hear and I wish you much success in all of your teaching efforts. Your students will benefit from your knowledge of the field and dedication to their success.
Gary
Understanding the basics of learning benefit me as an instructor by providing me a better understanding of my students and the obstacles preventing them from learning. I intend to start a more formal review program.
By using teaching methods that employ lecture, visual aids and hands-on activities, students will have an opportunity to more fully absorb lesson content.
With the continuous adaptations to instruction to meet student needs, I will now adapt the instruction while considering the brain and how it learns.
It makes me realize that my students have not matured as alot of them are still in there teens. Their brains have not yet met the point of becoming mature as a 25 or 26 year old student
and as a result I can change my teaching style.
The very unique quality of all humans is that although we are all humans, we all think and learn diffrently, which is why so much creativity exists. Know how the learning process functions will allow me, and any instructor, to become a more efficient educator. Knowing that there are visual learners, auditory learner, and so forth will allow effectice communication between the teacher and the learner. Diversity in lecture would allow all different styles of learners to take advantage of what is being taught.
As a culinary arts instructor and life long culinary learner, i have learn the importance of like the material suggested, mastering the concrete information provided by food items and techniques in order to by able to expres them in the abstract form. in other words you need to taste first in order to be able to create later.
Enrique Diaz
I have learners of all different backgrounds, ages, & learning experiences & I identify where I think they fit into whatever category & fully assist them throughout the culinary journey with me.
By understanding the basic learning needs of my students I can try to adapt the instructional strategy to better fit their peferred learning methods.
Hi Larry,
Good way to explain learning to your students. It is practical and understandable so the students can make application of their content from there.
Gary
On the first day of class, I discuss ways students can help their brain learn and remember. I remind them that the brain is an organ that grows and adapts like others. Although they can't see it happening because the brain is "behind the eyeballs", they need to have faith in the process of building connections and to help it along. That's why the homework problems are called exercises. To help the process I will develop more examples that emphasize connections to episodic memory.
Hi Bill,
Good to hear about your successes with such a diverse student body. Thanks for sharing your strategies with us. You are fortunate to a diverse medium (food preparation) that enables you to capture their attention.
Gary
At the campus where I teach, I am faced with a vast variety of student learning styles. In any given class I have recent high school graduates - some are easily engaged in the topic and others have little interest; students in their 20's and 30's; and career-chaning students who bring much life experience to the classroom.
The challenge is to engage all these types of learners with the same curriculum daily.
Fortunately, at a cooking school, we have a variety of tools to use in the kitchen classroom to suit many learning styles. Students hear my lecture and take notes, read textbooks and recipes, watch me demonstrate a particular dish, and recreate the same food for my feedback.
Hi James,
Thanks for sharing this student interpretation strategy with us. I think this is a great idea for helping students to understand the concepts being taught as well as developing comfort in sharing those concepts. As you say this strategy also helps you know where your students are in understanding. I know this information will be of help to many other instructors.
Gary
Hi James,
Well said in relation to how we need to approach our students with our content delivery. By offering them ways to make application and see relevancy they will be able to get a better fix of the content and skills in their memories for use later on.
Gary
Knowing how students learn is as important, or even more so, than knowing why they want to learn. Even the most motivated student needs to have the information presented in such a way as to enhance their learning process, not hinder it. For example, instructors shopuld not assume that adult learners automatically posses the same life experiences as their peers just becuae they are peers. Rather, getting to know the individual experiences of each student will allow the instructor to integrate those experiences into the presentation.
Understanding the learning process will aid in pushing information from short term to long term memory. I will try to adapt my style to increase the personalization of the concepts to allow the students to make the information useful and able to be recall it when they are in the work world.
Hi Darlene,
What you found to be the most effective ways to give feedback to your students? What do they respond to with the most enthusiasm?
Thanks in advance for sharing your methods with us.
Gary
It will benefit me as an instructor knowing that everybody learns on a different level. What my be easy for one is not as easy for the other. Everybody is different. If I can make my students feel confident in knowing this and help them overcome what obstacle they have then maybe they will fell more comfortable in asking more questions, reading out loud, and saying I do not understand.
Help me to give positive feedback in order to benefit the students. Just understanding the basic function of the brain can help develop different ways of teaching students.
