Information retention
As it has just been pointed out Humans retain
more with hands on application, so while it is important to lecture and demonstrate we must not forget the positive benifit of getting students involved in hands on exercises.
For example in a culinary program it is all very wel to lecture on classical knife cuts, but not until the students have a knife in their hand and are actually executing the cuts will the full benifit of tbe class be realised
I agree with it is very important to keep students engaged and have them use all their senses but I think timing is very important. If you move to fast you lose some and if you move to slow you lose some.
Peggy,
Good strategy. We learn and retain through repetition. You have a good system in place to enable repetition to be used and content retained.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Being in the healthcare field, I am always suggesting to students to write, speak, read,see information, as well as touch while in the clinic. Do this over and over and over until they know the information well. Then they will be confident in knowing that in an emergency, when they could be nervous, they will still recall the information.
Henry,
So true. The more connection one can make between the cognitive and tactile the greater the content retention there will be. So use as much hands on as you can in your classes and you will the students storing more content in their long term memories.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I strongly agree with this. Applying the hands on technique seems to better help the learning and understanding of the student.
This reiterates the fact that we learn best by repitition. Practice makes perfect.
Barbara,
This is a very important step at the end of a class for the reasons you state. Thanks for sharing this observation with us.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
It seems like an obvious action to me, but when I make a point of reiterating the key points of the lesson at the end of the class, I see lightbulbs going on in the students' eyes. Summation after application seems to put it into generalization.
Sandy,
The integration of both technical skill and cognitive content is critical in a field like yours. The more you can provide opportunities to help this occur the better prepared your students are going to be. I like the way you are helping them to see all of the different components of their field.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
We utilize hands on application in several of our dental hygiene courses but students also need to understand why they would select a certain instrument or provide a certain serve to a patient.
I present the theory and then we follow with case studies and simulations
Gary,
Being concrete in approach is very important as it helps to show students the application and relevancy of what is being taught. They get to connect content with situations that they will encounter out in the workplace.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
In class we do the same thing. We ask the students questions and have them provide the answer and then repeat it again by using the answer as the question and they have to give the the question as the answer. They say they like this also because it is more concrete.
I think that it is very important to keep the students engaged, doing this I feel lets them uses all their senses.
Randy,
I like the example you gave. Never heard it put that way before but it creates a very graphic picture in my mind as to how it works and the value it has in learning new material. Thanks for sharing.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Emergency response personnel call this repetitive training "mussel memory". Although the mussels do not have a memory, repetition of a physical activity strengthens the connections for a synapse. These “burned in†responses can become an (almost) automatic response.
Brian,
Most career college offerings are "hands on" in delivery due to the nature of the subjects being taught. The more integration of content and activities the higher the retention rate of content is going to be by the students.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Yes sir! I know the students that I have in the kitchen seem to get more out of having that knife in hand as well as the sauté pan working. In the culinary world some much of our information is taught and obtained by physical practice. Lecture only compounds the facts.
Steven,
Repetition is a key teaching tool and you are using it effectively with your approach.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
