Tell them the relevance in you opening/ review of the course. I sometimes ask the students and have them write down what they think or sometimes break them into groups.
Faylee,
This is a challenge and one that most all of us educators work with. We need to make the learning process engaging, fun and productive while keeping our students focused on what is being offered. This is where a lot creativity comes in.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I am confident that multiple repetition of the course content or procedure make students comfortable with the skills they acquire.
This is a battle that is going to take some experimentation to be good at. Most students have expectations of the classroom being fun and not feeling like work. Keeping on topic and having a fun and learning environment takes a lot of effort and thought and planning on the part of the instructor.
Daniel,
This is a good way to get a feel for the class because by hearing and seeing these expectations you are gaining insight into how the students are perceiving the course and the associated value of it to their career preparation.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Janet,
All of these strategies are good ones. By offering them all you are giving a number of different ways for students to see the value of the content you are sharing. Guest speakers and field trips are great motivators for students as they can see how they will be using the content they are learning in their careers. This increases their motivation and reinforces their career choice.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Rita,
This is such an important part of being a learning leader. The more you can help students to internalize the content and see the value of what they are learning the greater their investment in themselves there will be. They need to see their future in the current course.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Ron,
The more you can incorporate real life experiences into your courses the better. I am sure you have noticed that once you present a concept and then share an experience to support it the students really perk up. My students are ready to raise questions after I share an experience with them because they an see the value of the content I have just shared and they want to make sure they have the concepts integrated into their working memory.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Carl,
Thank you for these comments on the value that can be derived from using a pretest. Pretesting gives you much insight into the current group of students and how you can plan for their instructional needs. You have a comprehensive approach to your instructional planning and this increases the value of the course to the students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I like to have students list what their expectations are for each unit. True, some of the units will contain material that a student has not encountered before, including before enrolling. I like to use their expectations as part of the end-of-unit review to show how their expectations were met. If all expectations were not met, what does the student feel they did not receive?
Making a class relevant is very important and extremely difficult.In some classes it it easier to bring in guest speakers to discuss how the content is relevant to the course. Sometimes I use this process and it has worked well with some of the students. I also use field trips to various work sites that use the course content. When trying to establish a core foundation for the course information, I have used roleplaying. I think the important take-away from this is to try different thinks in your classroom and to make it fun.
It is useful, I think, to make some of the course requirements--homework, in-class activities, projects--relevant to each student's field of study. I try to do this as much as I can; students then have that autonomy they want to make the course content their own, making the information important to them and their career goals in a very real way.
Teaching in the health care field exposes me to learners expectation. When I lecture, I incorporate real life experiences so that students can have a better understanding of the theory in lectures. I also, have scenarios that I have students do so that they can have a better understanding of how certain they will perform certain skills in the workforce. Student are engaged and they have a better appreciation of why so much theory is presented to them
I would start with a pretest to define their strong and weak areas. Also lets me know if the foundation courses have met their needs before my specific level of instruction can proceed.
It's like building a house, you have to prepare the foundation, pour the foundation and let it cure. I want to know they know key concepts, one which I taught them involving proteins - shape defines function. Change the shape, you have changed the function, which also might be, change the shape, invalidate the intended function.
The next thing is, go over the specific weak points. Some people can read things, some people can hear things - different learning styles. I would want to present it with a power point and/or video. If there are other teaching aids such as a medical product used, have that available for them to see, touch, and know how it is used.
I would have them watch how it is used, then I would have them do one, then I would have them teach someone else in "their" words, something they may say may get through to others. Different way of saying something, end result the same.
Nancy,
They need to see what the outcome will be for all their effort. This is why it is important to help them see the ROi for their future.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
The student is goal oriented. The student wants and needs to know that the subject is going to be relevant to the career. It is also helpful to see how this relevancy might be used in two different careers, given the fact that career choices change over time
Dawn,
You have a very good understanding of how you can help students manage class behavior. The rules are their rules so they will have value to them and their expectations will be that everyone will follow them.
The pretest gives you information about your students and the experiences they are bringing to class as well as helping them become familiar with how you construct your tests. This is a win win for everyone. I wish you success using the pretest format. I think you are going to like the results you get.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Ted,
I think this is such an important strategy to follow for the reasons you list. You are helping them to connect their previous life experiences with the current course content. Sometimes students don't see that connection so they don't value what they are being taught and how they can use the information in their careers.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Expectations of the student need to be addressed the first day of class to make sure they are realistic, or modify them to reality, and for the instructor to know what is expected of them. This can be as basic as classroom behavior. With adult learners, I ask them what their expectations are of behavior in the classroom. They create the "rules" all the way down to frequency of breaks and eating or drinking in the classroom. In this way, they all agree on the behavior and have contributed to creating their learning environment.
Meeting the needs of the students is pivotal to their success. The idea presented in this lesson about a pretest as a way of assessing where each student is was an eye opener. It benefits both the instructor and the student, because it can give the student an idea of what to expect on tests in the class. Waiting until the first quiz or test to find out how the instructor writes tests puts the student at a disadvantage.
By connecting a students previous experiences, life or business, with what they are learning they are able to view it in a context of their own understanding. I like to use a students experiences to help provide examples from their own past of concepts that they are learning which they already know, they just weren't aware they did.
