It helps them see the worth in what they are studying. They understand that this is something they will be taking with them to help them succeed in their chosen fields.
Shawn,
So important for the instructor to bring out to the students. Relevance is the ROI for them to see.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
If students can see how your instruction will directly relate to the feild of study they feel a better sense of value for their dollar and will participate at a greater level
The value is represented by the revelance of the course to the student and their goals in life
Eric,
You hit on two key words, application and relevance. Both need to be a part of the instructional process for maximum student engagement to occur. Thanks for bringing them to mind.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Demonstrating to students how the skills and knowledge they are gaining in the classroom translates to their careers is highly motivating. Making it relevant and applicable to their lives/careers adds a personal touch. "Oh, I can use this information to further my career!"
Many students question the importance of the core classes that they have to take in their programs. I feel as instructors we should attempt to teach all classes as though they are directly relevant to the students program. I explain to them why certain classes like student success and Biology are important to the field of Dialysis. By doing this the students become motivated, they are able to see the relevance of the classes to their individual programs.
Susan,
These two words are essential to student engagement. If students can see relevancy and application to what they are being taught they will realize the ROI on their effort.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
In my classes it is imperative to demonstrate and share experiences in order to relate the course to their certification. Not everyone s interested in the class I teach and feel that it does not pertain to the industry but I show them a individual and industry approach as the owner and the consumer.
It helps them to realize they are working on assignments and projects for a reason. They "see the sense" of doing something. I think we all need that in some way or another.
I found it is motivating because, they need to have that connection of why this is relevant, and how would this come to light in my career. I use tons of personal experiences throughout my lecture and also ask the students themselves if they have ever experience a similar situation, and they love it! It gets discussions going which is always a motivator, and also makes them feel like they added to the learning process.
Sometimes the students view the textbooks as academic or as an uninteresting way to learn. They want to know how they will use the information when they are in their new field. I like to bring in varied people currently in the field to tell how they deal with the issues discussed in the textbook. A successful experiment I had was having the student jointly come up with a survey about their course topic, survey a dozen people each, and then coming back and processing the combined data and discussing what we could discern from it. They were doing the research and that motivated them.
Timothy,
You make a very good point about trust of the instructor. We have to earn the respect and trust of our students if we are going to get them to accept the content we are offering. If they see we value the content then they will see value to it as well. If we give them opportunities to apply the content then they really get excited about what they are learning and their knowledge builds from there.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Guy,
I like your case study example. This is how students mature in terms of seeing application and relevancy to what is being taught. They have to personalize the content to their own lives and you are doing that with your examples. Good job. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Some of the most common questions I am asked by students are: "Do I really need to know this"?, "Is this how its done in the field?", or "Am I really going to have to know this when I get into the field?". If I can't honestly answer yes to those questions, I spend as little time as possible teaching it, and rather focus on skills and knowledge that are needed to be a competent technician . I will be upfront with them and say: "This is something that every person in the field is aware of and you want to be able to reference this information if you need it, but it is not what you should focus too much time and attention on." All of us are daily bombarded with information and we seek to compartmentalize and rank this information from most important to least important, in order to know what to retain and what to discard. I find that it is very important for students to be able to trust that their instructor will help them do this.
The answer to why it is motivating for students to see the relevancy and application of what they are learning in a career college is contained in this question itself. The student is attending a Career College! They are interested in getting into a new field or advancing in their current occupation. However, when it comes to a General Ed course, such as English composition, the relevancy may be difficult for the student to see.
For example, I had a student the other day blurt out the following: "Okay, I can see why it is important to learn writing skills even for a Sterile Processor, because I may have to write an accident report at some point, and do it effectively. But I do not see how writing a narrative essay that has a conflict in the story can be of any value but for entertainment purposes." Many of the students in the classroom supported this assertion with head gestures and verbal cues.
I responded this way: "Almost every situation you encounter in life and in work will have an explicit or implied conflict somewhere related, granted, at times on the periphery of a scene or situation. But what about the instance where an employee wishes to make a case for a salary increase. We will all be in this position at some point in our career/s. This is a clear case of needing to dramatize your argument.One way to go about making your point could be about an (hypothetical)experience where you thought that a co-worker in no way deserved the raise they had gotten. (You might give examples here.) But you noticed that as soon as he received the raise he began getting to work on time and also fulfilling duties that were not really his responsibility."
You might paint this scenario in dramatic, conflictual fashion in a solid piece of writing in a letter to your employer and thereby obtain the requested salary increase. No?
Michael,
This is an ongoing challenge for such students. They need to see the value of acquiring the skills and knowledge necessary to pass Boards as well as be successful in the medical field. They can't have one without the other, even though they would be capable of performing the technical tasks.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Adult learners typically are in a program to further their knowledge about their own field or to deeply explore a new career choice. Working in the renewable energy field I try to make real the idea that students can calculate, for example, their own energy usage by just bringing in their electric bills. Its surprising for them to see how many solar panels, for example, they would actually need on their own house based on their own electric bill.
Majority of my students do better when they are applying what was taught. This is a motivator because they may not be doing as well on exams and written work, but the hands-on or application of the subject matter they do better. This seems to out weight the poor performance and motivates them knowing they can actually apply it.
One problem with this is that many of the medical feilds like the one my students are in have to be able to pass a written board exam.
I think it helps reinforce why they are coming to school. It makes them excited to enter the job market.
