I feel sharing information always helps the next person. Sometimes people do not like to ask questions, so when information is shared many questions are answered.
Terizian,
Students like to hear stories from the field. These stories give value to the content that is being offered.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
i find my student very effective retention stratagies depend on their age and gender...some most of them relate to stories from my work experience
I agree with you. The way to retain students is to be caring and positive. They have to see that you care for them,and their success.
Gonzalo,
Personal attention and the earning of student respect is so valuable in keeping students in school. They see you the learning leader caring about them and their success. This increases their motivation level.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
In order to maintaing our retention strategies as high as possible, I focus on offering a more personalized attention and care for our students adding value to the experience. If a students misses a class, I call him personally and show concern for his or her attendance offering my support if needed.
Barbara,
Students really like hearing real life scenarios and examples. They make the course content more valuable to them.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I keep the students interested in the subjects by giving them real life scenarios.
Freda,
Students love hearing career stories. I know you have noticed how they perk up when you share a story, example or illustration using your career experiences. These stories increase the value of the content you are presenting to the students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Sharing career stories during class helps students feel valued and relaxed and then they become an important part of the learning community.
Tara,
Students as you know really perk up when their instructor shares a story from the field. These stories reinforce the value of the content being shared resulting in greater student satisfaction with the course.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Personal experience (both positive and negative) are a great way to get the students involved and even bring humor into the lesson. Using the students background is also a great way to relate the lesson back to what the students already know.
I have found the students begging me to relate my career stories. They then comment that they now understand why the class is setup the way it is, but also allows there imagination to enter into your story and seeing themselves in the same exciting situation.
Teresita,
I commend you for the great job you are doing teaching math to culinary arts students in a way they can see relevancy and application. So many students seem to think that there is no transfer of learning from class to the next and you are showing them that it is not true. Keep up the good work.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
It is always an effective retention method to give students a reason to come back to your classroom. I am teaching Mathematics and the best part of the session is when students can relate fraction and decimals in converting recipes in their culinary and baking courses and to apply them in their practical work, both in class or work. I got remarks like, "I did not realize that it works like that, and it was easy to do." This example only shows that knowledge becomes more significant when application or evaluation in the real-world would evidence the need to learn some more, that means going back to school.
Barbara,
I use a lot of guest speakers in my courses for the reasons you mention. They help my students to see their future because the successful graduates I bring in are using the course content and living the career they chose.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
What I also found helpful and encouraging to the students is when you invite guest speakers that are subject matter experts who bring in the highest level of expertise on a particular topic.
Rochelle,
That has been my experience as well. Students like stories because stories help to make the content come alive. They see relevancy and application to what they are being taught one a story is shared that connects to that day's topic.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Daniel,
I am a big fan of having graduates come in and speak to students. Student motivation always increases after one of these guest speakers because the students start to see that if they will continue to work hard they to will be in the role of the guest speaker before very long.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Based on my experience, everytime I share a personal experience related to the topic I am lecturing on, students appear to be more enthuse and are able to have a personal connection to my story, hence understanding the concepts in my lecture even better as they are able to relate to the personal experience.
