Changing students methods
Adult learners come to school with real world knowledge and experience. Often these adults have learned the incorrect or unsafe way to complete a technical task (This is the way my Dad taught me). What is the best way to shift and change their methods without damaging their self esteem?
one way to show them that the particular way you are teaching the technique is valuable is to draw on recent discussion or research in the field that explains the benefits of this particular method.
I tried this once when tutoring a child in math --he had a particular way of doing long division that didn't show all the steps, and I explained the benefits of showing the steps: you can understand where you made an error if you have a wrong answer and correct it more easily, your teacher can give you partial credit for the work that was done correctly...there was a great rationale for it.
Hope this helps!
let them know that their are more than one way too complete the task
Hi Arthur,
What I do is to have the students do a side by side task completion. I let them do part of the task and then we talk about what has occurred and then I suggest a quicker or safer way that they might want to consider. This subtle approach works well with such students because they get to show they know the procedures and that gives them status in the class. I then show them the current accepted way which is based upon the best practices of the field so they learn those approaches as well. I don't worry about little things that they might do that does not compromise safety or efficiency. This way they can retain a little of what they have been taught.
Gary
