Making the classroom experience applicable to the working world.
As an instructor, you should seek out opportunities to apply the class content to what the students would actually use it for once they are in the workforce. These work-based scenarios will pique their interests and instill in them the reason why they enrolled in the first place, which was to become productive citizens within their chosen career field.
Pamela,
Your example made me smile because many students seem to have the opinion that their instructors have never worked in their field nor have a live outside of the classroom. So them knowing that you were nervous giving your first injection is perfect for helping them seem that at one time or another we were all students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
One technique that we use in the classroom is relating incidence that happened in our own practice that relates to the lesson. I find when a student hears how nervous the instructor was the first time the instructor gave an injection the student relaxes a little and forgets to worry about making a mistake and looking "stupid" in front of the instructor and their classmates.
Real life stories also help the students to see the relationship between what they are learning and actual practice in the workplace.
I am constantly providing different types of examples as I lecture. I vary between actual daily class lab experiences so that they can relate to the topic here and now, and then I mix it up with industry examples to show them that it applies to the real world. I also like to use one specific example and carry it through the entire topic/chapter so that they can understand how it applies from beginning to end.
I am constantly providing different types of examples as I lecture. I vary between actual daily class lab experiences so that they can relate to the topic here and now, and then I mix it up with industry examples to show them that it applies to the real world. I also like to use one specific example and carry it through the entire topic/chapter so that they can understand how it applies from beginning to end.
Hi Salenna,
I am a big user of field trips as well. They do so much for students in the area of motivation and engagement.
Gary
I always take my students on field trips to the workplace so they can see how working in their field of choice looks like and how it is ran.
Hi Kimberly,
I teach a required course as well so I can understand where you are coming from. My students say the same thing. I work hard to convince my students that what the course has to offer will be of help to them. With a wide variety of activities and varied delivery techniques the students come around and in spite of themselves enjoy taking the course.
Gary
I ask students how they think the course content will help them in their chosen fields of study. Often, they already know the answers, even if they complain that they have to take it as a required course.
Hi Sherri,
Application and relevancy are two key words that the students need to see in their courses. The connection between the classroom and the real world is critical so the more we can do to enhance these connections the greater the level of students success.
Gary
