Hi Stephanie,
Students love a good discussion and will definitely participate when the discussion is interesting and exciting.
Patricia Scales
I love getting debates going in class. I teach sociology and a lot of what we talk about it culture, society, and the roles we play based upon expectations. It makes for great discussion and the students stay really engaged.
Hi Allison,
I love what you do to promote buy in from your students. Your assignments are very applicable to the real world.
Patricia Scales
I primarily teach composition and English so I create student buy-in by being completely transparent about how verbal and written analytical skills will shape their life and career. I do this by creating "ASSIGNMENT GOALS" section for each written assignment, which we discuss in class. We partake in activities such as:
1. Analyzing the tone and diction of professional e-mails so they know how to properly assess and reply to work-related inquiries.
2. Writing essays and papers that require them to research global controversies that will be prevalent in their chosen field. I get them to "buy-in" by showing them how the knowledge they gain will make them more credible and knowledgeable in their career, and that knowing about global issues might help facilitate customer relations by creating conversation topics.
Hi Jacqueline,
When students understand the connection from the course to the real, they generally will buy into the course. Course relevancy is important to students for buying into a course.
Patricia Scales
When trying to get my students to buy into the course, I tend to use real world applications of the course from experience side of the material to show that this class is needed in their chosen field. For example in kinesiology class I remind students that without the knowledge of muscles & how they work they will be unable to properly stretch a client or massage effectively.
Hi Beverly,
I love your perspective, and I love how you can share real stories that you have experienced with your students. Wisdom and experience are so powerful!
Patricia Scales
Hi Bill,
Honesty is the best policy! I am sure your honesty helps students to buy in.
Patricia Scales
To get the students to buy into the need for this information, I will use a real world procedure that requires the student to know the information in order to perform the procedure. For example, before you can administer a medication, you must first know how to get from mg. to mL. They each know that for Clinical Medical Assisting giving injections and vaccinations is a typical part of their job, therefore, they will pay more attention to calculation instruction and pharmacology as they understand it is necessary to know for their liscensure exams and their future careers.
Hi Kimberly,
Awesome! I really love how you put your students in control, but you monitor the entire process and offer suggestions. You do a fine job promoting buy in from your students.
Patricia Scales
I share with them the college experiences of my 7 children, their struggles, their goals, their defeats & mistakes, and their ultimate victories -graduation and employment. One of my daughters took 8 years to get her Bachelor's Degree, but she earned her Master's Degree last month. I talk to them about obstacles and hurdles they will encounter, and how we can work together to overcome them, one day at a time. I share with them the value of having a college education and what it can mean in their lives and in the lives of their families. I let them know that I understand how difficult it is to get a college education, but that I will assist them in doing so, every step of the way, because I believe passionately in education and in THEM.
i dont think I really have any strategies to get students to buy in. I am that instructor that just tells them like it is, the truth. The last thing I want a student to ever say to me once they get out in the real world is, you never said it was going to be like this.
I teach a lot of the visual art classes for a game design course and the way that I usually get students to participate is by trying to get them to "geek out" about something. What I mean by this is that I create a base project that they can apply a theme too and I usually encourage the more outrageous the better. The students thus far have been really good at monitoring themselves for their designs but I do check in with them at ever stage and try to add suggestions on how to make it more successful such as issues with game mechanics or approaching a theme that could potentially become offensive. In the end I always let them decide but they have always been really open to the critique's I offer as well as open to critiquing each other in a team environment.
Since I'm strictly a clinical instructor at this time, I am able to get quite a bit of feedback from my students daily. At the end of the clinical sessions, when I'm doing their grade for the day, we usually have a short discussion about how the session went, struggles, accomplishments and questions. So there's a great opportunity for communication. Usually, the students are very vocal about how they feel about certain clinical requirements/competencies/skills evals we ask of them.
I try to show the relevance of the material to real-life situations. This seems to be the most effective way that I have found.
I want students to see the connection between what I am teahing, they are learning and how this knowledge will affect them in the work place. Only then will you have "buy in." When we make connections we feel that this will have some impact on me.
Hi Michael,
I concur! Students understand the relevancy of the course when they understand how it applies to their chosen field of study.
Patricia Scales
Hi Bethany,
Some classes are simply understood as to the importance of the course. They students know that they must have it in order to be successful in their career.
Patricia Scales
I think I may have answered this but buy in comes from relating the topic to something that is relevent to the student. I always relate lesson topice to the industry the students are going into. I say that "if the chef" or "in our industry".............Students need to hear specific examples or stories of real events, otherwise, it's just book work and boring lecture.
I always relate it to the industry. I think of an example of when they may use the skill or information in the field and they tend to buy in a little quicker.
