I find that since I work in the field that I am instructing, I have ample opportunity to share experiences with the students that are directly related to the course content. If they know what I'm teaching is actually something I use daily in the workplace, they know and understand it's relevance.
I teach a Surg Tech orientation course that includes OSHA, Microbilogy, Electricity, Physics, and Robotics along with a basic overview of Sterility and Sterile Technique. I try to show how much of this information is used already in their daily lives as adults and parents and how it all ties in together in the OR with the equipment/supplies/surgeries/techniques that they will be using and exposed to.
Hi Thomas,
Money is definitely a great way to motivate your students. We all want to hear about making more money.
Patricia
Hi Ward,
Memorization is useless, if the concept cannot be applied.
Patricia
That sounds excellent. Once someone can explain how it applies then that is a much better comprehension of the material than if someone can memorize it!
Very true. If I say this may make you money someday they become all ears.
By incorporating real world examples that mirror lecture/course content. Relate personal experience into the presentation material. Personally, I call this re-looping. Constantly relate the lecture material to real life experience. Lecture must be made relevant to the student so that the student can adapt the material to fit their own cognitive level.
Hi Keveka,
There is nothing like making course work applicable to real life. Students tend to get it when they can relate the information to the real world.
Patricia
Hi Jim,
Students need to and want to know how they are going to benefit from taking the course.
Patricia
You have to show the students the WIIFM. If you don't some students will shut down and not take the course seriously.
I believe that two of the keys to teaching are the ability to demonstrate to the student the relevancy of the material that they are going to learn to their and the ability to create analogous relationships to their existing knowledge base. Failure to establish the former will result in boredom, tedium and exasperation for the student, if not the professor as well.
The absence of the latter will result in increasing levels of frustration, as a student ties to acquire knowledge for which they have no empirical point of reference, and therefore not way to anchor it into their hearts and minds.
Add to this process the feeling that the need to learn this information has been imposed upon them, rather than planned deliberately to insure their success, and you have the makings for a disruptive and chaotic class.
The subjects that I have been teaching, so far, are Anatomy and Physiology, Microbiology and Pathology.
I demonstrate the relevance of these subjects by using the students own health an bodily concerns for discussion, the health of their friends, the foundational importance of these topics to their future line of work and my own clinical experience as a Doctor of Chiropractic.
I also relate these topics to their ability to literally function effectively in their jobs. Most people like to look and feel competent, rather than the reverse and this too can become a major motivator for my students to acquire the desired body of knowledge before them.
Jonathan D. French, D.C.
September 10, 2010
I've used the method of applying the course to their personal life. I used real life experiences that I have had, and doing that allowed them to become comfortable with sharing their experiences. And with that when they read different chapters in the text I ask them to tell me how it applies to their life or maybe the life of someone else.
Certainly by having some real world examples and allowing an outside speaker to lend some real world credibility.
Engaging your students on how the course is used in their program our out beyond the academic world is the primary way to show relveancy.
However, I do like to use the guest speaker approach.
Hi Patricia,
In the massage therapy field we have a great advantage, we touch people. There is nothing that engages like a demonstration. When the student feels the effects of a technique it really gets their attention. Also, get them working on each other as quickly as possible.
I have guest speakers come in to speak to my students about key points and actual work experiences that are not mentioned in textbooks. My students appreciate this effort and gives them the opportunity to network with potential employers.
Also, my students have to complete an externship/work co-op before they graduate. They are requried to give an oral presentation to their peers about their co-op/enternship experiences for approximately 10-15 minutes. Relevancy occurs when students share the fact that they felt fortunate to learn vital skills in the classroom as they applied them to their daily responsibilities and duties during the externship/co-op.
Hi JoAnne,
I love your idea of making these writing assignments real for your students. Students need to know acceptable formatting/verbage of professional documents. Who wants to hire someone if your cover letter has several mistakes in it.
Patricia
I emphasize that knowledge s something that no one can ever take away and although it may not be immediately everything you learn will need to be applied at some point in the future. I share personal examples of things I have learned and thought at the time, that I would never need that information, but years later it helped me in some way.
I also show students how what they are learning in one class can be applied to other classes and future employment opportunities.
Hi Robert,
It is kind of like parenting. They sometimes do not see the relevance or appreciate the teaching until later down the road.
Patricia
Hi Scott,
Once students understand how the course is going to benefit them in the workplace, they understand the relevance of the course.
Patricia
Hi Dee,
Students love it whenever they see the relevance of the course as to how it really applies to the real world.
Patricia
