Hi Billie ,
Students tend to feel more at ease when they are told that there are no exact answers.
Patricia Scales
Your ideas are wonderful and no doubt successful. I'm going to try to get the students to buy into my literature class by telling them that they are going to look at artists' work on themes relevant to the development of their country (USA). These artists are from a range of backgrounds, with commonalities with many of the students. The artists have hightened awareness of moods, trends, ideas, and feelings, along with the courage to speak out. They are worth reading because they can teach us about ourselves, our environment, and our biases, as well as delight us in the way they teach these lessons.
This would apply to literature also. I am teaching an American Literature course at a career college. Many of the students are taking courses for specific career goals. Therefore, it is important to emphasize that there are no exact answers and that the goal is to analyze and think--the reward is the journey. Changing the way a student sees the world after being trained to give the one "right" answer is valuable and necessary in complex environments.
This would apply to literature also. I am teaching an American Literature course at a career college. Many of the students are taking courses for specific career goals. Therefore, it is important to emphasize that there are no exact answers and that the goal is to analyze and think--the reward is the journey. Changing the way a student sees the world after being trained to give the one "right" answer is valuable and necessary in complex environments.
Hi Tyson,
Students love hearing stories that are applicable to the lesson.
Patricia Scales
Being in the medical field I love to show them extreme examples of what can go right if you know what you are doing and what can go wrong. Such as a story of how a life was saved and how someone was sued for not doing it right.
Hi Jennifer,
Writing is crucial to every major. No one wants a person working for them who is unable to write a complete thought.
Patricia
Since I teach Writing, I explain why they won't even be able to get an interview, let alone keep a job, without the proper foundational skills.
Hi Carole,
I love the idea of the bell. Our placement person informs the instructors when students are hired, and we share the great news with our current students. This is a super way to get students excited and encourage them to work hard so that they can get to that point.
Patricia
Hi Kay,
These are great ways to great course relevancy across to students. Graduate guest speakers are the abosolute best because they can really relate to the current students.
Patricia
Hi Chara,
This is great creativity on your part as well to put together such a beneficial assignment. Students learn a lot from these type of assignments, and they tend to use their creativity to make an impression.
Patricia
Hi Kelly,
Students become real interested once they know what they are learning will definitely be applied in the workplace.
Patricia
My students want something they never had before and that is a career. They love hearing about other successful students. If they have a preesentation examples of what other successful students did. If it is a Professional Development class which is one of the last classes, they love to hear stories about other students. We also have a bell in our school that students ring when they have found a position. Everytime student hear that it gives a little more relavancy to their course.
One of the best ways is by using guest speakers from the field. What better way to demonstrate to students how what they are learning is used in the "real world." Speakers bring in a working view of the field rather than a textbook view, which lends more relevance to the topic. Another good use would be to bring in graduates from the school who can speak on a peer level as to how they've been able to put the course content to work for them once they graduated and started on their career.
I give examples of job titles/descriptions of when the material is used & when students realize these job descriptions overlap each other & they use the course content in many different areas in the medical field, they ussually stop talking & engage themselves eagerly.
As an oral communication instructor, I wanted to show my students that communication in their fields is relevant (well. . .it is in all fields). But how could I convince them of this? I did this by making one of the speech assignments directly relate to their fields. The speech assignment was a tribute speech, and the students had to pick the type of tribute speech and then directly relate it to their fields. They could combine fictional and non-fictional elements. For example, two students talked about electronic medical records (EMRs)(non-fictional) and thanked donors (fictional) for helping their medical offices (fictional) get the EMRs. This assignment made the students use their creativity and field knowledge. The assignment turned out great, and I enjoyed listening to my students’ creativity and learning about their fields of study.
I always want to know wyh I need to do certain courses and how it will be relevant to my career. Students appear to buy into the classes better if they see the relevance in the assignments.
As a criminal justice professor using news articles is a great way to show relevancy. It really ties the course work into real life situations.
Since I am teaching an apparel design and patternmaking course, I continually relate the student work back to industry practices. I like to keep the students thinking about their class work as not isolated "tasks" the teacher is requiring.
Hi Michelle,
We need to show our students that we can break the material down to a level where they can understand it. Students love and enjoy hearing applicable stories to the lesson.
Patricia
