The main key I have found is to insert relevant tangents into the lecture on a fairly regular basis. I watch my students and when it appears that I am starting to lose their attention I will spin off onto a related topic. This might be giving an example from my time in the industry or an amusing story. By paying attention to their behavior in this manner I can prevent them from losing interest completely and shutting down.
This is a culinary school. If a student falls asleep during lecture once, no problem but a simple warning that all points will be lost if it happens again. If it does happen again, I don't even warn them about it until they see their grade and see how seriuos I was.
I alway ask students questions about the subject and have them relate the topic to a real world situation. For example, I ask student about the yeild of a particular produce and ask them what would they charge for this particular product? How would you make money ect. What would the food cost be?
I have 28 years of experience in the industry. I relate real life experiences, both good & bad, during my years working for large casino properties in LV
In my classroom I like to tell stories of where I worked in the past and also have them group up to tackle problems. We also have them pull out thier phones to look up an interesting fact about what we are trying to learn for the day.
Almost everyone currently has a phone on them.
Trina,
These are fantastic ideas! Thank you so much for sharing!
Jae Gruber
James,
It is good to read that you are having students participate in the demo and even post a schedule to let them know when they will be doing so! This really does make a huge difference in the level of student engagement.
Jae Gruber
I find that my GenEd students keep interested longer if I break up my lesson material into shorter sections. Today, for instance, I gave everyone a BINGO board to mark while I presented information from a Powerpoint. Whenever I said one of the words on their BINGO card, they were allowed to mark it until a winner reached BINGO. Then, for the second half of the class (our class time is 1:50 minutes), the students sat across from each other in the style of "Speed Dating." They had 30 seconds to teach the other student about the information on a Powerpoint slide or page in the book. The other student had to ask a question and then everyone rotated down one seat. Playing those two different games kept the students moving and interested!
I demo around the stove and constantly ask questions while demoing. I also have the students participate in the demo. I usually make a schedule at the beginning of the class so the students know when they are going to be doing part of the demo.
I start by outlining the goals of the day, to set the proper expectations. I alternate between media (white board, Power Point Presentation and video) as much as possible and relevant. I move around the class a lot and engage them in the discussions. When I am about to teach a new concept, I first ask them what their interpretation of it is and open for discussion, then I follow up with the actual explanation and real life experiences or practice. That is when I am teaching Gen Ed classes. In the culinary labs, I follow a similar pattern, but the focus is on the demo first. When they are practicing skills or cooking a recipe, I am always moving around and engaging with them, so that they are always cognizant of what they are doing and why.
anthony,
Having students participate in the demo really keeps the students engaged. I like that you ask the students about how you could do something differently and what the outcome may be in that situation. It is extremely important to use open-ended questions that make students think, rather than simply relaying information.
Jae Gruber
Patrick,
I do think asking students to share their own experiences in the classroom when they relate to the lecture topic truly helps keep the student engaged and the discussion lively.
Jae Gruber
Asking students for personal experiences relate to the lecture.
Robert,
Demonstrations during lecture are very effective, especially if the student can participate in some sort of way - stirring, mixing or even helping the chef instructor set up the demo can help students focus and stay engaged.
Jae Gruber
I find using stories from my past, humor and asking open ended questions helps the demos along. Also asking the students to repeat what I just did and ask why helps. Having students help during the demo lets me show proper techniques on what is happening at the moment. Asking could we do this differently and if so what would be the outcome.
Demonstrations during a lecture are extremely helpful. I have the students total attentionn, and they realize that what I am trying to accomplish is exactly what they too must achieve. Photos of finished dishes or pastry products are also a good way to capture their interest and attention.
During the lecture I ask the student to bring their own experiences related to the lecture. Some of them working in the field have lots of ideas and best practice to share.
Jorge,
These are all good ideas. Pop culture references can make the instructor seem more relatable. Open ended questions are so important in engaging students. It is also important to be patient and wait for an answer. Some students may take more time to answer than others and as instructors, it is important not to answer the question before the student has been given a chance to do so.
Jae Gruber
Emma,
I agree, it is important to have them interact with the demo as much as possible. The more they can tell the instructor what should come next or stir or cut items needed for the demo, the more engaged they become in the subject matter.
Jae Gruber
I try to get them involved in telling me steps to a procedure that they have done before. I try to have them interacting in the demo as much as they can. I will also ask them why some steps are done the way they are- what the reasoning behind the step is- this helps them to remember the step later on if they know why it's important.
