I am a clinical coordinator for the dental program and meet with all my externs once a week to discuss specific strengths and weaknesses while they are on site with exern. I have specific questions I ask to promote the students to learn from feedback from other students / peers. Student on site longer can provide a real impact on those that have just been on exern for 1or2 weeks. Its great suff and you can see these students learn and grow from eachother week after week.
Student's own success stories, ours or even of close friends or relatives of theirs. Any real life or close example makes it so much more real, achievable and possibly life changing event that would make them learn and motivate them
Among other things, I train my students to volunteer their skills with cancer patients, a challenging population given the extensive list of contraindications or cautions which accompany their condition as well as the emotional side effects of having cancer. This volunteer experience develops every aspect of their emotional intelligence. It requires that they break out of their comfort zone in order to rise to challenge of working with people living with a great deal of stress. In the end, the results reward them greatly.
David,
Great advise! Catch students doing something correct!
Jeffrey Schillinger
I praise them on their soft skills and let them know how important they are in the workforce. It will set them apart and get them recognized.
The key to EQ for most of our students very often depends on their self-esteem. We try to encourage instructors and staff to help the students see themselves as successful - sometimes in very modest ways - just to get a feeling of accomplishment. Over time, we build on those successes to achieve greater things and greater levels of self-esteem.
Thank you for the well-thought out post, Vida, You seem to have a good grasp on how to deal effectively with students and to build confidence.
Jeffrey Schillinger
Jeffrey,
I have a standing rule in my classroom, noone is allowed to use the phase "I can't do this."
Encouraging my students to try to complete the assignment, it doesn't have to be perfect, just make the effort. I tell them that practice doesn't always produce perfect results, but the feeling of doing it with confidence. That is my goal to have a student perform a task with confidence. I also model a good attitude and donot allow any teasing when someone does not succeed the first time. I will purposely misspell a word on a PowerPoint, because there are those students who will notice and point it out. I let the students know, I'm human too. Those who catch the error feel good because they were able to correct the teacher. At times it is a true error. I take advantage of any opportunity to allow my students to mentor each other when they have learned a new skill.
I try to let them know about the obstacles I've experienced in my own life, and how I overcame them, from within myself and from help I receieved from others. I am a big believer in second chances.
EQ can also be synonymously labeled as “soft skills.†In our school catalog is an extensive listing called the Student Code of Conduct. This listing negatively describes certain actions and behaviors that should not be found in a dedicated professional. All of our students are being trained in their soft skills or EQ every day through the Code of Conduct. By instructors and administrators constantly communicating and upholding this “conductâ€, our students are purposely improving their EQ.
I try to explain the "Big Picture" as much as possible. Sometimes there are so many tiny details inside of learning, that it's easy to get lost in them. I try to make sure that students can use the details to accomplish some of the bigger goals involved in their pursuit of a career.
Janelle,
You have hit on a key aspect to consider when teaching adult students. Adults need to know why they need to learn something before they will invest the effort. By clearly making connections early in a lesson, teacher greately increase the motivation to learn.
Jeffrey Schillinger
We have a veterinary technology program and many of our students come to us with a passion for animals but very little formal background in the sciences. One of the ways that we develop their emotional quotient is to frequently relate the subject matter, whether it is chemistry, anatomy, math, to their future career in veterinary medicine. We use personal stories, scenarios, and group activities to help develop a sense of family within our cohorts.
I think that success stories are good for students to hear so that they will know that although everyone can go through ups and downs, they will have success and learn to appreciate it once it comes. I also like to put inspirational quotes on the board so that my students see them when they first come into the classroom.
Thanks, Mark.
The concept of EQ is something not enough of us bring to our students.
Jeffrey Schillinger
I think the mentoring that our college provides to the student is based around developing a student’s EQ. In the reading, Daniel Goleman describes EQ as “the capacity for recognizing our own feelings, and those of other, for motivating ourselves, for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships.†We work on those aspects each week with the students. We help students work through their feeling when situations are not going well and find proper ways to address the situation. We are there to motivate the student and in turn help develop their intrinsic motivation. We stress professionalism and the proper way to communicate with other students and instructors. We cover long and short term goal setting weekly. Some of the topics we cover are new to the students, but we are there to help guide and promote EQ growth through our weekly talk tracks.
Dawn,
My math teacher in high school used to tell us that "life is a story problem" when we complained about story problems. She was correct. Giving students a chance to solve problems is very valuable.
Jeffrey Schillinger
This technique is very valuable in developing critical thinking skills, which our students come to us lacking. This gives them confidence to be a problem solver. Emotional maturity takes time to develope, but another technique I use is giving a scenario with a problem behavior and ask how they would deal with it.
I always encourage my students to persevere and tell them success stories. We also have students who are in their Internship give a presentation in class each quarter.
I always say to my students that if I can do something and master that skill, then anyone can. I like to tell my students about the obstacles I have overcome , and that there are no shortcuts to mastering something, practise and hard work. They all seem to respond or relate to my stories and I believe help inspire them to try hard and not give up.
I like to encourage my students to tell me what challenges they have in keeping up with the course and on track. Many times I have been able to work out a solution that helps them continue with the course, without them missing important class work or stressing them out.
Although my classes are more hands on I do have to spend a significant amount of time teaching the theory. To avoid boredom, I try to introduce humor and make it more fun encouraging some students to come up and assist me with demonstrations etc. They all respond well to this and it keeps them focused on what they have to learn.
