Hello, I am a new instructor at a career college although I have taken classes on teaching and taught some as a TA or guest lecturer while in grad school.
One of the topics I've been assigned to teach is an area I dont have much experience with - theoretical, yes, but actual hands-on applications - no. Our class met for the first time last Monday and I realized that many of my students (at least 40% of the class) have VAST experience in this subject matter! I am not threatened by this, I want to harness it, to tap into their knowledge and experience to enhance the learning of the other students and myself.
What I'm struggling with is how to do that while still providing quality value to the "expert" students. I don't want them to feel used or that they're not learning too.
Thoughts?