Stories.
Students love stories of our lifes experiences.I (I'm sure most do)incorporate at least a few different examples of my personal doings during any given topic/lecture.I have this "thing" I call stories with pictures.During lecture with my stories I'll show them the picture of what I'm talking about.I have a collage of several vehicles on a board with numbers on each picture.For extra credit or fun time burning,they match the picture with a question from a certain subject.I.E. A 67 Shelby stang the one that had a vibration because I didn't match the flexplate with a new one.(keep parts till the job is done.)
Stories about life experiences are what makes us more human. I share alot of mistakes I have made, student then feel they may fail but they are not failures.
I find storys of life experiances keep my students attention better,since they are interested in knowing the type of work they will be doing,and gives value to the instruction covered.
Hi Allen! Stories of life experiences are an excellent way to demonstrate relevance of topics, content or procedures to students and "storytelling" is a part of the effective teaching experience. In addition to personal life experiences (and this question goes out to everyone), what other types of storytelling might keep a lecture or presentation interesting to adult learners? Thanks!
Jay Hollowell
MaxKnowledge/CEE
Sharing stories are important in order to motivate, obtain interest, and allow the student interact with-in th group setting
Annalogies are great way to bring a difficult subject down to earth.When I discuss long and short rod theories I bring up 2 dogs I used to have,one a very large (long legged)or long rod, and a very small dog (short legged)or short rod. I threw a bone in the back yard & the small dog bolted in front of the big dog.A few moments later the large dog took over and got the bone first.The same way short rods have bottom end power over long rods.And long rods have the top end power over short.
Thanks, Charles, a brilliant analogy. This enables students to visualize and relate to topics and applications. Storytelling is actually en educational tool and, if used effectively, provides great examples to students.
Please let me encourage all course participants to share analogies they have successfully used.
Jay Hollowell
MaxKnowledge Facilitator
I agree that our experiences within the business does get our students attention. When I tell them about some of the miscues as well as successes, it gives us a more human face that they can relate to.
Michael, I like your comment about showing students they may fail but are not failures. I want to share with my students that while going to college I would look at the syllabus on the first day of every class and say to myself, "I'm going to fail this class," but never did. The most important thing I can do for my students is to convince them that they can be whatever they want to be and that in school, as in life, they will get out of it what they put in to it.
I sometimes use stories to caution students as to certain practices and actions, where in real life, caused harm or, while well intended had a negative outcome.
In a lot of ways teaching is a form of story telling. A good story teaches its listeners about life, the real world, human nature etc... .A good lecture teaches the student about a system the components of the system their relationship its history, development and its future. Story telling is teaching
I also give the students real life incidents that show them how some thoughts may not go the way they plan for them to.I also share some of my own wonds and how they happened and how I learned from the incident.
Failures in life gives me an opertunity to try again but only this time with a little more research done before the task is tried .letting students know that it is OK to fail in a task is essential so the student can feel comfortible with trying something new .
I think my students sometimes learn more from the stories than from the regular lectures. I like to try and incorporate what the chapter is trying to get across into the stories. Anything I can recall from my experience to explain a concept seems to capture and retain their attention better.
Hi Jamie,
You are right about students enjoying and understanding stories or examples about their field. If you can present a concept and then an illustration or example you will see that the students retain the concept much longer and see how it is relevant to their training.
Gary
I have found too that sharing common mistakes made while i was learning the software used in class helps the students to relate and see you as human.
Hi Brenda,
The human factor in teaching is very important and this is one way to create the connection that everyone in the class can learn including the instructor.
Gary
