Get Your Students Hired
Shawnte,
Good way to illustrate to your students both application and relevancy. This is how you get them engaged and excited about the field they are preparing to enter.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Within the cosmetology field, everything concerning hair is relevant. I have the students explain their everyday patterns and allow them to relate it to class experiences.
George,
Good plan and the results will be that your students will have a deeper understanding along with expanded skills that will enable them to use technology to promote their career development and success.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I teach Intro to computers, so I constantly try to relate to students the relevancy of electronic media and communication is to their major. It keeps getting easier, because most students now are bringing smart phones to class, so they already transmit their dependence for electronics.
We like to bring out some practical applications in the classroom. We talking about what they will see in a specific repair shop and how they will go through a diagnosis from start to finish.
Showing the students the direct application for the content they are learning is showing them the relevance. Even something as simple as a slide show would work well. Showing them photos of people in the "real world" performing the tasks that directly pertain to the content.
Daniel,
Thank you for sharing your strategies for reaching the different learning preferences of your students. Good plan and one I know your students appreciate as they work through the various aspects of course content and application.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Since we cannot realistically divide and isolate our students into groups based on their individual preferred learning styles, we have an obligation to attempt to recognize those different learning preferences as best we can, and include elements in our lesson plans that will appeal to all four styles. For instance, I can instruct students how to properly fill out a search warrant with a lecture format and power points, but my "hands-on" kinesthetic learners (usually the lowest proportion) need to put pen to paper and go line by line to "experience" the lesson. It is a balancing act. Thank goodness for small classes!
Jeff,
Good way to bring consistency to students and help them prepare for the types of assessments they have ahead when they take the certification tests. Should reduce some of their fears and help them to be able to focus on performing to the best of their ability.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
One of the most important ways is to make sure that you relate everything for how they will be able to use it out in the field. Even testing can be related back to the field in my program (Computer Networking Technology)we give all tests in the same format and the same rules they will have for their certification tests.
As instructors we must make our instruction applicable to the students, they need to see how the information given is going to help them in getting their goals.
Glennda,
So true. Relevancy and application are two essential elements needed to enhance the learning process for students. When both are present the students see the value of what is being taught and increase their "buy in" in the course.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Making learning relevant is key to learners of all levels; they are more likely to retain that information in long term memory.
Focusing on the needs and expectations of the adult learner, your course of instruction will tend to keep the adult learner motivated and focused on what they need to enhance the career throughout the course. By showing the student relevance of what you are teaching will enhance their ability to succeed in their career field.
Scott,
This understanding is so helpful in customizing your instructional delivery. The more you know about your students the more accurate you can be with your planning. In addition, this understanding becomes the foundation for the development of rapport with the students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I always share stories of real life experiences with my students to help make course instruction relevant. I explain that without my training, the job that I was performing would have been much harder if not impossible without it. The students need examples of real life experiences to back up the importance if the instruction. Without it, the student would usually pass the instruction off as unimportant and would tend to purge this information from their minds after passing the class test. The students chuckle when I call this purge of information "Mental Bulimia".
I try to 'put myself in their shoes', by thinking about different factors such as family, income, and other constraints. While also factoring in what experience they may already have. And have that inform the content and materials that I create to be more pointed get 'to the meat faster'.
Curtis,
The project connection is so important for students to understand the scaffolding of the content being taught. The more you can do this the more valuable the course content becomes.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Kris,
This is such a great teaching tool. I use case studies to help my students to use the material we have covered in the course. The results are that the students get to see both application and relevance in what they are learning.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I try to demonstrate how one project ties into another project, so they see the big picture and not just useless projects that they are doing.