Managing Expectations
This is something that I do with my students from day one.
I teach audio engineering (how to record and mix music). I tell students that I do not teach music I teach the engineering of music. The first few days of class I take them on a small tour of studios and small local clubs so they see what they are been trained for. This helps a lot in the future success of the student thru out the course and also in their career.
To me, learning what my students' expectations for the course are is very important in helping them relate to the course content, because I can deal early with any misconceptions they have.
Claudia,
If we know the expectations of our students we can then more accurately plan to meet those expectations through the content and experiences we share with our students. You make a very good point in relation to making the expectations clear for students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Andres, you make some good points. I teach Electronic Health Records to medical assistants and billers and coders. We have found the need to slip a quick and dirty Excel class into the syllabus to prepare the students for what they will encounter on their externships.
Most students are happy with this, but one was not as she wanted to learn MS Office exclusively in my class intead of EHR. Talk about mixed expectations!
I really like this method of setting expectations by showing your students real world applications. I think we all need to show our students the exciting real world applications of our course material from the beginning in order to generate overall course excitement. I try to spend my first day managing expectations in a similar way. I start by going around the class and asking your students for their individual expectations. This is a simple and great way to gauge and manage the expectations of your class as a whole from the very beginning.
James,
The more applications you can make the more you increase the value of the course to your students. You are connecting the dots for the students between what they are learning and how they will use it. This is a win win situation for them as a result.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Before I teach anatomy and physiology, I have them take a learning style assessment to see what style of learner they are. This way I can gauge how to present challenging information to different types of learners. I also pause every now and again and have them write reflections to see how they are doing and what they expect from the course.
Erica,
This is such a great service for your students. By them having an idea about how they prefer to learn you can connect with them in different ways as a result of how you deliver the content and they extract the key points from the lecture.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
