Model/manager/motivator
I want the students to be actively involved in discussion in the class. However that's no substitute for spending the time reading the textbook to prepare for class. It is my impression that they feel their emoting should guarantee them success in the class in and of itself. I blame their exposure to television talk shows which seem to confuse public baring of the soul with knowledge and wisdom.
Bruce Crissinger
Hi Bruce,
How true about the TV era we live in. I am finding that I am spending a lot of time working with career college students in the area of “soft skillsâ€. They are in need of some social skill development as well as skill specific work. As you know without proper social skills they are not going to be successful in their career area. I try to weave both soft and skill specific training throughout my courses.
Gary
Student participation is a must, I feel, in order to grasp certain skills required in our arena of work. It is also necessary to be caught up on assigned reading in order to be part of the class discussions. We have young and old students alike. My observations lead me to believe younger students have simply never been held responsible for their own performances in the classroom setting (good or bad). By making some sort of input necessary in order to take part in the field training/exercises we do, and combining some personal "face-to-face" classroom interaction in the form of oral "quiz" questions from the start, even slow starters generally begin to expand their class involvement--which includes reading texts at home on their own time. The lesson taught here by example is their career's success is based, to no small degree, upon their involvement and what they are willing to put into it.
Hi Steve,
Good plan. Thank you for sharing a well thought out methods of involving all of your students in the learning setting. You make an excellent point about younger students not being held accountable. They in many cases have a very hard time transitioning from high school to the "real world" where deadlines must be met and work completed.
Keep up the good work.
Gary
In order for my students to participate in discussions, I try to bring in life experiences that they have and then relate it to class material. I also encourage my students to speak in class and work with other class-mates since many of my students have the tendency to shy away from public speaking.
