At a culinary school- the students are usually visual/ hands on. I find they do the best with things that are demonstrated first- so they can see exactly what we are grading them on. It's interesting to see how they do on dishes that we don't demonstrate. (they were demonstrated in previous classes and then repeated in this class)
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for making this point about visual learners. It serves to reinforce the need to make sure we use every learning avenue we can to illustrate the concepts we are trying to share with our students.
Gary
As a chef instructor, I provide thorough demos & the student must watch, take notes, work with past instructional info, & be prepared to complete the competencies.
Being a dental instructor, I find that visual learning works the best. I demonstrate a dental procedure, explaining each type of material and instrument needed. After the demonstration, the students then perform and repeat back the information of the procedure.
I agree. I use visual aids to get points across.
I agree as an automotive instructor I am dealing with a lot of hands on students. It is import to have trainings aids available during our daily discussions in the classroom.
Hi Don,
Good comments about the need for graphic teaching aids. In your field they have to not only know it they must see it and do it if they are going to be successful. Keep up the good work.
Gary
I am an automotive instructor and find that most of my students are visual/hands on learners. They need to see the task done and then try to accomplish the task themselves.
I have done this exercise in the past when showing my student how to make an hollandaise sauce. I include in my demo the suggested steps of making the sauce that includes tasting every step along the way so that they can sense the flavors on their palettes. The fun begins when i purposely break the sauce and show them how to fix it in front of them and they're amazed and interested in the demo. I believe the key is to find ways to keep them enlighten and involved during the demoes which in the end their retention is higher.
Hi Glenn,
I like demonstrations like this because they are engaging and dramatic. You are getting your message across when you show your students something like this. Keep up the good teaching efforts.
Gary
I agree with you statement, I constantly hand out hands on visual aids while lecturing.
i found that if the students watch me first then do the same task when im done they seem to retain the information better.
Great point. I have the luxury of passing items around the classroom I am discussing in a class lesson. We have also developed many training aids that allow for visual explanation of how certain items work.
Hi Henry,
Great way to enhance learning. Just one more way of helping students retain content. By touching and viewing items their memories are reinforced.
Gary
We get to teach theory of operation which seems to go over like a big boring topic but when you show a demo of what the theories just told them they get excited about tring to complete a new job task. once completed they say it was easy but without the theories of operation the material will be just part of the understanding.
Hi Alfredo,
This is what student centered learning is all about. You are showing them relevancy and application as you present the content. This is what is keeping them engaged. Keep up the good work.
Gary
As a Surgical Tech Instructor when passing instruments to the student to learn their names its better then the animation in the book, they not only give postive feedbacks but the excitement in their eyes says it all
Nuance,
This is what keeps teachers coming back to the classroom/lab day after day. The joy of seeing students learn is a real high.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
It is easy to see this, in so many of my students. They struggle with one subject, yet excel at another. Finding out what it is that motivates them, and how to best convey the material to them is the challenge.
As an electrical instructor in a HVAC a numder of students have been told by their friends electrical classes are waste. Some show interest when we do hands on work. The real students (most) do work hard in all phases of the program.
In addition to our hands on materials we have material and equipment that was in demoltion projects. We have some as static displays and others as pass around examples. Some are partially taken apart. Real students are inmterested in 'Whats Inside'. They cost nothing and if bought new for examples in class there would be thousands of dollars cost. For ouir static displays and pass around we have recycled one company's garbage in to an instructional tool.
