In my class in garde manger I instruct students on a variety of subjects some very relevant to everyday restaurant business like salad and sandwich and soup preparations. These parts of the course need little strategy to see why they are relevant. However I also teach the old arts like pate and gallontine work that uses a lot of fat and in reality are not used much anymore in this country. So although one of the learning objectives of the course is to produce a pate and gallontine I also have the class take the forcemeat and emulsify it into a hot dog and I use the concept of the gallontine and have the students make a group Turducken which most of the students have heard of (turducken) or eat (hot dog). They tend to engage more when more common food is associated with these ancient recipes.
I make instruction relevant by bringing real world experience and relating the course objectives to their future career.
John,
This is truly a unique approach. The blend of old, new and taste into a result helps to illustrate in the minds of students the whys and hows of what they are learning. Well done.
Gary
As a culinary instructor I find my students are informed about cooking and fine dining. Most of this exposure comes from television and not from actual experience either eating or cooking themselves. I feel that demonstration of techniques and then having the students repeat the show competency is the very best method of students learning. Our school emphasizes note cards of the recipes. This is a great way of having the students understand in advance what they will be seeing and doing.
The reason students attend Career Colleges is to obtain enough knowledge to be successful in the career of their choice. They are constantly evaluating the course content to see if the content is relevant to their career choice. We as instructors have to review our instructional content to insure that we are supplying the students with information that will help them attain the proper level of competency.
The adult learner brings life eperiences to the classroom. These experiences are what the educator can build upon. This strategy not only enforces the life lesson but allows the student to view the content relevant to the learning process.
Larry,
See, try and apply are great principles for reinforced learning. You are doing such with your approach. Keep up the good work.
Gary
Sharon,
These life experiences when shared help the adult learner feel that he/she is contributing to their instructional development and not just occupying space.
Gary
Algebra is often viewed as the least relevant of all classes, particularly in healthcare-related training. I ask my students how they learned to think? This generates discussion on thinking and its nature. Eventually, I simplify frmo the lofty thoughts to the mundane, like how do we decide what we want for dinner. How did we decide to pursue the education process that we are currently involved in. Once we've narrowed the task we talk about process. The genesis of their process. It is very easy for me at this point to show the subversive side of math. It is the foundation of their thinking process. It is not a big leap then for relevancy in algebra.
After completion of the course of instruction we take a field trip to see how this course fits with real world application.
Ronald,
This is a great way to complete a course. The students get to see the reasons why you and they worked so hard during the course. It puts everything together for them as they move out of the course.
Gary
the adult learner is generally interested in how career learning would apply in the real world, so as a part of my class i often give scenario's that assist in visual, tactile and in some cases auditory strategies to make my instruction relevant.
Rickey,
Good strategy. You are helping them to see relevancy and application to what they are learning.
Gary
I teach a medical assisting program and sometimes my students will ask, "why do we need to know anatomy and physiology." I used to think this answer should be obvious to the students since they are enrolled in a medical program; but then I realized it was important for me to explain that in order to understand our patients and their symptoms it is important to know the anatomy of the body and the way it works (physiology). It is a very simple answer that takes me less than 3 minutes to explain and it seems to put the relevance back into the subject. Instead of assuming the students know the relevance of their courses, instructors should take the time to explain the relevance.
Throughout my audio seminars I constantly give real world examples that directly relate to my student's intended careers. Sometimes making organizational psychology relevant to culinary students seems difficult, but it is very easy to do with a bit of creativity. They enjoy providing their own examples in that forum - we also find ways to make the material relevant in the discussion forums. The questions that we have developed make connections to the theory and have them imagine themselves using the information in the field.
I try to use open ended questions and get the students thinking about how what we are talking about now may have been used in their past experinces. Or I will use examples from my own experience came into play and how I used this to my advantage. Most times there is atleast one student who can add to the conversation and his/her story sparks the other students interest since they are not just hearing it from me but from another student as well.
i teach nursing and i find it difficult for the younger population to understand the importance of nursing and the learning processes behind it.
An adult learner needs to always have their goals before them in order to remember why they are in the school, or taking a specific course. I like role-playing, group activities and assignments, and research to ensure that students can always apply what they are learning to real life application. I always want to reiterate the relevance of their instruction by giving examples and facilitating questioning or inquiry towards their expected goals.
Some of methodology, I have used are review & return demo by student, observe recorded steps of the procedure and teach among each other.
If students don't see the instruction you are giving as being relevant to what the job that they are doing in the future it is very difficult for them to see and understand the need for learning all of the information. In my field of nursing it is very easy in alot of ways. For example if they don't know and understand what hysterectomy means how are they going to even have a clue what is going to happen to that patient much less how they might be able to help in the post op care and what signs and symptoms they should be assessing for.
