Hello Patrice,
Most of students can improve their witten and verbal commuications skills.
Patricia
Find out a little background about the student in order to relate his/her real life experience to the course content. This is my "application" of What's In It For Me?
I have had positive comments when students are called by their names ("personalization effect"), and when they can relate concepts/theories learned to what they do (“individual effectiveness”).
Hi Anthony,
Students neeed personallization and individual effectiveness. Students feel very important when they get to have the instructor's undivided attention.
Patricia
I too work with the students in their final term, and buy-in is a little eaiser. I have found a bit of senior-itis in the students so I try to focus on professional excellence. Building pride in the profesion and in their skills.rebecca whittaker
I also like aking the students about their goals and dreams. It helps me to steer my examples to topics they can relate to. As Adult learners the bridge i describe between previsous knowledge an new knowledge isvery helpful.
rebecca whittaker
It is true student want to be valued, to feel important. To get their buy-in, it is important that they know what is expected of them. At the start of each term/ session, I first explain to the students how I will help/support them in achieving their goals.
Patricia,
I have a combination of strategies but these 2 are the most effective:
1. Aligning my curriculum & assessments to meet the needs of the students. For example, I have taught A&P for years to students entering healthcare. Recently, I began teaching A&P for Criminal Justice students. To do so effectively, I empahsized areas relating to their area of study, such as genetics & DNA, blood typing, etc. Instead of quizes & tests, I wrote CJ scenarios with crime scene analysis to reinforce the key concepts.
2. Respect. I have designed my classroom to meet where they are at. My curriculum is not punitive. I welcome students who make the effort to come to class at any point. I do not deduct points for late work. This way, they do not have to make excuses and I do not have to do a lot of busy work that deducts from teaching.
Hi Augustine,
It is important for students to have our support!
Patricia
Hi Evelyn,
I can tell you care about meeting the needs of students. Continue to put the students first.
Patricia
Hi Rebecca,
What explanation do you give to describe the bridge between previous and new knowledge?
Patricia
Hi Rebecca,
I've found with students in their final term have already bought in.
Patricia
As a realative new instructor I am unsteady in how I build the "bridge'. Currently I try to make a cmparrison with the knowledge I think they understand. for example I try to compare the human body to a computer. But it dosen't always work. Sometimes they focus on my comparison more than the information about the bosy. Do you have some suggestions?
Rebecca W
Giving a scenario that most students have been involved as a patient in any doctors office. Then take the material for the new class & provide students with information they will learn in the new mod as to how the health care employee would assist the patient of that same scenario. In other words, apply the new material for the new mod to a common scenario that they will find them selves in as employees.
I hit the ground running. I hit the classroom with some enthusiasm, and I have a front loaded quiz each day. That's enough to get the ball rolling.
But, in a larger sense, it is hard to secure the buy-in, especially from those students who have little success in my courses interests in the past.
My son has a complex of learning problems, and his therapist always had him get into a physical position of winning, as he did on the soccer field; he would, then, build on that. I often tell this anecdote to the students to suggest I know where they are coming from.
My most difficult challenge is getting culinary students to "buy-into" relevance of Course in American Literature.
They seem to enjoy the readings, but they also seem to lack a larger sense of academic community.
In Texas, compliance requires Gen Ed courses to shy away from application to career studies. They push us to a more Humanistic approach and away from career base.
Now, we do take some risks. For example, I have assigned a short restaurant review with the graded emphasis on use of vivid language. I have also done this with a short menu. If students choose a restaurant or culinary topic on their own for composition in other rhetorical modes, I don't stop them. However, we need to be in a position to defend this to compliance people.
I have experienced that sincere passion for the subject matter gets your foot in the door, and depth of knowledge will be tested. Without the sound factual background you will never survive a class longer than an hour - the class will find out! But it has been my experience that the goal is to get the class moving on its own: it is far better to trot along behind a class, tossing out suggestions and guiding the path, then it is to pull a class through every meeting.
I teach an academic course at a culinary school, and share that challenge. Showing students the "bigger picture" helps, but it is an uphill battle.
In order to get buy in from my students I explain to them how the information and skills they will acquire in the classroom will help them on the job. I also make use of hand-outs that they will take back to their worksite and use on the job. As they can see that these hand-outs are useful, they usually are comfortable working through the lesson objectives and achieving expected behaviors. As long as the information being presented is relative to their job responsibilities, it is fairly easy to capture the students’ attention and engage them in the class. Also as a supplement to this approach, I use a Socratic interaction approach early on to get them engaged and talking, so that they feel like they are a part of the seminar.
I find it is very helpful if you have students in a sequence of courses. For example, I may teach Developmental Reading and Writing, then, have those students again in College Composition, and, yet again, in 20th Century Literature.
The students set fear aside in first course, and we pursue common pursuits in the other courses. I don't have to re-load to secure additional buy-in. I can make some assumptions with energy.
