Making a Positive Impact
Making a positive impact within a learning environment should promote learning at all levels. Sometimes teachers, as well as administrators, are the worst students, due to ego issues, or else, and are negative towards learning from others. What are you doing in your institution to promote learning at all levels?
Of course, this question goes also to the proctor: what do you recommend we should do to promote learning at all levels?
I agree Rafael. Learning should be taking place at all levels. We have been talking about how to motivate our students to succeed but it does start my modeling the behavior we want them to have. Education is continuous no matter what degree you hold. The schools that work with The Pacific Institute offer on-going training that involves, strategic planning, student retention based training, organizational goal setting, team building, etc. etc. The more training, the more successful our organizations are at many levels.
I have been in a school environment that expected nothing less. We were to constantly be trying to improve our school and what we did to help the school be successful. It was unacceptable to have an attitude that was closed off to continued learning. After working at some others, I realize that this expectation started with the director and came down through the other managers.
At our institution we have instituted "lunch-and-learns". The sessions include topics ranging from time management, to improving student retention. The sessions are mandatory and are attended by employees from every department.
We have put a program together called INSPIRE. Our motto is that we change student lives everyday. Each employee is required to embrace this philosophy. The interaction with students and the feedback we're getting has been tremendous.
Hi Joe,
I would love to hear more about how your INSPIRE program works. It is so important that everyone does embrace the philosophy of changing lives. It sounds like you have it down!
I believe one of the best things we can do is to know who we are speaking to. We need to keep in mind who our audience is and make sure that we do not speak over there heads which will make them fill dumb or talk under them which will make the audience feel you think they do not understand what you are saying or that you do not think they are smart. This happens in scholar settings. Always know who your audience is and speak to them not at them.
Charles, you are so right. It is extemely important that your audience feels valuable to you. If you are speaking above them, they could feel insulted and not even try to listen. A good rule of thumb is to know your audience the best you can in advance and speak to the "lowest" level in the room.
Joe,
You have done a nice job on your answers in these modules.
I especially like the INSPIRE program.
Best,
Joe
This is a great question.
First of all, a professor really is not what most people invision - a dictator who feeds information to students in the manner that they see fit. A professor is providing a service to students and they need to encourage learning the material utilizing a variety of formats, including, audio, visual and kinesthetic teaching methods.
Students come to us with different learning styles, circumstances and stress levels and we need to be sensitive to their needs. Being sensitive includes being aware if they seem extremely tired or upset. I always take a student aside, call them or email them if I notice changed behaviors in the classroom, absences or missing homework.
This is a great question.
First of all, a professor really is not what most people invision - a dictator who feeds information to students in the manner that they see fit. A professor is providing a service to students and they need to encourage learning the material utilizing a variety of formats, including, audio, visual and kinesthetic teaching methods.
Students come to us with different learning styles, circumstances and stress levels and we need to be sensitive to their needs. Being sensitive includes being aware if they seem extremely tired or upset. I always take a student aside, call them or email them if I notice changed behaviors in the classroom, absences or missing homework.
Excellent response!!!
Many teachers in Career Colleges are "Practicing Professionals" and may not have had much training in classroom and teacher methodology.
Ongoing In-service training is a must to ensure quality faculty.
We need a lot more "Intelligent Hearts."
My positive impact is my positive attitude, flexibility, and being student focused. My belief is we can always learn more, discover more, and improve in most areas of our professional lives. I challenge myself to learn more or refresh myself with tools such as this course, magazine and journal articles, and then share the information in a different format for my team.The changes that I am seeing are awesome! My team is now asking to create trainings for their team mates, sharing their ideas which translates into their coaching and mentoring of students. When a student approaches me, we dicuss their ownership in the process or problem as well as in creating the solution. We can learn from every experience we have- we just have to sidestep the ego and feelings in order to get the clarity (if you will)
Our school has training for the staff and instructors. The additional training is for for technical as well as soft skills through several different means. The technical training is done via the internet and on site. The soft skills training is done mainly on the internet with some classes done on site as well. Just like our students, the staff can be some of the worst students as you pointed out. They cannot seem to grasp what is in it for them, although that is part of the introduction. It seems some of them will try to buck the system as often as they can, almost like they have learned from some of the students they have had in the past. The staff that do the training and take something from it to apply in the classroom are hungry at times for the information, and even try to let it rub off on the ones that are more of a challenge. These challenging staff members are coached towards better interactions and outcomes.
