CONNECTING WITH STUDENTS

Effective Teaching and Learning Department

Outcomes

• Describe the characteristics of adult learners in the Baker College classroom

• Articulate the role of the instructor in the classroom

• Define the importance of motivation in a college classroom

• Identify ways that faculty can both motivate and de-motivate students

• Provide learning activities that both engage and enhance motivation in adult learners and use higher-order thinking skills

Activity K-W-L

• K What we KNOW

• W What we WANT to know

• L What we LEARNED

Donna Ogle (1986)

Characteristics of Adult Learners

• Are more self directed

• Come to the classroom with rich life experiences

• Expect to be treated as adults

• Are not in the classroom to compete

• May have been away from a formal classroom for an extended time

• May be their first collegiate experience

• May experience significant anxiety as they begin their studies

• May not (anxiety) be noticeable early in the term

Characteristics of Adult Learners

Characteristics of Effective Teachers

• Form groups of 3-4.

• Obtain a sheet from the facilitator and brainstorm responses with your group.

• Be prepared to report out with your group.

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The Teacher as a Person

Care about their students and demonstrate caring by:

• Practicing focused and sympathetic listening

• Understanding student concerns and questions

• Knowing students both formally and informally

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The Teacher as a Person

Establishes rapport and credibility with students by emphasizing, modeling, and practicing fairness and respect

Practice Fairness and Respect

• Treat students as people

• Avoid ridicule and prevent situations in which students lose respect in front of their peers

• Practice gender, racial, and ethnic fairness

• Be consistent and provide opportunities for student input

• Provide students opportunities to participate and to succeed

Effective Teaching Related to Social Interaction

• Behave in a friendly manner while maintaining professionalism

• Work with students as opposed to doing things to or for them

• Give students responsibility and respect

• Allow students to participate in decision making

• Pay attention to what students say

• Have a good sense of humor

Effective Teachers Self-Reflect

• Practice self-evaluation and self-critique as learning tools

• Portray themselves as students of learning

• Improve lessons and seek out new approaches to better meet the needs of their learners

• Complete the self-reflection worksheet

Why Motivate?

“The struggle is not in how to motivate students to learn. The struggle is in creating lessons and classroom environments that focus and attract students’ intrinsic motivation; thus increasing the likelihood students will actively engage in the learning.”

Rogers, Ludington, & Graham, 1997, p.2

Factors Affecting Motivation

• Instructor

• Classroom environment

• Other students

• Family/support network of student

• External conflicts such as work

Issues with Extrinsic Motivators

• Produce only short-term changes in behavior

• Tend to overpower intrinsic motivators

• Decrease the focus on desired behaviors

• Reduce complex thinking, risk-taking

• Lower self-esteem and student self-efficacy over time

Intrinsic Motivation

• Often jumpstarted by an external factor, then internalized

• Ultimately more powerful that external motivators

• Longer lasting

• Often more difficult to define or explain to others

Brainstorming Activity

• Form a group of 4 or 5

• On the sheet provided, identify as many classroom motivating and de-motivating behaviors

• Be sure to identify the perpetrator of the behavior – instructor or student.

• You have 5 minutes

• Be prepared to share your top 5 behaviors with the class

Good reasons to lecture…• Provide information

• Highlight similarities and differences

• Communicate enthusiasm for the content

• Model behavior

• Share personal insights

• Organize the content

• Mini lectures work best (15 minutes at a time)

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What Teachers Would Rather Not Know

During lecture…

• Students are not attending to what is being said 40% of the time (Pollio, 1984)

• Students retain 70% of the information in the first 10 minutes, 20% in the last 10 minutes (McKeachie, 1986)

Strategy 1: Promote Active Learning

Provide opportunities for students to: talk and listen, read, write and reflect through problem solving exercises, informal small groups, simulations, case studies, role playing, etc.

All require students to apply what they are learning.

Promoting Active Learning Strategies for theCollege Classroom - Chet Meyers, Thomas B. Jones

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Classes that include active learning…

• Are more collaborative• Are student centered• Accommodate diverse learning styles• Are a more hospitable place

Strategy 2: Class Meeting-Agenda

• Check in & get started• Call on assigned

student to recap the prior session

• Call on a “book questioner” (clarifying any questions or points raised)

• Assign another student to recap this session

• Offer an anticipatory summary of activities for the current session

• Proceed with the planned activities

• Wrap up with the student-led recap

• Assign a book questioner for the next session

• Adjourn

Strategy 3. Informal Small Groups

Designing small group activities is an easy way to begin creating an active-learning classroom.

Small groups are appropriate for many active-learning tasks such as lecture summaries, clarification of reading assignments, and problem solving.

Circular Response Discussion• Each person has up to a minute to talk about an

issue or question that the group has decided to discuss– no interruptions allowed.

• Speakers must incorporate into their remarks some reference to the preceding speaker’s message.

• Each person must strive to show how their remarks spring from the comments of the previous speaker.

• The topic – How will you use active learning to connect with the students in your class?

Source: Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher.

Stephen Brookfield (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995)

Activity K-W-L

Return to worksheet from the first activity to complete the last column

• K What we KNOW• W What we WANT to know• L What we LEARNED

Questions?