Helping students connect
their studies to the world around them creates a long-lasting impression, that
allows the material to become a permanent part of their personal knowledge.
When learning becomes intentional, students excel and so do instructors. One of
the biggest challenges many instructors face in the classroom is trying to
create a learning experience that not only adequately addresses the material,
but also connects to the students existing knowledge about the world they live
in. There are many challenges to this, such as the diverse life experiences of
many students in one class and that fact that sometimes your subject matter
might not be a priority as it relates to the knowledge needed for a student's
particular major. I remember experiencing this quite often while teaching Intro
to Sociology. While it is a subject that applies to all areas of life, it was
sometimes a challenge translating this fact to students who were computer
science majors or those going into the medical field.
Below I've compiled a list of tips to help guide instructors
through the process of making their coursework more relevant in the lives of
their students.
Help students personally connect with the material. When students are able to create a
meaningful connection with classroom material to a specific event or issue in
their personal lives, learning happens on a deeper level. Critical thinking and
problem-solving flow with ease since the student has a vested interest in
thinking through various scenarios. This applies to math, science and
everything in between. In high school, I remember thinking health classes were
useless until an instructor shows us a video of a person whose body had become
a burden in their senior years and one that was vital and in shape. I realized
quickly that my health and personal fitness was important to my
future.
Apply theory to practice. In many courses that deal heavily in theory, teaching a lesson
that somehow makes what the students are learning a practical skill can be
quite rewarding for students. For instance, in a computer science class you
could drone on for an hour discussing how computer work and what each piece of
hardware is responsible for without any student buy in. Or you could show
students the cost to fix a computer, where they might find the parts and how
convenient it is to be able to solve your own technology related problems. The
instructor has now made the importance of knowing what each piece of hardware
is for a practical solution in their everyday lives.
Link course content in various ways. There are so many resources on various platforms
across the web that can further enhance your course material when linked in the
most optimal places. This is especially helpful when explaining how to do a
specific task related to writing or research. Many instructors link their
assignment instructions to APA, ASA or MLA formatting sites and tools. This way
students can answer their own questions and become a bit more self-sufficient
with each lesson and external link. Linking course content is also helpful for
tutorials, videos, sample exams and internal college resources too.
Tie content to students' long-term goals. Let's face it, these days a good college
education is less about the pursuit of knowledge just for the sake of it and
more about how that education will positively contribute to a students' overall
career. When an instructor can show students how the information or the
skillset acquired in a course can be used throughout their professional
careers, students tend to be a lot more engaged. One of most common student
complaints, as it relates to undergraduate general courses, is that they are
both a waste of time and money. In this hyper goal-focused culture, if an
instructor is clever enough to expand the course to include some real-world
themes and practical uses for the future, many students might change their
minds about whether their freshman college courses were worth the time and
energy.
Overall, the idea is to continue to evolve our courses in an
effort to do our part in preparing students for the classroom and beyond. While
of course it is not the sole responsibility of the instructor to be sure
students are getting the most out of their course, it never hurts to go that
extra mile to be sure our courses are both useful and relevant.
