“The Fourth R in Education—Relationships” makes it extremely clear that a student’s feelings about the academic material determines how well they do in the class. In Witmer’s article, he quotes Caine and Caine as saying “Learning occurs only when what is being presented is meaningful enough to the student that he or she decides to actively engage in the learning experience,” (1994). Witmer also quotes Glasser (1998) as explaining “people often evaluate an activity as meaningful when it satisfies human emotional needs.” This means that teachers need to find ways to make their lessons meaningful to their students.
Since the human brain does not automatically separate cognition from emotion (Witmer 2005), a student might be emotionally turned-off from a topic or situation and, in turn, subconsciously shut down cognitively. We need to keep our students invested in what they are learning. One way to do this would to simply get invested in our students – they will realize that we care, and in turn, care about the work they produce in class because they do not want to disappoint their teacher.
One way to let students know we care about their lives is to have them complete an interest inventory. “The first job of any teacher at any level is to know students’ names and to know something unique about each student…Using students’ names and interests in classroom examples personalizes the learning and sends a message that each students is valued in this class (Wong and Wong 1998),” (Witmer 225). If we use something such as this interest inventory idea to get to know our students, we can send them the message that we do truly care about them and have an interest in their future.
Witmer, M. M. (2005). The Fourth R in Education--Relationships. Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas. 78(5), 224.
One of my last classes in the MBA program was an Improve class. Yes, Theatrical Improvisation was taught to business students. The pilot class I took was so successful that the teachers have taught it ever since.
ReplyDeleteWhat they discovered was that process of introductions and laughing together was decidedly critical to academic success. Business classes are now "ALL" centered on team-work and team-building. Thus, it was critically necessary that students knew each other. The Improve class included a Theatre Professional with a business professor, where the class reviewed related articles and then acted out each day.
Once again, the connections between the students and professors were life altering. Everyone received intense instruction, but also very personal and direct experience. Today all incoming freshman are required to do this at some level, seen here with President Geneshaft:
http://www.usf.edu/UCM/USF-Magazine/2010/winter.html
That's really interesting that they have Improv classes for business students. I guess there's something to that, though. I didn't know that business classes are centered on team-work, though it makes sense. Relationships are important in almost every career. It is important for businessmen to build productive relationships with their clients, and in a way (I'm not sure how I feel about this analogy...) students are like clients to teachers.
ReplyDeleteWhat really surprised me was when professors over in Public Health asked about team-building for their students. Doctors have no training in this? YOU've got to be KIDDING! The Dr can not operate without a team of nurses and other experts. Now, USF has been exploring creating team learning there too. It seems like the elite dr's often look down at the little nurses and such which seems insane if you want to create cures and health. Even, Dr. Santos does some teamwork as this blog class seems to have evolved with discussions with his peers.
ReplyDeleteI think the Student-Client analogy is a lot better than the Student-Consumer. Customers want their money's worth which I guess is reasonable, except when they ask for a refund for not getting an "A" even if they don't earn it....