How Does Students Define Success?

Gallery Walk

How does Students Define Success?

·  Getting an A

·  Passing the course

·  If it’s easy for them

·  Showing up

·  Having a pleasant experience

·  Having “fun” during learning

·  “Getting it”; being able to solve problems independently

·  Further opportunities in the workplace

·  Using their learning in other classes

How do Professors define success in the class?

·  Increase in subject matter competency

·  Take additional course in subject

·  Conversational language

·  Express interest

·  Students can solve problems independently

·  Make associations; synthesize information

·  Understand relevancy to life

·  Interaction with students

·  Pleasant experience

·  Bring understanding to other classes

How do we know when students understand a topic?

·  Eyes light up

·  Do well on exams

·  Communicate the topic well

·  Able to apply the knowledge and pass it along

·  Increase their general literacy

·  They teach it to someone

·  Contact you after the term is over about course principles, contact you with questions or with excitement about things they’ve encountered that they learned in class

·  They can synthesize information

·  Answer questions with confidence

How can we better engage our students?

·  Send a group text instead of talking

·  Create relevance by showing direct applications of what they are learning

·  Demos

·  Interactive activities

·  Regular out of the classroom assignments

·  Hands on technology and discussion boards

·  Group projects graded carefully

·  Current events; teachable moments

·  Field trips; field projects

·  Learn background of student

·  Illustrating systems and relevance; make models

Why do students struggle to understand a concept?

·  Afraid to ask questions

·  They memorize, not visualize

·  Outside life, jobs, family, lack of sleep, social life, social media

·  “I suck at math and science”: mindset

·  lack of context

·  Disconnect with instructor

·  Need to experience success to gain confidence; plan some success into your classes

·  Lack of practice and/or don’t know how to study

·  Personal emergencies

·  Lack of interest

How do we get students to bring the outside in?

·  Read news; embrace information technology (not Facebook)

·  Get them outside early on in the course and then frequently during the course; experience fuels understanding

·  Incorporate topics from other classes

·  Notecard questions to set up future instructor/student interaction

·  Incorporate social media

·  Sharing interesting outside activity/responsibility (hobbies, jobs, etc)

·  Field trips