A Great Beginning!

On the QT Newsletter, A Great Beginning!
Attachment: Making Learning Relevant Activity
February 2, 2010

Did you know? The demand that majors translate into jobs is changing the college classroom. This interesting and insightful New York Times article, “Making College Relevant,” reports that students and parents alike are increasingly focused on how the information and skills students are learning in the college classroom will help them in the workplace. In response to these growing concerns as well as the new economic and global realities, many instructors are adjusting their curriculum to reflect the changing world. Taking the time to help students identify how classroom lessons relate to workplace success, will go a long way in helping students value what they are learning and make it more relevant to them. Today’s QT activity calls on students to review employers’ expectations and link these to your course curriculum.

Try This:

Ask students some questions.
What relationship do you see in the skills you are learning in college and those you need to succeed in the workplace?
What do you expect from this class?
How will this class help you in your career?

Distribute this “Make Learning More Relevant” activity, review the directions, and have students complete the assignment.
After they have finished, ask students to make 3 quick connections.

Turn to the person on your left and discuss responses to questions 1 & 2.
Collaborate with a classmate who is wearing the same color shirt or shoes, to share responses to questions 3 & 4.
Change again and partner with someone you do not know, to identify workplace skills you practiced in this activity.

Share responses about the value of this quick exercise.

Add an Experience: Encourage your students to connect your course to the workplace by attending a professional organization meeting, or a student chapter of a professional organization. In addition, identify and promote events on campus or in your community that link the subject matter in your course to careers. Dr. Kate Brooks, college instructor and author of You Majored in What?, tells students … The more places you go, the more people you meet, the more experiences you accumulate, the better prepared you will be for a variety of work situations. This semester, can you get your students out doing some wise wanderings?

Quik Quote: Not all who wander are lost. J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings