What is it about?
if college students don't find what their instructors teach to be important, they won't be motivated to learn what is taught and might not learn very well. Therefore, it is important for college instructors to reflect on how relevant their teaching is to their students. This article outlines "that awkward moment" when I realized what I was teaching wasn't being perceived as relevant to students and provides reflection questions for all college instructors to use to ensure that students will find relevance in what we teach.
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Why is it important?
This commentary is important because we often think that the relevance of what we teach is obvious to students but, in reality, there is a disconnect between what instructors and students believe about course content.
Perspectives
I thought a lot about the incident I describe in this article after it happened and knew I had to write something about it. As a teacher who has always thought she was attune to students' needs, I was honestly shocked to find that I had lost touch with what students need. I hope that you enjoy laughing at my awkward teaching moment and that you will use the reflection questions to strengthen your own teaching.
Dr Leah D. Hoops
The Ohio State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: That Awkward Moment I Became Irrelevant, College Teaching, April 2017, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/87567555.2017.1302920.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Is It Relevant to Students?
This article by Maryellen Weimer, PhD in The Teaching Professor further discusses how content must be relevant for college students to stay motivated and learn what we're teaching.
Dennis Learning Center Website
This link will take you to the official website of the campus Learning Center that I mention in this article, the one where the story took place.
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
