In an earlier post entitled “Teach the Process”, I made the observation that many students across all levels of education fail to gain a thorough understanding of the subject matter being taught. I named standardized, multiple-choice tests as the primary culprit. It is not that these assessments don’t have value. It is that they should just be a part of the learning tapestry, not the overarching goal. Nobody’s educational goal should be to pass a multiple choice test. The goal should be to understand the subject matter. Really, this gets back to how we learn. I found a quote by Ruth and Art Winter describing what learning is. According to the Winters, “Learning is the ability to make sense out of something you observe based on your past experience and being able to take that observation and associate it with meaning.” Not just storing away facts, but organizing and associating these facts in our minds so that we can use previous experiences to understand new ones. In our brains, we make new connections between neurons when we learn new things. The more connections you have to any given “fact”, the better the likelihood you will be able to recall it and use it for meaningful association. It is a teacher’s job to help students make these connections. We need to show how the data are related and engage the student’s interest. To achieve good results, teachers need use a variety of techniques beside the standard, and somewhat boring lecture.
Visual aids help catch student attention and can illustrate things that are awkward to describe in words. For example, try writing out the detail for connecting a standard gauge manifold. Each valve on the system needs a name, each valve on the manifold needs a name, you have to describe which way valves are being turned or positioned. It gets complicated and is very confusing to read. Now replace that with a video showing the connections. It is much easier to understand and a whole lot less confusing.
Manipulatives are items that students hold in their hands that help them learn. This is actually a term used for kindergarten classes. I have found that what works with kindergarteners also works with adults. So if you are talking about electric meters, each student should have a meter in their hand during the lecture. Then design the lesson around the fact that the students can actually handle and operate the meters during the lesson.
Analogies are great for helping students understand concepts. Dave Boyd of Appion used to compare pulling a vacuum through a 1/4” charging manifold to the traffic jams created by merging two lanes of traffic into one. Everyone has experienced that and can relate that experience to the gas slowing down as it travels through the manifold.
Scaffolding is a way to help students reach a higher level of understanding by building information one piece at a time. It can be more successful to describe a complicated procedure in small steps. One way we do this at Athens Tech is to wire a project resembling a packaged air conditioner one circuit at a time. Students often are glassy eyed when they see the whole thing, already done. But each circuit is pretty simple. So doing one at a time gets the job done.
All of these techniques involve exploring relationships. The more ways you can describe something and how it relates to other things, the more brain connections you build. The more connections you build, the better your chance of using that information. I will be speaking at the upcoming National HVACR Education Conference by HVAC Excellence in Las Vegas on Tuesday, March 22. Come see me and we can brainstorm about more ways to make connections.