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Critical skills for technical students
by: Mario Solari, Techlearner Editor Date: November 12, 2005
The scenario is teaching electronics at a technical school in Phoenix, AZ. The breed is still very similar to other groups of students in the United States. Clearly, not a lot of motivation although some desire for learning. At times, it gets difficult to get their attention for more than a few minutes. The struggle is to keep delivering technical material at a reasonable pace by keeping the interaction with and amongst them, using different teaching techniques and presentation methods. At the same time, the lab work complements their learning and gives them a chance to see the more practical side of their career. Having dealt with many different teachers and other people in the field over the course of several years has made me come to the conclusion that it is of primary importance to help develop and instill in technical students a few critical skills. Perhaps the first and most important thing to pass on to them is a sense of discipline and continued effort. Although not so much a skill, many students won't make it too far just because they miss class too often, have a lazy attitude or get distracted unnecessarily during class. Yes, it is true that to a large extent this area depends mostly on them and their upbringing, but experience has shown me that sometimes teachers can make a difference and turn around student's attitudes. The second area in order of importance is to encourage the use of Math skills. Of course, students come with a lack of Math skills and there is only so much the teacher can do to compensate for those deficiencies. But again, much depends on communicating to them the need for Math (we can't lie to them) and sometimes even bringing in that Math usage along with the material we present to them. Other times, some school programs include Math courses with their requirements. The third skill that I believe is of paramount importance to develop in technical students is the use of observation and analysis. Again, this can be a real challenge, since students have gotten used to multitasking and they lack the attention and retention necessary. However, we can instill in them a need for carefully reading instructions, for analyzing and thinking about the results they obtain on their lab work, for troubleshooting circuits by thinking on their own and for observing how different things function in small blocks and in larger ones. Finally, the technical students of today lack the creativity to take on projects on their own, to explore and research different topics and circuits and without this sense of discovery and excitement learning becomes a boring task. Just getting things done and repeating procedures doesn't cut it. There is a reason behind the learning and we should turn on the light-bulb for them to see the greatness of science. A colleague of mine recently took it upon himself to build different projects for the students during lab time, so they could understand the larger picture of what they were doing. It worked! They started asking more questions, doing their lab work without complaining and listening to lecture more attentively. To summarize, I should say that much depends on our attitude and the sense that we impart to the students we come across. Although we can't change them, we can indeed motivate and inspire them and this is many times the first step to success.
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