As I mentioned in an early post, I don’t teach – at least not in the way you may think. I do not have a course that I teach to one group of students over a semester. In some ways, what I do is much harder in that I have workshops that I present to classes. I have to quickly establish both my authority to be at the front of the room and the benefit to the students of giving me their time and attention. One of these workshops is a Study Skills presentation given to Apprenticeships students who have completed all three levels of in-class training and have returned for their 30 hours of Exam Prep before they write their Certificate of Qualification Examination to be licensed in their trade.
In the past few weeks, I have given this workshop to Automotive Technician and Hairstyling apprentices and this week, I will be meeting with General Machinist and Tool and Die apprentices. While these workshops have some handouts and presentation slides that are common, some materials, activities, and handouts are tailored to the specific trade. For example, the workshop includes a practice exam with questions relevant to their trade.
I used this workshop to generate a What Is In It For Me list in response to the Teacher for Learning Extend Activity:
- call to change focus from absorbing information to thinking strategically
- confirm study approach/plan is appropriate
- find out new or be reminded of studying, test taking and test anxiety techniques
- receive Red Seal approved documents regarding exam prep as well as RC created handouts
- practice test taking strategies with questions related to trade including opportunity to examine past test method and multiple choice questions strategies
- opportunity to practice relaxation techniques
- invitation to meet for individual test related concerns/access to specific contact person
- Research confirmed benefit – in the first two years after we started presenting this workshop in exam prep week – more apprentices passed the QofC and more received higher marks.
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