Bringing the Real World In: A Case for Short, Frequent Guest Speakers

As we gear up for a new school year, I have been reflecting on the past year: what to keep doing, what to stop doing and what to change. One thing I will definitely keep doing is trying to make my classroom and learning environment as connected to the real world as possible. Schools often sit somewhere on a spectrum between protecting students from the realities of adult life and preparing them for it. I believe we should be moving purposefully toward the latter.

Last year, in my International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB DP) Year 1 (Grade 11) Business Management classes, I had the fortunate opportunity to invite a guest speaker into class every Friday during the second semester. Chris Beshouri, a long-time member of our school community with vast business experience, was generously available each week. Like most teachers, I’ve brought in guest speakers before, but never as an ongoing series with the same person over a semester. Collaborating with an industry leader to relate the content we were covering in class to a real world case study was a rare opportunity to take advantage of.

Naturally, like many teachers, I was initially concerned about covering content. Giving up close to one full class a week to a guest speaker meant sacrificing nearly 30% of instructional time. Would students fall behind? Would I now have to cram the week’s content into two lessons, instead of three?

In fact, the opposite happened. When comparing common assessments, my students, who had been performing slightly below the other Year 1 Business Management classes in the first semester, outperformed their peers by the time we moved into the next unit we were covering (Finance). To understand the impact, I also surveyed the students after each session with Chris. A student shared that “it was really beneficial for attaching class concepts to real businesses.” On a 5-point scale, they rated their enjoyment (4.5), how much they learned (4.3), and how useful the session was for their life (4.4). Interestingly, the shorter the session, the better the feedback: 20-minute sessions were far more effective than hour-long ones. At the end of the series, 97% of the students said they would like to continue the guest speaker series in their senior year.

Of course, I understand the difference between correlation and causation. The students were working on a different unit, and many other variables including teaching styles, student dynamics and time of year, may have played a role. But even with those caveats, the pattern was compelling: students were more engaged, more reflective, and ultimately more confident in applying their learning.

So what did I take away from this experience?

First, less can be more. We often rush to cover everything, but deeper learning sometimes comes from slowing down and making space for connection and reflection. Second, we should be looking more intentionally at the resources within our communities. Parents, alumni, and local professionals can bring meaningful insight into our classrooms. It would be even better if we could get our students out of the classroom and into these communities more regularly. And finally, it was a reminder that not all learning has to come directly from us. Stepping back and making room for others can be a powerful act of teaching.

But was the juice worth the squeeze?

Although Chris has far more business experience than I’ll ever have, ensuring that his sessions were appropriate for IB DP Year 1 students took time and effort from both of us. We met before the series began to align our objectives. I sent him the relevant IB materials, which he diligently reviewed. Each week, he sent me his materials a few days before presenting and together we would adapt parts as needed. We also debriefed after each session. This helped ensure that the sessions extended classroom content in meaningful, practical ways.

As you plan for the new school year, consider inviting in a guest speaker, even just for 20 minutes. Yes, it takes planning to do it well, but the impact on student learning can be more than worth it. Or if that might not be a possibility in your context, how could you bring the real world into the classroom while resisting the instinct to protect the instructional time?