A conversation with my learning partner

I've been lucky to be able to connect with my learning partner face to face a couple of weeks ago and also to have a conversation via Facetime last night. We talked about where we each work and how we both had a hard time pinning down a trend in our fields. Lisa mentioned that her work in domestic violence for the RCMP is investigative and in training for it there is no room for discussion about theories it is done a certain way and it is important to follow the specific steps. I found that because my profession (Occupational and Physical Therapist Assistant) is relatively new it was hard to find articles written about it at all let alone articles about trends.

Some trends in adult education that have caught Lisa's eye are the flipped classroom and online learning as they are both very different than the structure of her university classes in the past.

We also discussed our futures as instructors and we differ in that Lisa has a more clear path in front of her at the moment and is already doing some presentations and training in the community whereas I am new to the college environment on a 1 year contract and am hoping that by taking these courses I will broaden my scope and be able to work as an instructor down the line but there is not yet a clear path for me.

Lisa's blog is called Tango Sierra and you can check it out by clicking the link under "Blogs I follow" to the right.

Creating a positive learning environment with a few good laughs.

"when used effectively, classroom comedy can improve student performance by reducing anxiety, boosting participation and increasing students' motivation to focus on the material." (par. 8)

Image retrieved from http://visual.ly/health-benefits-laughter
 
The quote above is from this article,  http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun06/learning.aspx  written by Zak Stambor for the American Psychological Association in 2006. In the article, called "How laughing leads to learning", Stambor interviews professors and researchers about the merits and pitfalls of using humour in the classroom. I was surprised to find out how much research has been done on the topic and happy to see that the evidence shows that humour has a profound effect on student's experiences of learning and even helps to reduce their stress levels to improve test results and retention of information.

I love to laugh and after reading this article I am convinced that when I start to teach I will need to be creative and come up with funny ways to deliver material and engage with my students. I like the idea of staging elaborate  musical acts such as the one that Professor Ron Berk talks about in the article (par. 4) but I think to start I will call on my natural sense of humour and ability to create rapport through empathy and use a more self deprecating or personal form of humour and story telling and see where it takes us.

There are so many ways to bring out laughter and if, like myself, you are not sure if you are funny enough to teach in this way I found another short little article from Humber College Centre for Teaching and Learning that has some great tips on how to "Laugh and Learn".

http://www.humber.ca/centreforteachingandlearning/assets/files/Teaching%20Resources/01%20Laugh%20and%20Learn-B.pdf

Characteristics of Adult Learners

 
Adapted from, UCBHCA: Training of Facilitators Manual. Retrieved July 15, 2016, from http://collections.infocollections.org/ukedu/uk/d/Jh0414e/5.1.html

http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/lifelonglearning/workplace/articles/characteristics/

This article, written by Dorothy D. Billington for the Johns Hopkins School of Education, is interesting because it focuses on both the characteristics of adult learners and the characteristics of an effective learning environment. Through a four year study of sixty men and women between the ages of 37 and 48 who had entered in to doctoral programs Billington creates,  "The seven key factors found in learning programs that stimulated adult development" (par. 5 Billington, 1996).

Of the seven factors that Billington lists I gravitate to the first, and the third as environments that I could easily create in my classroom. It is the fifth factor "Optimal pacing is challenging people just beyond their present level of ability. If challenged too far beyond, people give up. If challenged too little, they become bored and learn little" (par. 10, Billington, 1996), that I think I might find most challenging. Since adult learners are not only driven by individual needs but also their experiences, I think that trying to create a course that is challenging enough but not too challenging for every individual student will take a lot of careful planning. I also think that it could be a great opportunity to build in team building exercises at the beginning of a course to help me and the students get to know each other and really find out what everyone's expectations, limitations and strengths are. Or perhaps building in time to have one on one meetings with students before the class is in full swing would be a good way to gather this information and help guide my teaching strategies for the rest of the course. 

Trends in Adult Education: Could reform of liberal arts programs solve the world's problems?

In 2009 Liz Coleman, then president of Bennington College in Vermont, gave a talk at a TED conference on the need to reform higher education. Her speech was inspiring and heart felt and in it she talked about her personal struggle with the lack of passion within the liberal arts programs in a country that is known to be the home of liberal arts.  Coleman's proposal was to change the liberal arts in to a cross disciplinary study with a focus on public service.

To follow up, TED.com interviewed Coleman in 2014 to discuss the Centre for the Advancement of Public Action. http://ideas.ted.com/liz-coleman-on-why-higher-education-needs-to-embrace-messiness/

Since her TED talk in 2009 Coleman has successfully reformed the liberal arts program at Bennington College and created a program that "puts action and civic engagement at the centre of it's curriculum. The courses focus not on answers but on how to think critically and solve complex, real-world problems." (par. 3, Jacobs, 2014)

I believe that Liz Coleman's idea to educate people on civic action is brilliant and should be the future of higher education around the world. We are faced with unimaginatively large and problematic global issues and in Coleman's words:

If you really want to be effective, you have to stand there and take it in and learn and figure out and bring the resources that you bring to other things. You need to do it with other people — don’t try to do it alone.
You can’t settle for drops in the bucket. It won’t do to wrap up your garbage, it won’t do to send the contribution. Those are all fine, but it’s not going to make a huge change. It’s just not. It’s going to take all you’ve got. (par. 21, 2014)

Trends in the field of rehabilitation

When patients reflect on their
physical therapy visits, it is often the rapport and communication style that they remember or comment on, not necessarily the technical skill of the physical therapist. (p.14)

http://www.cptbc.org/pdf/MakingAConnection.pdf

This article, from the College of Physical Therapists of B.C., gives some great information and techniques on how to effectively communicate with patients in order to gain trust, build rapport and ultimately get better rehabilitation results because of positive relationships.

I have been a Occupational/Physical Therapy Assistant working in hospitals around Vancouver for 1 year and now I am also working as a Lab Demonstrator for a program that trains OT/PTAs, or Rehab Assistants as we are commonly know in the health care world.

Over the last 6 months in the OPTA program we have been noticing that a growing number of students are having trouble with communication and although they are passing their practical skills exams they are not doing as well once they are out in the field working on their practicums. It seems that the major problems are stemming from an inability to effectively communicate verbally and non-verbally with clients and supervising therapists. What we are realizing is that not enough weight is put on communication skills in the classroom and in the practical exams. The challenge is, how do you evaluate the so called "soft skills" (a name I personally disagree with as they are actually harder to learn!) and weight them in an exam so as to make it a priority for students to work on? We are currently working on a more global rating scale that captures communication, professionalism, ability to problem solve as well as have insight in to your own performance. It is going to be an ongoing process but we are dedicated to making the classroom a more effective place to learn these skills instead of hoping that students will pick them up when they get out in to the field.

The issue of poor communication and rapport building is wide spread throughout the healthcare industry and my hope is that more professions will start to put emphasis on effective communication skills in the training stage to help move the entire health care system forward in to a new style of treatment that is even more client centred than it is at present.