Professional Experience Placement

This is the third week I have used Lake (2004) teaching on the run series. In this article the author discusses planning learning activities. She suggests that although clinicians are busy there are topics that recur. She stated with the experience from seeing many patients there are teaching scripts on common topics that can be used as teaching moments for 5 minutes, as an interactive tutorial or a one hour didactic tutorial depending on circumstances. Lake and Ryan (2004) discussed using a method based on a triad of concepts. These are: set what you need to think about beforehand; dialogue: what happens during the event and closure: how the teaching is completed.

The essentials of set include the importance of being clear about the learning outcomes. They also need to be specific and achievable in the timeframe available. The teaching needs to be relevant to the learner and at an appropriate level. These ideas were discussed in last weeks blog. Dialogue is the crux of the learning experience and involves interaction between the learner and the teacher. It is essential that the content is delivered in a way that is engaging. This may also involve probing to check understanding and using gestures and body language that invite learners to participate in the learning activity.

Closure is important as it is the opportunity to wrap the teaching activity up. There may be opportunities to link or suggest other self-directed learning. Make sure you finish on time! Lake and Ryan (2004) also mention that there are times when it is not conducive to teach because it is too busy or there are other pressures. They suggest delaying the learning, but not forever!

Lake and Ryan (2004) encourage reflection about the teaching episode. They suggest thinking about what worked well and what could be improved. They also mention that feedback from the learners can be valuable information. Peer review is also suggested as a method of gaining feedback about teaching.

If you have any comments about teaching episodes or learning activities you are welcome to post them here or join me on Twitter @PEPCommunity.