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Perspectives on Learning: Implications for Instruction (Part 1)
Presented by: Barry G. Sheckley, Ph.D., Neag Professor of Adult Learning, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut
Mary Martin Lowe, M.A., Ph.D. candidate, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut
Goals: This is a seminar series which focuses on instructor development when conducting small class-size instruction.
- To understand the intersections of classroom-based and clinic-based instruction
- To define the goals of a clerkship directed curriculum in terms of: learning factual knowledge versus developing clinical reasoning skills, and acquisition of introductory knowledge versus advanced knowledge
- To learn research-based practical techniques in improving instruction
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The first step in approaching any teaching endeavor is to understand the learners.
- Determine whether the learners are at a point requiring only introductory information or could move into more advanced knowledge.
- Recognize that "the classroom" is a poor setting for enhancing learning
- The learning process is greatly enhanced by environments with certain characteristics. These characteristics are dependent upon the nature of the instruction, the goal of the instruction, and the time committed to the task.
- The instructors' major task is to enhance student learning. This goal supercedes instructors' emphasis on "teaching." At times "teaching" can run counter to the goal of enhancing learning.
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The second step in constructing a successful teaching endeavor is to define the learning goal.
- You must decide to focus on a trajectory of instruction. This trajectory is along the intersection of competing philosophical learning goals (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Perspectives on Learning Goals
- Consider teaching goals along two planes. On one plane is a continuum beginning with introductory knowledge and extending toward advanced knowledge. The other plane can be imagined in perpendicular to the first plane. This is another continuum, extending from learning factual knowledge toward the development of clinical reasoning.
- The intersection of these two planes creates four quadrants. Within these quadrants one can define the respective roles of the learners and instructors, the instructional activities and the measures of success. Each quadrant has its' own perspective on learning.
- Each instructor within a common teaching mission or course should seek to define the relative trajectory of the learners and therefore the relative trajectory that the instructors should be directed.
- The common goal of the course would be most challenging if it favored the acquisition of advanced knowledge and highly developed clinical reasoning. Conversely, the course would be least challenging if it favored the acquisition of only introductory knowledge and learning facts.
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The final step in constructing a successful teaching endeavor is the recognition that:
- ALL LEARNING IS EXPERIENTIAL
- The fact that all learning is experiential demands certain alterations in the teaching enterprise.
- Cases and examples should be of sufficient variety, repetition, and extremes to allow a broader framework for recognition and categorization.
- This framework is the creation of a perspective from which the learner can move forward to acquire more advanced knowledge and develop greater clinical reasoning skills.
Summarized by F DiMario
References:
Bakken, L. Role of experience and context in learning to diagnose Lyme Disease. J Cont Med Ed in Health Prof, 2002; 22; 131-141.
Feltovich, P. J., Spiro, R. J., & Coulson, R. L. (1989). The nature of conceptual understanding in biomedicine: The deep structure of complex ideas and the development of misconceptions. In D. Evan & V. L. Patel (Eds.), Cognitive Science in Medicine: Biomedical Modeling (pp. 111-172). Cambridge, MA: MIT (Branford) Press.
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