About Me

When it comes to teaching and learning, personal styles and preferences are individualized to each person. Because of this, I feel strongly that flexibility is highly important in the educational setting, for both the learners and educators. Each should be present in the learning space ready to do their part in the exchanging of knowledge and be prepared to work together to ensure that information shared is clear and received.

While the exact delivery method of knowledge might be different between people, I support the educational strategy of constructivism, where new learning builds on past learning and experiences (DeYoung, 2015). I believe that learning is easier when it starts out with basic block information and then builds them up together into bigger, more complex ideas. This method of scaffolding information can make reaching big goals more manageable and give students who work at different paces more time to process information.

With nursing education in mind, a field rife with skills to be learned, I also appreciate the George and Doto skill teaching framework where the steps are an overview, demonstration without comment, demonstration with comment, verbalization, and then practice (Abela, 2009). For learning skills, I find this to be a very helpful method of instruction. This framework interacts with a variety of the learners’ senses, engaging their minds in more than way, which speaks to different learning styles. Students are able to use visual, auditory, and tactile practice to help reinforce their learning.

Because I am aware of the concept of different learning styles, I feel it is important to teach in a way that gives each type of learner equal opportunity to soak in the information. Even when not teaching a skill type concept, I try to do my best to engage more than one of the learners’ senses, such as a lecture (auditory) with a slideshow of pictures (visual).

I feel that it is the role of the educator to be able to effectively share knowledge with their learners. This might require some flexibility from the educator as they get to know their students and adjust lessons to their learning styles and interests when possible. Educators should be well versed in their subject matter, and able to explain concepts in a variety of ways in order to be able to clarify them for students with different learning styles or comprehension levels.

It is also a responsibility of the educator to foster a healthy learning environment by showing and encouraging respect to and among their students. The educator should encourage student development, and be honest about their own shortcomings, such as if they don’t know the answer to a student’s question. 

Learners should be respectful of their educator, each other, and the learning environment. Just as the educator is putting effort into lesson planning on getting ready for each learning session, the students should also be putting in the preparatory work, showing up to class prepared to learn.

I feel that it is important that curriculum be planned for specific and useful purposes. Assignments should have clear learning objectives, instructions, and grading criteria. The dreaded “busy work” should be avoided in favor of assignments which will help to progress student learning and success. The evaluation of assignments should be fair with clearly defined parameters so students know what is expected of them from the start of their work. How assignments are evaluated should be correlated to the learning objectives and type of assignment. For example, assignments for the purpose of testing knowledge might be more grade based, while reflections which show the student’s thought and growth might be graded on a pass/fail or completion basis.

The educator is also partially responsible for setting the stage for learning. It is important that the physical environment be comfortable and not distracting for the students. It likely will be harder for students to pay attention if the room is too warm and dark and makes them sleepy. In the same way, the educator should also set the tone for learning by being engaging and passionate about their lessons. The energy that a teacher puts into a learning session can be the basis of the mood that the learners feel about it as well.

The context of the world around the learning environment is also important, as life-changing events can lead to a change in teaching methodology or curriculum foci, such as when the Covid-19 pandemic hit and many nursing schools had to transition to remote learning options, and some educators were able to shift focus in their classes to discussions about large scale events like that. Educators should also be flexible when their curriculum allows leeway to alter it depending on the context of their individual classrooms. For example, if the students are passionate about a certain topic that is relevant to the course content, the teacher should take this into account in their lesson planning.

Overall, I feel that flexibility a key component to being a good educator. One should be able to connect with their students and be able to engage with them in order to share the knowledge they have.

References

Abela, J. (2009). Adult learning theories and medical education: A review. Malta Medical Journal, 21(1), 11-18.

DeYoung, S. (2015). Teaching strategies for nurse educators (3rd ed.). Pearson Education Inc.