Teachable moments
Teachable moments are unplanned opportunity that arises in the learning encounter.
Can you provoke teachable moments?
Lets look up the answer together.
Learning together with your students
Teachable moments require a sense of Kairos
Chronos is linear and timed sequentially. This could be the planned learning encounter.
Kairos requires a sense of moment and the 'right time' or 'critical moment'.
Traumatic versus Teachable moments
Some experiences can be distressing. It's better to recognise these and defer debrief.
Some options for teachable moments
Ignore the issue
Briefly cover the issue
Facilitated discussion or conversation
Defer discussion to a more appropriate time
Some ideas in teachable moments
Kairos and chronos
Cognitive dissonance
Teachable moments
Challenging moments
Vygotsky - zone of proximal development. Tutors provide scaffolding to support students
Transformational learning
Witnessing the birth of professionalism
Finding the signals in the noise
Confidence to digress
Professional curiosity
Creating a learning environment
Curriculum design
Compassion - notice distress and act by creating learning
psychological safety
Wabi-sabi (Japanese for 'making peace with chaos') - from lili
managing expectations
The quiet students
What are challenging scenarios that could lead to teachable moments
Late
Unprofessional behaviour - disruptive, compassion, demanding, inappropriate with students, tutor and patients
Experiencing distress
Not knowing
Racism and health inequity
managing expectation
Raising concerns
Mental health support
Differential attainment - see notes
Challenging expectations - too much or too little. Goldilocks
Students wanting to learn something not related to placement
Demanding students
Moral injury from supply issues
You are trying to lead a discussion, but everyone is just sitting there in silence. No one is participating.
Students talking to each other and not paying attention (or on social media)
A student challenges your expertise
Risks, benefits and issues related to teachable moments
They are unplanned and inherently more complex, uncertain and challenging. This means educators need to have the expertise to navigate these areas.
They can provide insight into learner preconceptions.
They can lead to transformative learning.
They can be more time-consuming.
The trade-off is to digress from the planned encounters.
How might we approach teachable moments?
Use the ARM method.
Anticipate, recognise and manage (ARM) approach to learning
Anticipate teachable moments. Some topics are more likely to create these. Decide in advance, how you would handle the situation with the learner. Is there enough time?
During the learning, be prepared to recognise teachable moments. These could come from questions posed by learners or their non-verbal responses.