How students learn
How students learn
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Active learning
In active learning, the teacher provides activities that promote analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of the course content. When students are actively engaged, they think deeper about the course content, and they enjoy their learning. Their higher order thinking is advanced is they are actively participating in and reflecting on the learning activities. There are several other learning styles which are associated with active learning - for example, 'cooperative learning', and 'problem-based learning'. There are a range of activities which can promote active learning: case studies, simulations, discussion, problem solving, group work, project work, interactive online activities, peer teaching, and so on. When setting learning activities, the key principles to keep in mind are: 1. Set tasks which have purpose and relevance to the students.
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Putting it into practice: Applications in Health Sciences1. Health educators can use questioning strategies to develop critical thinking, decision making, and problem solving in students. Word your questions so that they challenge the students to use a higher level of cognitive development (analysing, evaluating and creating). For example, asking a student to define a type of x-ray would test their ability to remember, but asking a student to assess a request to perform that x-ray on a patient with particular symptoms would test ability to evaluate, and prompts the student to think more deeply about the material. 2. Self-evaluation is a type of self-directed learning which allows students to assess their own performance. As a result, they become more independent, and are able to identify knowledge and understanding weaknesses. The aim of the self-evaluation activity is to assist students to identify strengths and weaknesses in their learning, to set their own performance goals, and to increase their satisfaction with their learning - all key elements of the clinical and professional work environments. However, be aware that students can tend to be overly critical of their own performance Adapted from https://www.scribd.com/document/271833630/Teaching-Strategies-Promoting-Active-Learning-in-Healthcare-Education |
Interesting resourcesActive learning processes used in US Pharmacy Education Wilson, L & Rockstraw, L 2012, Human simulation for nursing and health professions, Springer Pub Co, New York, NY. |