Category: Learning

TEDxStellenbosch: designing spaces

Nov 3, 2011

in Curriculum, Education, Learning, PhD, Physiotherapy, Research, Teaching, Technology

blended learning, city spaces, cityafrica, learning, learning spaces, phd, research, stafford massie, steve vosloo, teaching, tedxstellenbosch

A few months ago I attended TEDxStellenbosch at Spier wine farm near Stellenbosch. It was one of the better TEDx events I’ve been to during past few years and I enjoyed it immensely. During the day I re-tweeted comments from other participants, mainly as a record of speakers and the comments that resonated with me.…
Complexity theory: learning in unfamiliar contexts

Sep 27, 2011

in Education, Learning, PhD, Research, Teaching, Technology

complex cases, Complexity, complexity theory, context, practice knowledge, professional practice, unfamiliar scenarios

The following are notes I took while reading Fraser, SW & Greenhalgh, T. (2001). Coping with complexity: educating for capability. During the past 6 months or so I’ve found myself thinking more and more that the way we teach health professionals (at least, in my experience) has had too much of a focus on technical…
Short notes on concept mapping

Sep 19, 2011

in Assignments, Learning

assignment, concept mapping, concept maps, concepts, movement science

In preparation for a concept mapping assignment I ran during the course of this year, I did some reading on concept mapping, during which I made some short notes. Here they are… Concept mapping is useful to establish relationships between ideas and has been linked to 30 % improvement in student understanding Ausubel’s assimilation theory:…
Problem based learning: transitioning to an online / hybrid learning environment

Sep 15, 2011

in Assessment, Assignments, Curriculum, Learning, Research, Students, Teaching, Workshop

assessment of pbl, blended learning, content, critical thinking, face to face, hybrid, karl popper, meena iyer, missouri university, online, pbl, problem based learning, problem solving, scaffolding

A few weeks ago I attended a short presentation by Prof. Meena Iyer from Missouri University. Prof. Iyer spoke about how she moved her PBL module from using a traditional, mainly face-to-face approach, to an online / hybrid approach. Here are my notes. —————————- “All life is problem solving” – Karl Popper How do we…
AMEE conference (day 2)

Aug 31, 2011

in Conference, Learning, Teaching

accreditation, AMEE, AMEE11, anatomy course, athol kent, clinical competencies, collaboration, competence, dental students, distance education, Distance Learning, encyclopaedia, fictional city, gaming in education, global medical education, global medicine, globalisation, interanationalisation, international medical education, language, learning resources, lexicon, life-long education, life-long learning, mobile devices, mobile learning, portfolios, professional culture, reflective journals, self-directed learning, virtual city, virtual clinical encounter

These are the notes I took on the second day of AMEE. One of the things I noticed is that in most of the presentations the speakers talk about “doctors”, and that little is said about “health professionals”. There seem to be few people here who understand that effective healthcare can only be delivered by…
CHEC course: teaching and learning (day 3)

Aug 18, 2011

in Education, Ethics, Learning, Students, Workshop

advantage, cape higher education consortium, chec, disadvantage, diversity, gender, jeff jawitz, learning, race, racism, south africa, teaching, teaching and learning, uct, university of cape town

Yesterday’s CHEC session was presented by Jeff Jawitz from UCT, who looked at tools for addressing diversity in the South African university classroom. I’ve seen Jeff present before at conferences and he’s got a really relaxed way of introducing and working with often highly controversial topics, like race and gender. I was especially excited to…
CHEC short course: teaching and learning (day 2)

Aug 11, 2011

in Learning, Teaching, Workshop

cape higher education consortium, che, chec, council for higher education, teaching and learning

Yesterday was the second day of the CHEC short course for Teaching and Learning. Here are my notes: Teaching teaching and understanding understanding (Google video, I’m not sure how much longer it’ll be available on that service) How do you create an environment in which students are engaged? What does it mean for students to…
Applying theoretical concepts to clinical practice

Aug 9, 2011

in Assessment, Assignments, Learning, Physiotherapy, Research, Students, Teaching

assessment, assignment, classrooms, clinical learning, clinical teaching, concept mapping, drafting, knowledge, lectures, movement science

I just finished giving feedback to my students on the concept mapping assignment they’re busy with. It’s the first time I’ve used concept mapping in an assignment and in addition to the students’ learning, I’m also trying to see if it helps me figure out what they really understand about applying the theory we cover…
Sharing? Collaboration? No thanks

Aug 5, 2011

in Education, Learning, Students, Technology

collaboration, demonstration, Google Docs, groupwork, sharing, spinal cord injury, wiki

Last week I took our third year students to see a demonstration of the management of a patient with spinal cord injury as part of the Movement Science module that I teach. I noticed that during the demonstration many of them were taking pretty comprehensive notes, and thought that this would be a great opportunity…
CHEC short course: teaching and learning

Aug 4, 2011

in Assessment, Assignments, Learning, Teaching, Workshop

assignment, cape higher education consortium, chec, course, teaching and learning, workshop

Today was the first day of a short course looking at teaching and learning and is pretty innovative in that it is co-ordinated by, and open to, academics from several higher educational institutions in the Western Cape. It’s being organised by the Cape Higher Education Consortium (CHEC). The course runs for the next month, during…
SAAHE conference, 2011 – day 3

Jul 2, 2011

in Assessment, Conference, Education, Learning, Research, Students, Teaching

adult learning theories, assessment, community of practice, cop, david taylor, jack boulet, learning theories, phelophepa, reflection, simulated patients, simulation, standardised patients, train of hope, wenger

Today was the last day of the SAAHE conference. Coming as it did immediately after a week of the SAFRI programme, I can’t say I’m not glad it’s over. It’s been an amazing experience though, mostly as a result of the wonderful health educators I’ve been fortunate enough to meet. Here are the last of…
SAAHE conference, 2011 – day 2

Jul 2, 2011

in Conference, Education, Health, Learning, Students, Teaching, Workshop

adult learning, assessment, charles boelen, david taylor, flexner, models, saahe 2011, social accountability, theories of learning

Social accountability: the mark of excellence in health professional education by Charles Boelen Moved from interrogation → an assertion What is a health professional? Flexner’s report changed the scope of medical education by introducing a scientific background, especially in education Medical education should be patriotic (Flexner) Educating → health professionals → for a strategy →…
SAFRI 2011 (session 2) – day 3

Jun 27, 2011

in Assessment, Curriculum, Learning, Physiotherapy, Students, Teaching, Workshop

assessment, clinical learning, clinical skills, curriculum alignment, educational models, portfolios, reflection

Began today with a session on workplace-based learning, spent some time “developing a model” for learning a new skill after actually trying to learn (what was for many) a new skill…spinning a top. My group came up with the following model which, truth be told was obviously based on Kolb’s learning cycle. Reviewed educational model…
SAFRI 2011 (session 2) – day 2

Jun 27, 2011

in Assessment, Curriculum, Education, Learning, Research, Students, Teaching, Workshop

assessment, curriculum development, curriculum planning, faimer, feedback, learning, safri

“Teach” a group of colleagues about “Assessment”. Here are some notes I took in preparation for a 5 minute teaching session What is assessment? “Defines for students what is important, what counts, how they will spend their times and how they will see themselves as learners. If you want to change student learning, then change…
SAFRI 2011 (session 2) – day 1

Jun 27, 2011

in Conference, Education, Learning, Research, Students, Teaching, Workshop

clinical reasoning, dual processing theory, faimer, saahe 2011, safri

A few days ago we began the second SAFRI* session of 2011, which will lead into the SAAHE conference** later in the week. Every day I take notes and will try to put them up as we go along bearing in mind that a lot of what we do is workshop-based. The notes are a…
Strategies to improve clinical teaching: a workshop

Jun 13, 2011

in Assessment, Education, Learning, Physiotherapy, Students, Teaching, Workshop

assessment, assessment practices, clinical education, clinical educator, clinical learning, clinical reasoning, clinical supervision, clinical supervisor, learning theories, students

On Saturday I attended a workshop at Groote Schuur hospital that had the aim of providing “…clinicians with the opportunity to improve their ability to facilitate learning in clinical practice”. Objectives included improving the understanding of theories of learning, methods of enhancing learning and assessment practices and the role of assessment in learning. I was…
Workshop on Intended Learning Outcomes

Apr 6, 2011

in Assessment, Curriculum, Learning, Physiotherapy, Students, Teaching

assessment, curriculum alignment, learning, learning outcomes, level outcomes, module descriptors, SAQA, scholarship of teaching and learning, teacher, teaching

I’ve already mentioned that my institution has increased the emphasis on the scholarship of teaching and learning over the past few years, by placing it on an equal footing with research. This has forced all academics to reconsider their roles within the university, which many have resisted. Luckily (for me) I work in a department…
CHAT workshop for Emerging ICT in HE research

Jan 20, 2011

in Learning, PhD, Research, Teaching

activity systems, activity theory, Change laboratory, chat, cognitive change, cultural historical activity theory, external activity systems, General, genetic law, Implement, Internalisation, joanne hardman, learning, leontiev, Lev Vygotsky, model, research, Russia, Stalin, teacher, teaching, vygotsky

Last week I attended a short workshop on Cultural Historical Activity Theory (given by Joanne Hardman) as part of an NRF-funded research project on the use of emerging ICTs in Higher Education. Here are my notes from the session (this was all very new to me and I probably got a few things wrong. Feel…
Authenticity and vulnerability

Jan 14, 2011

in Learning, Students, Teaching

authenticity, brene brown, facebook, presentation, TED, vulnerability

Yesterday I posted a reflection on how I’m coming to realise that the personal and social aspects of myself are always present, even when I’m in professional mode. I discussed this as it related to connecting with students on Facebook and the possible benefits that might have for everyone involved. Coincidentally, I also came across…
Reflections on blended learning in clinical education

Sep 22, 2010

in Learning, PhD, Physiotherapy, Research, Technology

blended learning, clinical education, Michael Rowe, phd, physiotherapy, research, sasp, south african society of physiotherapy

A few weeks ago I was invited by one of the local groups of the South African Society of Physiotherapy to present the initial results of my PhD research into the use of blended learning in clinical education. Afterwards, I was surprised by the support I received from the clinicians, and at the resistance (or…