Approaches to teaching

These beliefs and approaches are extracted from my teaching dossier from when I taught fulltime in MLS (1977 - 1999). They are not profound or necessarily original, mostly just some tips that I learned when teaching in MLS and doing an MEd. They seem to work.

• Because learning is strongly influenced by motivation, I see one of the primary functions of the teacher as motivating students to develop enthusiasm for a discipline, to understand its complexities, and to appreciate it both as a science and as an art.

• Genuine enthusiasm and a positive approach to learning are infectious and will rub off on students and colleagues.

• It helps to focus on the big picture, wherein the richness of a field is revealed in layers, much like the layers of an onion, except that there are always more treasures hidden beneath. With this emphasis, students realize how little they know compared to all that there is to know about a given subject or field of study. I tell students that people who claim to know a lot are usually revealing their ignorance.

• Coming to teaching after 13 years practising as a medical laboratory technologist, my approach to teaching is practically oriented. I regularly explain the relevance of knowledge and skills to short- and long-term educational goals, to professional life, and to life as citizens in society.

• An important role of educators is to model how practitioners approach technical and scientific problems, interpersonal relationships, and ethical dilemmas. Similarly, professional work attitudes are promoted by example. Teachers must "walk the talk" or risk losing credibility.

• Setting high standards will stretch potential to the maximum, as students will tend to give what is expected. The old adage holds true: "Be careful of what you ask for--you just may get it." High expectations should be balanced with early success to maintain motivation when learners are most vulnerable.

• To foster teaching and learning as a jointly accountable process, instructors need to spend time on the nuts and bolts of education. A few strategies that I have found can enhance learning include
  • Organizing course material into modules that show how the concepts interrelate and relate to the whole.

  • Developing goals and learning objectives that map the future but consider the past, i.e., ones which specify knowledge and skills that students will learn but take into account their entry-level skills.

  • Staying abreast of current research and practices by being actively involved in the field and continually revising to incorporate latest developments.

  • Experimenting with teaching methods, especially ones that require active student participation and interaction. It's axiomatic that students learn by doing; instructors do too. Lectures are useful for transmitting information efficiently, for identifying the latest research, and for modelling how an expert thinks and approaches problems. But too often they pass from the mouths of instructors into the notes of students without passing through the minds of either. <;-)

  • Explaining how feedback is an indispensable tool to help both instructor and learner improve, and then modelling appropriate responses such as, "Thanks for telling me that." When MLS students enter their clinical internship year, I explain that constructive criticism is their best friend. They can improve only if supervisory staff tell them when they are doing something wrong or doing something that needs to be improved.

• Teaching in a professional faculty, I am aware that there is a natural tension between training and education. Training involves transmitting a set body of knowledge and acquiring a set body of skills. Education involves broad objectives and maximizes individual differences and opportunities for self-directed growth. No matter what the field, students receive value for money when they learn transferable skills needed to be life-long learners. Some strategies that I have used to promote critical analysis and independent study include

• Teaching problem strategies in the context of specific subject matter. I agree with McPeck that teaching critical thinking is more effective when instructors use examples that require the specific knowledge and skills of a practitioner in the field.

• Explaining the evolving nature of scientific truths and incorporating historical developments to illustrate Kuhn's notion of scientific paradigm shifts.

• Modelling and explaining that it is okay to admit not knowing. See, for example, "I don't know": the three most important words in education from the British Medical Journal (8 May, 1999).

• Discussing meta-cognition, i.e., explicitly talking to students about how they think when solving problems. Getting students to be self-aware about how they process information and problem solve helps foster their critical thinking skills.

• Integrating Internet technologies into the curriculum so that students become proficient in using online resources to find and analyse information.

• Modelling and promoting the philosophies espoused by the following quotes (I am not responsible for the accuracy of the quotes but sure do appreciate the sentiments) :

  "I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education."
          --Wilson Mizner

  "It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers."
          --James Thurber

  "That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all of your life, but in a new way."
          --Doris Lessing

  "I have never in my life learned anything from any [person] who agreed with me."
          --Dudley Field Malone

  "To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing."
          --Elbert Hubbard

  "They who ask questions may seem to be fools for a moment. They who never ask questions are fools forever."
          --Confucius

  "An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't."
          --Anatole France

  "The most wasted day of all is that in which we have not laughed."
  [preferably at ourselves! --Pat L.]
          --Sebastien Roch Nicolas Chamfort