Three Reflections

Well, I didn't have a Skype call as the student I was paired with has dropped the course. So while I can't complete the three reflections as they are assigned, I thought I would throw some reflections out here anyway. Not so much on trends, but on new insights as I am going through the course.

As I mentioned in my intro, I have been taking courses in the PID Program for over 5 years. When I first started, this course, 3100, didn't exist. If I would have taken less than the required time, I would not have had to take it. Because I have taken longer than >5 years to complete the Program, I had to reapply and that meant having to take this extra course. I wasn't totally happy about that, but consequences is consequences! Having now done several of the assignments, I am glad to be taking it. I am definitely gaining insight into myself and my teaching, and perhaps even a little more into my students as well.

This course is also helping me to be more concise! Those Assignment 3 lesson plan posts are tough to keep at 100 words! I am finding some really excellent resources on the lesson plan elements though, many of which I will definitely be using in the next semester.

I am somewhat amazed (perhaps naively) at how many resources there are for adult educators out there. Before this course I had no idea. It is hard to find the time to go through all of them and integrate some of the ideas into my teaching as well. I barely have time to prep and teach what I have now! I guess that is a task for the summer months when I have no students, although that time is always full as well!

I didn't discuss this trend in my assignment 2 blog post, but I think another trend in Veterinary Technology is the Veterinary Technician Specialties. These are credentials which are earned by becoming a 'specialist' VT in a certain area, such as radiography, equine medicine, internal medicine or even education. Each specialty has an Academy which regulates the requirements to achieving a Specialty (VTS) designation; each Academy has a formal process of education, training, experience and testing to qualify. It takes a minimum of five years to gain a VTS, and that would be after our two year program. "Addressing" this trend for me will be a matter of ensuring that my students have an excellent base of skills, as well as ensuring that interested students have the required information and support to start the process once they graduate.

Creating a Positive Learning Environment

The University of Saskatchewan has a set of webpages on building a positive learning environment.  The page on Effective Communication has several pointers on fostering student input, including waiting at least 15 seconds for an answer when asking a question.  I do leave several seconds to give students time to formulate their thoughts, however if there is no answer after a short time, I will give the answer or rephrase the question.  I am going to try to leave the full 15 seconds and see if I get more student responses.

In the video on this page on Fostering Student Engagement, one of the professors discusses the fact that she has cut out a lot of material in her course in order to be able to really discuss topics, and have the students involved (~6:30 of the video).  I found that interesting in that it linked back to my second journal assignment in which I said that I was planning on finding ways to decrease course material to hopefully increase student input and ultimately increase understanding of the material presented.

Different Learning Styles

I liked this article on Learning Styles as well.  It was more focused on children than adult learners, but it included the Read/Write learning style in addition to the Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic.  I think despite the focus on children, it could be a good resource for ways to assist students to learn materials.

I liked the 'Characteristics' section on this webpage.  Although the webpage I linked in my Assignment 3 post below also has 'Characteristics' listed, the list is not bulleted.  I guess I have Visual preferences as well :).

Characteristics of Adult Learners

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lindah/329179351

This webpage gives good tips for teaching to the different learning styles. I am primarily a kinesthetic learner and so tend to teach by demonstrating. Over time, I have developed flowcharts and tables to better accommodate visual learners. I think I am weakest when teaching to auditory learners. I do describe the task when I am demonstrating, however sometimes I fumble a bit trying to do both simultaneously.  The website has given me the idea to record my demonstrations with a voice-over so that auditory learners may listen as often as they need to in order to learn the material.

Clarity in Explanations

I came across this article while researching for some assignments and thought it helpful.  I found the paragraph on "Reconstituted and repeated" especially familiar.  I have students who are at various levels of veterinary experience.  For some, tasks and concepts are easily assimilated as they have already seen them done or performed them before.  For others, it is the first time they have been introduced to the notion and they have a hard time grasping it.  Finding other ways to describe it can be difficult.

An example I am often faced with is getting students to understand the difference between what the number of x-rays accomplishes and what the power of x-rays accomplishes.  Some students understand how to tell the difference right away, and others struggle for the entire semester.  I really identified with the "Paced at the speed of the learner" paragraph: I never feel like I have enough time in the semester to get through all the material, never mind having to repeat lessons.  Perhaps some support materials would be helpful for the students to peruse in their own time to help re-enforce the idea.

This year for the first time most of the class "got it".  The faculty member and I met several times last year to try and figure out how to teach it differently to help them.  We changed some flowcharts to better explain the concept; the faculty member explained the idea in lecture and then I re-enforced it in lab sessions throughout the semester.  I still feel as though some students struggled with it and weren't honest about it.  Perhaps embarrassed by their inability to grasp the idea, they would not admit that they needed extra help or had questions.  I don't have enough time to check in with each of them individually, unfortunately.  Perhaps having a 'concept check' quiz partway through the semester to see where they are at, and checking in with those who are less successful on the quiz.

I think continuing to try to find new and better ways to explain concepts is a good idea, even if this year’s class understood.  There are no guarantees that next year’s group will be in the same place and having a collection of explanations will help to ensure their success.

Trends in Adult Education: Flipped Classrooms

I have been using some aspects of a flipped classroom for several years without realizing that was what I was doing!  For me, it was mostly about the time aspect.  I teach in a very intensive two year program, one that could easily be three or even four years.  We have a large volume of material to teach the students and there is never enough time (or space).  In one of my courses, the students learn how to take and develop x-rays.  In one of the first labs of the semester, I teach how to develop the x-rays using an automatic developer.  The developer is kept in the darkroom, the size of which allows a maximum number of four people that can be in the room at one time.  I have 15 students per two hour lab session; teaching all the parts of the developer, how it works and how to care for it takes no less than 15 minutes.  It was eating up much too much of my lab time (an hour per 15 students), so one year I filmed myself teaching about the developer and now have the students watch the recording prior to coming to the lab session.

Since having filmed the workings of the automatic x-ray developer, our department has filmed many more tasks and skills for the students to watch prior to the lab sessions.  We can then focus the sessions on the students actually getting to practice the skills, rather than having to spend the first 30 minutes explaining and demonstrating.  In the article, the one of the teachers says that the students can't just watch the video and that is that; he has them come to class with a prepared question.  The biggest challenge that we have had is ensuring the students watch the video to begin with!  We have somewhat solved the issue by having pre-lab quizzes: after watching the video, students are required to take a 10 minute quiz to ensure they have understood the content.  This also helps the students discover what aspects of the task they don't understand or aren't sure about.  When they come to the lab session, they can clarify at the outset and practice the skill correctly rather than make attempts in a trial and error fashion and end up frustrated.

I think another great reason to use a flipped classroom model is the inclination for students nowadays to want to use technology at every turn.  Watching a video (especially in the comfort of their own home) is much more enjoyable than sitting in a classroom or lab setting watching the instructor talk or demo at the front. There currently is a great resource in veterinary medicine that is particularly helpful in this vein: Dove-Lewis Emergency Animal Hospital in Portland, Oregon created a website of training content for veterinarians, technologists and hospital staff.  The training videos feature the staff of Dove-Lewis performing tasks 'in real life', as opposed to a teaching setting.  These videos can not only satisfy students' desire to use technology, but may also assist in having students see that there are different ways of getting the job done.  Many of our students have worked in the veterinary field for a time prior to coming to school.  They may have seen (or learned themselves) ways of doing certain tasks that we are now teaching them to do in a much different manner.  We teach the 'gold standard' of performing the skill, which often takes more time and money than is available in practice.  Seeing these tasks performed to this standard by those working in practice, not just their instructors in school, can hopefully help solidify the reasons behind the high standards we discuss and demonstrate.

I think that a flipped classroom is a fantastic model for use in my program.  Videos provide a great resource to save classroom/lab time for more interaction with students as they practice skills.  Now if I can just find the time to go through the videos and decide which to use!

*I thought that this was a good informational flyer on flipped classrooms.

Bloom's Taxonomy

This webpage provides several resources on Bloom's Taxonomy; I found this resource particularly interesting.

In every laboratory session that I teach, there is a psychomotor skill that the students are required to learn: blood collection, injection techniques, heart and lung auscultation, etc. The students often only get one lab opportunity to learn this skill and I am always trying to find ways to provide them with additional chances to learn as well as means for me to evaluate them. The table will help me to find other approaches to present the skill as well as provide me with ideas for levels of evaluation based on which 'category' they are at in their skill development.

Trends in Veterinary Medicine

This article outlines the tendency of women to be more likely to study veterinary medicine than men.  Although the article is from 2010 the trend continues, as page 12 of this report by the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) shows.   This is a strong turnaround from say 40 years ago, when men were much more likely to become veterinarians than women.  I think that there are several factors for this change in demographics.

Veterinary medicine used to be focused on farms.  Veterinarians were called on for herd health and pregnancy checks as these animals were the farmers livelihood.  The barn cat or the farm dog were not part of the family, but there to do a job (mousing or protecting/herding respectively).  If the cat or dog got sick, the veterinarian was rarely called; you just got a new one from the next litter.  Because large animal work was difficult, required a lot of strength and was done in the cold, dark and dirt of a barn, women were less likely to choose to do the job.  This is not the case now, perhaps partly because of better equipment that make the job less physical for everyone, men and women.  Also, of course, because it is no longer seen as 'not ladylike' to want to work in any field that requires one to get dirty.

Another possibility of male domination of the field in the past is that forty years ago, women would often go to school and/or work until they found a husband and started a family.  Due to the small number of veterinary schools (currently only 5 schools in Canada, and one a recent addition), there was high competition to be accepted.  It was possibly seen that a woman who became a vet and then quit to have a family was taking the place of someone (a man) who would stay in the field.  For this and other reasons (not the least of which was simple sexism of the form 'women shouldn't be doing this job') colleges would often limit the number of women that were accepted. 

I think another reason for the trend is that in today's world, cats and dogs are a part of the family and in fact many people call their pets their fur-children. They are willing to spend the money on their pets to keep them healthy and many more veterinary practices now are small animal focused.  Women are more often effusively 'warm and fuzzy' about cats and dogs than men are.  Women are much more likely to fawn over people's pets--and the clients love it.  They want their veterinary staff to sweet-talk to their babies and women are much more likely to do so.  Don't get me wrong, I have worked with male veterinarians who are just as mushy (and who are excellent vets), but the traits are more likely to be demonstrated by women, in my opinion.

One reason mentioned in the article that men are not studying veterinary medicine in the same numbers as previously is because they are not getting accepted due to lower grades.  As stated above, competition is high to get into veterinary school: there are only five veterinary colleges in Canada, compared to more than 15 medical schools.  Therefore the higher your grades, the better chance you have to get admitted into the program--grades are often the first criteria for acceptance.  But perhaps grades are no longer the best way to find suitable candidates.  Intelligence is certainly necessary for veterinary medical persons, but there are many other traits that are required to be successful.  For instance in my veterinary technology program, we have had students that get grades of 90% and higher, but they do not have the psychomotor abilities to do the work.  We have those that have exceptional clinical skills, but do not have the social skills to be successful in a service oriented field that requires you to communicate effectively with coworkers and clients. 

I have also found that those with life experiences tend to do better in our program than those younger or straight out of high school.  The ability to problem solve and think critically, to not expect to be 'spoon fed', to be willing to do the right thing, even if there is no one watching--these traits seem to be seen more commonly in mature students.  We have also found that those who come to the program with life experience also tend to focus less on their grades and more on learning the material.  Being able to regurgitate the correct answers on a project or an exam without actually assimilating the knowledge is not going to help when you have a dog that requires emergency treatment on the table.
Therefore, perhaps suitability and aptitude for the veterinary field, and acceptance into educational programs, needs to focus more on a well-rounded individual, rather than primarily on grades.  This might not increase the number of men in veterinary programs, but it would certainly lead to more balanced veterinary professionals.

The article focuses on veterinarians, but the trend is very obvious in veterinary technology as well.  The program in which I teach will generally have only one or two male students out of each class of 30.  It may be because wages are not high or it may be because men tend to gravitate towards professions with more prestige.  I suspect that it is similar to nursing in that veterinary technology is currently seen by many as more of a women's profession, perhaps due to the nurturing aspect.  I wonder if that perception will change over time, just as the idea that being a veterinarian was viewed as more of a man's profession 40 years ago.  Whatever the reason for the inequality of gender representation in the field, it will be interesting to see the AAVMC report in the next few decades.

Intro

This should prove interesting....
I have never been much of a journaler (is that a word?).  Interestingly, I am a kinesthetic learner and writing things down helps me remember and/or learn, but I have started numerous journals and a blog over the years, and never kept them up.  Guess I don't have a choice here ;-). 
For those wondering, "determined Bos primigenius" is an expansion of my nickname.