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If the course philosophy is, indeed, that the student is the center
of your goals and so you’re thinking less about how you will teach and
then that is what is going to frame all of the decisions you make
pretty much, after that. And so I think that I would start sharing how the
classrooms that I’ve been in work that way by talking about how it begins.
The way any of our class discussions begin, really, is with students
having already done some things on their own. To me, I think that’s
probably the crux of how I see the classroom, is that both the student
and I are both coming together with information to share and to talk
about. In a more traditional design I think sometimes the students
walk into the classroom and can literally say, "What are we doing
today?" because they wouldn’t know. It would be, you know, new,
something that they would just be discovering in the moment.
Whereas, the philosophy that I like is that a student would come
to the table knowing what we’ll do that day because they are already
bringing a lot of that content with them. Therefore, our role, really, in the
classroom changes a little bit from pure content delivery to discussion,
application of that content, clarification of that content. You can kind
of go, you can use the class-time, therefore, in a very different way.
So, I would say that the first way that this course design bit is
changed by philosophy is by: How does a student prepare ahead
of time? And we can talk more about that if you’d like. But, so, all
students will come to class prepared with some content. We’ll use
the class time, as I just discussed, as a chance for us to apply, to
clarify, to discuss, and then when it gets to the evaluation or
assessment component of it, that does also take a change with
the course philosophy.
Clearly one of the jobs of the teacher is to, in the end, be able
to say this individual has learned this much and therefore
assessment is necessary. But, I think that assessment can always
serve a duel role because any time a student has a chance to
check-in with themselves and be assessed on their knowledge
they also have a chance to learn. But, I think that the modality of
your test and how you put that that together might affect it.
One of the ways that I’ve tried to implement more of a learning
approach versus a pure assessment approach is by having
students repeat their exams again but with groups. So, for
example, in our anatomy class that I teach, students would take
two mid-terms and a final, they take their individual exam that looks,
you know, reasonably like other people’s exam with some multiple
choice and short answer and they do that on their own first. There is
also a little open book part that would give them a chance to deal less
with memorization and more on application. But, after they’ve done
their individual portion, they’ve turned that in, the next part of the exam
is for them to start at the beginning again, go through all of the
same exam questions, but this time do it with the group.
And my goal there is that they should never walk out of an exam
and see a grade online but never really have a chance to look at
that exam again and understand where did they have difficulty,
where did they not. Most students will come to before the key is even
up and tell me, “Oh, I know I did this well on an exam,” and they
seen an answer key yet. It’s just purely from their discussions with
other students. And they’ll come back to me and say,
“Oh, I realize I didn’t understand this or I missed this concept,”
and so the goal is that before they are actually finished with the
exam process they already know, as a self check-in, where
did they go wrong, you know, where did they miss a concept.
So, that’s a way to ensure that any exam is not just about assessing
a student’s knowledge from the outside, but from within, a student
should understand what they know and what they did not know.
(Verscheure) Why would you be less likely to fracture your ulna than the
radius or the scaphoid when you fell on an outstretched arm, right.
Find that head of the ulna again.
(Verscheure) And figure out where is it in relation to some of the other
structures we’ve been palpating.
(students discuss)
(Verscheure) What do you think? Does someone have something
to share?
(students discuss)
(Verscheure) Any ideas that came up?
(students discuss)
(Student #1) Because they come into contact with the actual surface
before the ulna would.
(Verscheure) That’s right. That’s right. Give me an example of one
structure we just palpated that would come into contact with the
ground far before the ulna would.
(Student #2) The pisiform.
(Verscheure) That’s right. The pisiform, right. Remember we palpated
this? If we do this it really sticks out on the, what’s actually the medial
side, but pronated it looks like its lateral. So, that’s going to come in
contact far before. And is it a broad bone that takes a lot of impact?
Does it look like if in you were a gymnast and you were doing a lot of
weight bearing through the ulna or a lot of weight bearing
through the radius?
(Student #3) The radius.
(Verscheure) Right, the radius, right. It’s the broad ending.