Clinical Assignment On Key Principles Of Teaching And Learning

Question

Task: The aim of this clinical assignment is to assess your knowledge of the principles of teaching and learning theories and models in clinical setting.

Answer

Introduction to the case scenario of clinical assignment
Teaching and learning process in a clinical setting has become highly demanding and complex situation. The clinical teacher implements number of tasks as a part of the teaching process such as providing information, role model, facilitator, assessor and curriculum planner. This shows that a clinical teacher has multiple roles to play in an educational setting. Ramani&Leinster (2008) has stated that teaching in clinical environment is defined as a learning process that focuses on patients and the problems faced by them. Skills and knowledge is important for a clinical setting for conducting clinical care in an effective manner. The teaching will focus on the analysis of patient care and techniques undertaken to solve problems. The clinical teachers make use of knowledge of educational principles and strategies effectively teach the students (McKimm&Swanwick, 2013). Moreover, there are various models adopted by clinical teachers to teach on various activities.

The report on clinical assignment discusses key principles of teaching and learning in clinical settings along with adult learning theory. Further, the report analyses key teaching and learning strategies and models required for effective teaching. Lastly, the project evaluates various learning styles and reflection on the most preferred learning style.

Key Principles of Teaching and Learning
Physicians involve in teaching medical students, residents and patients on various clinical terms and practices. Learning is not an easy process and involves various principles and processes. This helps the teachers to involve in best practices in clinical teaching (Cunningham, Wright &Baird, 2015). Principles are important to deliver learning in the most appropriate manner that can maximize learning capability of the learner in clinical setting.

Principle 1- learning that is developed through effort and challenge tend to be durable and can be retained for long term. This is based on the logic that there is no gain without indulging in any kind of pain. Banks et al., (2007) stated that learning that is easy and entertaining is not long lasting. This means that learning should be based on three important elements such as encoding, consolidation and retrieval. Thus, learning should be a slow process to make it durable and more precise over time. Forexample, teaching through practical clinical trials such as interviewing patients will enhance learning among clinical students that are precise and long term.

Principle 2- there should be opportunity for continuous learning that allow continuous development of skills and knowledge for effective clinical practices. This principle outlined in this segment of clinical assignment shows that teachers should form a cognitive and neural structure where the learning can be continuous and meaningful (Banks et al., 2007). The principle intend to help student acquire new knowledge and improve their intelligence of learning.

Principle 3-learning should be developed through frequent and regular assessments that help give a testing process. Learning should always be supported with effective testing process such as regular tests and assessments (Cunningham, Wright & Baird, 2015). This allow for long-term memory by retrieving facts or knowledge over time.

Principle 4- spaced practice should be encouraged rather than massed practice. Massed study forms a type of study that involves continuous long learning hours for the leaners. Such learning pattern prove to be less effective with absence of breaks. On the contrary spaced out learning involves learning with breaks in between. This improves the durability and grasping power if the learners. This means that distributive pattern of learning is efficient and generate better success.

Principle 5- deliberate learning generate effective knowledge development and improve performance. Deliberate learning involve learning in a planned, purposeful and structured manner with a focus on specific goal. Such learning help improve knowledge and performance through an optimal learning process. For example, use of mammograms in diagnosis is studied with feedback from teachers on accuracy before moving on to learn about different types of mammogram (McKimm&Swanwick, 2013). This generate improved pattern of learning.

Principle 6- learning is always followed by feedback to facilitate improvement in learning and skill development. Feedback allows the learner to know about the level of knowledge they have gathered and allow the teacher to learn about the effectiveness of their teaching process.

Adult Learning Theory and Theorists
According to the research on clinical assignment, adult learning is based on the premises is that learning process of an adult is very different from that of the children. This is because adults already have a strong base of knowledge and experience in life compared to the children. Moreover, they understand the reason behind learning new things and this acts a natural motivation among adults (McKimm&Swanwick, 2013). However, it is not so among the children because their cognitive development is less compared to the adults.

Adult learning theories has gained prominence in clinical setting so that the education is developed in an effective manner. According to Mukhalalati& Taylor (2019) adult learning theories plays a vital role in a healthcare professional programs. The most prominent adult learning theory that gained importance in a clinical environment includes “andragogy”. This theory is different from pedagogy where the term “andr” means man. Theorist Alexander Kapp who argued that the adults have different level of knowledge, experience, motivation and orientation compared to the children first developed the theory of andragogy. The theorist stated that it is highly important for the adult to develop education to become professionally more able and skilled over time in health. This is because it helps to fill the gap between the current knowledge of the health professionals and their future learning needs. Moreover, such learning allow developing experimental learning process to improve knowledge base of clinical processes. However, McKimm&Swanwick (2013) has criticized the theory of andragogy because some of the process of learning is similar to children’s learning process or pedagogy. Thus, a different learning process and strategies need to be developed for adult learning.

Taylor &Hamdy (2013) has stated that adult learning theories is highly important for healthcare professional education programs. Firstly, it is determined that educational theories help form an integral part ofevidence-based learning. Secondly, the knowledge of such theories allow the educators to develop best strategies, learning objectives and evaluation process. Thirdly, such theories can be incorporated in the subject and allow for improvement in student learning process. Lastly, it will help exempt educator to take sole responsibility for the learning process. Elisabeth, Christine &Ewa (2009) further divides the theories into different categories such as instrumental, humanistic, transformative, motivational, reflective and social learning theories. Each of these theories have an important role to play in adult learning process among healthcare professionals.

Instrumental learning theories
The instrumental learning theory explored in the clinical assignment in clinical adult learning includes three theories such as behavioral, cognitivism and experimental learning. Behavioral theory of adult learning focus on the environment in learning that lead to change in individual behavior. Positive consequences in environment enhances the process of learning by strengthening behavior. Moreover, the educators are responsible to control the learning environment that encourage a learning environment. Cognitivism theory is another part of instrumental learning that focus on the internal environment of the learners rather than the external behavior. It states the mental and psychology of the learner and design learning process that are meaningful for the learner (Mukhalalati& Taylor, 2019). Experimental learning is yet another part of instrumental learning where educators take up methods where the learners indulge in direct interaction of authentic environment. In this theory, the learning is done through experience and reflection on experience.

Humanistic theories
The theory of humanism focus on freedom and dignity of human when indulging in learning process. Based on this theory it is stated that adult learning is usually self-directed and conducted in a planned manner by the adult itself. Moreover, the adults are able to access their own learning to achieve self-fulfillment, goals and self-actualization (Taylor &Hamdy, 2013). Thus, adult learning can be self-centered, personalized, and implemented by the learner itself.

Transformative learning theory
Transformative is a kind of reflective learning in which the learners reflect on their embedded knowledge and assumptions. Mezirow refer to this as “frames of reference” where the existing knowledge is mixed with new knowledge to develop the skills and learning among the clinical practitioners or adults (James & Pollard, 2011). Transformative learning takes place in three stages such as reflecting on part issue or event, engaging in critical evaluation on experience and taking action to solve the issue based on past reflection and knowledge.

Social theories of learning
The social theories of adult learning focus on integrating behavior and cognitive learning to understand the task. This type of learning theory focus on social interaction, communication and discussion as the major source of learning. The major forms of social learning are observation and modeling where the teachers arrange the learning environment for the learners to interact and learn.

Key Teaching and Learning Strategies and Models
Effective teaching in a clinical setting is a complex process and need timely strategies and adoption of appropriate model to make learning accurate and useful. The clinical assignment examined the readings of Ghasemi, Moonaghi&Heydari (2020) that sustaining and engaging in different teaching strategies is important for promoting academic and clinical knowledge among nursing students. This makes it important to explore and form important strategies that can allow educators to promote knowledge of clinical students. The teaching and learning strategies are categorized under several forms such as technology based strategies, collaborative strategies, simulation-based strategies, research based strategies and miscellanea learning strategies. Technology based strategies allow clinical educators to make use of techniques such as response system and online learning to teach the clinical students today. There has been development of smart technologies that has facilitated the clinical teaching and learning over time (Elisabeth, Christine &Ewa, 2009). The technology based learning has allowed the development and implementation of video learning and virtual community.

Zhang & Cui (2018) has pointed out on non-technology learning as a part of clinical teaching and learning activity such as collaborative learning, simulation learning and research based learning.Collaborative strategiesis an instructional method that allow for group teaching process that involves mutual intellectual works between the students and educators. One of the strategies adopted by educators in collaborative learning process is team-based learning. The healthcare and clinical educators teach in a team or group and foster experience based learning. The team based strategies helps maximize participation of students in developing learning activities and help raise team-based performance. Further, collaborative strategies also include interdisciplinary partnership method and collaborative testing. This learning process allow for educating through partnership-based projects between the students and educators. Simulation based strategies allow for teaching and learning process through simulation. This is done through simulating different case studies in clinical environment. It allow for active engagement between the participants and observers in the simulation process. Research based strategies is developed through indulging in continuous research process. This process of learning allow the participants to express their own viewpoints through research (Elisabeth, Christine &Ewa, 2009). It is one of the most efficient way of learning new things by allowing the student to develop own viewpoints. Zhang & Cui (2018) has focused on collaborative learning model as one of the most common learning process used in a clinical or healthcare education. Collaborative learning refers to a set of instructional method in which the students are encouraged to work in a team-basedenvironment and achieve learning goals. It allow the clinical students to grow on several grounds such as social interdependence, cognitive development and behavioral learning process. Moreover, as the group holds a common goal the learning become more advances and in-depth for the clinical students. The help to develop better social skills that forms an integral part of clinical processes. Moreover, developing inter-professional teamwork skills among clinical students allow them to work in a collaborative manner efficiently and come up with better clinical solutions.

Learning Styles
Learning styles form an integral part of teaching and learning in a clinical setting because it help determine the extent of learning acquired by student in an environment. Knowledge about different types of learning style allows for optimizing teaching method and enable student to achieve long-term success.The words of Anderson (2016) undertaken to prepare this clinical assignment has point out on VARK learning style that focus on visual, auditory, reach and kinetics as learning styles to deliver clinical teaching. This learning style does not require any particular skill; however, it is an effective way to understand new information. This learning model is also known as multimodal learning process that involves various kinds of learning styles. However, majority of the medical students is seen to use aural modal style as the most preferred style of learning. This shows that there are different learning styles adopted in a clinical teaching environment such as either through video, audio or face-to-face learning. According to Hernández-Torrano, Ali & Chan (2017) visual learner prefers to learn using visuals such as charts, figures, diagrams and others. They learn through visually looking at processes or theories to understand things better. Verbal learning style is yet another learning process where the learner prefer written as well as spoken explanations of theories and things. This type of learning style presented in the clinical assignment usually takes place through either face-to-face medium or online medium to learn new things in a clinical setting. Moreover, there are two other types of learning styles such as active learning style and reflective learning style (Bokhari&Zafar, 2019). These two learnings style involves thinking and active engagement of the learners in different processes.

Which is the most preferred learning style discussed in the clinical assignment?
From all the types of learning styles, thelearning style I prefer is visual learning style that involves learning through visual representation of theories and process. Visual representation is learning through watching videos, pictures, images or others. This learning style helps me to store information for a longer time in my brain and develop cognitively. Moreover, it is one of the best way to comprehend things in a better way. It is one of the best way to develop my memory about various clinical process. I feel comfortable in learning about new processes and theories by visually viewing these theories through either pictures or videos. Moreover, it helps me to respond better to information compared to written or audio learning processes. Visually seeing a picture help in processing the brain faster compared to text (Anderson, 2016). When implementing those learning and theories in a clinical setting the brain help me remind the visuals and respond to the situation in a much effective manner. As a clinical student, I have gained most of my learning through visual learning style and even prefer to use it even in future.

Conclusion
Therefore, it can be stated herein clinical assignment that clinical teaching and learning process is a complex method that take into consideration several factors to deliver learning is a systematic manner. There are various learning styles and strategies that a clinical educator need to adopt to help the learners develop effective knowledge. Moreover, it is seen that adult learning theory and processes is much different from children learning. This is because adults have partial knowledge of theories and processes and are efficient enough to form their own learning goals. Moreover, adults are also capable to indulge in self-directing learning through reflective on their experience and acquisition of new knowledge. Moreover, clinical teaching is based on six key principles where learning processes is developed in a systematic manner and require continuous feedback. This information provided in the clinical assignment shows that teaching and learning in a clinical setting is not an easy process and involve careful consideration. The learning style that I prefer the most is visual learning style of unimodal style that involves learning through visuals such as videos, pictures, charts, graphs and others. ?

References
Anderson, I. (2016). Identifying different learning styles to enhance the learning experience. Nursing Standard, 31(7).

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Ghasemi, M. R., Moonaghi, H. K., &Heydari, A. (2020). Strategies for sustaining and enhancing nursing students’ engagement in academic and clinical settings: a narrative review. Korean Journal of Medical Education, 32(2), 103.

Hernández-Torrano, D., Ali, S., & Chan, C. K. (2017). First year medical students’ learning style preferences and their correlation with performance in different subjects within the medical course. BMC Medical Education, 17(1), 131.

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McKimm, J., &Swanwick, T. (2013). Clinical teaching made easy: a practical guide to teaching and learning in clinical settings. Andrews UK Limited.

Mukhalalati, B. A., & Taylor, A. (2019). Adult learning theories in context: A quick guide for healthcare professional educators. Journal of medical education and curricular development, 6, 2382120519840332.

Ramani, S., & Leinster, S. (2008). AMEE Guide no. 34: Teaching in the clinical environment. Medical teacher, 30(4), 347-364.

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