This weeks reflection focuses on standards and their effectiveness, learning styles and their influence on learning, and lesson planning. Having no experience in secondary education I found some of the following questions a bit challenging. I drew on my own experience as a medical laboratory scientist and as an instructor in a medical laboratory science program at a university.
Chapter 1 Question 1: Standards have altered teacher preparation programs and curriculum requirements in schools. The intention behind standardization is to ensure equivalent and consistent instruction and to provide measurable outcomes. Do you believe that the implementation of standards identified by national, state, and curriculum organizations has accomplished their intent? Explain why or why not. I personally believe the Common Core Standards developed by the 48 states and the District of Columbia are a wonderful idea. They ensure that no matter what state a student lives in, he or she is taught the same basic math and English skills. I do not have much experience with Common Core Standards. I do not teach grade school, but teach at the university level. I also have had no instruction in education methods or practices. My only experience with Common Core Standards is from my 6-year-old son who just completed kindergarten in the public school system. He made great strides this past year in his reading ability which leads me to believe the standards are working. His Kindergarten reading assessment scores greatly increased. According to the website www.corestandards.org, most states implemented Common Core Standards in the 2013-2014 or 2014-2015 academic years. More time is needed to see if the standards are providing the desired outcomes. I do have experience when it comes to standards implemented in the field of medical laboratory science (MLS). I am a certified medical laboratory scientist and teach in an accredited MLS program. In order to ensure quality laboratory results are reported in every lab in every state and every country, standards were developed. There are standards educational facilities must meet and standards clinical laboratories must meet. This ensures that all MLS students are taught the same information and all laboratories treat patient samples with the same quality procedures. The National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Science (NAACLS) is an “international agency for accreditation and approval of educational programs in the clinical laboratory science and related health professions.” In order to be accredited each educational facility must meet a set of standards. Every educational facility must meet the same standards, which ensures no matter where a student matriculates they receive the same quality of education. NAACLS makes sure each educational program is properly preparing MLS students to pass the American Society for Clinical Pathology Board of Certification (ASCP BOC) exam, and prepares them to be meaningful additions to the laboratory workforce. For more information on NAACLS and ASCP please visit www.ascp.org and www.naacls.org. Not only do educational programs have standards to meet, but clinical laboratories have standards to meet as well. The Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) provides a list of standards labs must meet in order to be accredited. The College of American Pathologists (CAP), incorporates the CLSI standards in their own accreditation check lists they give clinical laboratories. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare (JCAHO) is another organization that uses standards in order to give laboratories accreditation. For more information on accreditation please visit www.clsi.org, www.cap.org, or www.jointcommission.org. The goal of the lab is helping physicians diagnose and treat patients, and the use of standards in the clinical laboratory is essential to ensuring quality patient care. Standards ensure MLS students are prepared and have the necessary skills to provide quality patient care by turning out quality lab results. Standards are essential in ensuring hospitals and other facilities have laboratories that are adhering to all the necessary guidelines required to ensure patient safety. Standards have been used for many years in the clinical lab with great success. Just ask anyone who had a lab test save their life. Chapter 2 Question 2: Different students have different learning styles and their learning styles influence their learning. As a teacher, you should understand your students learning styles when preparing for the classes. Discuss your understanding on different learning styles and its influence on learning. Learning styles are the conditions under which a student learns the best. The three main learning styles are auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. A student is able to learn under any of the three conditions; however, he or she learns best under one. In other words, he or she has a dominant learning style. According to www.vark-learn.com, there is a fourth condition, read/write. VARK stands for visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic. I took the VARK questionnaire in order to discover my learning style. I have a multimodal learning style, with a predominance in the kinesthetic and visual areas; however, I scored pretty closely in all four learning styles. Once I evaluated my study habits I found the VARK questionnaire to be very accurate. Some multimodal learners utilize all styles equally while others tend to use just one style. I think it is important to consider the learning styles of one’s students. As teachers we should do everything we can to aid in the learning of the material we present to our students. Teaching to the different learning styles is one way to enhance the learning process of our students. In my classes I use a variety of methods to try and cover all four learning styles. For the visual learners I incorporate videos, charts, tables, and utilize PowerPoints during lecture. I also have the students make posters to review test material. To enhance the learning process of aural learners I lecture and ask questions during class. To tackle the read/write learning style I assign readings in the textbook and writing assignments that summarize important topics. Finally, I cover the kinesthetic learning style by incorporating case studies. Medical laboratory science has a laboratory component, which would be a kinesthetic learning condition. I started off my teaching career just lecturing; it’s how I thought it was best to learn. Once I began teaching to all four learning styles I noticed a difference in my students. They were excited about learning. I have noticed I myself have become more familiar with the material as I prepared to teach to all four learning styles. From personal experience I see how addressing all four learning styles while preparing for your classes is very beneficial to the students and instructor. Chapter 3 Question 3: This chapter introduces to you that lesson planning was an outgrowth of your instructional design. The DID section helped you see the overall organization of your instructional unit, and this lesson plan section helped you address what you would do to achieve the unit on an instructional day-to-day basis. Now identify, describe and use the most common steps in lesson planning. A Lesson plan is essentially a guide for each day of activity in the classroom. Planning a lesson includes four main steps: readying the learners, identifying the target objectives, preparing the lesson, and checking for success. I will use my senior hematology class as an example. Readying the learners includes a review of the learner characteristics to see if they have the needed entry skills listed in the unit design. I teach a junior level hematology class and a senior hematology class. In the first portion of senior hematology I cover some of the junior material. An example of readying the learners would be to give the seniors a pretest, which covers junior material, to see what they retained. The pretest lets me, the instructor, know if they have the needed entry skills. The results of the pretest lets me know how in depth I need to go into the junior material. I could actual give a pretest on each daily topic instead of a pretest before the entire course. After I know the entry skills needed and the entry skills the learners actually possess I need to identify the target objectives for that day’s lesson. The first day in hematology I cover basic red blood cell structure and function. I would pull the objectives from my unit design that covered that topic. I would also reference the Board of Certification (BOC) standards that the objectives are based upon. Now I need to prepare my lesson on red blood cell structure and function. There are three main components to prepare a lesson: prepare the classroom, summarize the plan using the pedagogical cycle steps, and identify and list required technology and materials needed. To prepare the classroom, which is the learning environment, I need to describe what is needed to create the physical learning environment. I need to know what is needed to support my teaching and learning strategies. I would check and see if the classroom was conducive to learning by checking the temperature, seating arrangements, etc. Now it is time to summarize the lesson plan using the pedagogical cycle. The pedagogical cycle allows me to carry out my lesson in terms of the teaching and learning strategies I outlined in the DID procedure. I need to prepare my lesson on red blood cell structure and function; I need to make sure my objectives are covered. Next I would bridge prior knowledge with a brief review of what was covered in junior hematology, followed by introducing new knowledge of the subject matter. Now it is time for an activity to reinforce the new and prior knowledge and to show how they relate. I may have the students diagram the red cell structure or diagram the process of oxygen delivery. Once the activity is done I will review the day’s lesson and assign homework. The review and homework provide practice of the material covered. I have prepared the classroom and summarized the lesson plan, now it is time to identify and list the required technology and materials. If I am lecturing using PowerPoint I need to make sure there is a projector and computer. If I am incorporating any hands on activities I need to make a list of the materials and make sure I have them. Now that my lesson is planned with a list of activities and material needed, it is time to check for success. I need to plan my summative feedback that will be used by identifying specific assessment strategies that will be used to measure the success of the lesson. Referring back to my lesson on red blood cell structure and function, I would give a quiz on that material at the next class meeting. The quiz lets me know if the lesson was successful and gives the students themselves an idea of how well they know the material. The quiz lets me know if remediation is needed and if I need to make any changes to the lesson plan.
5 Comments
Demetric DyAnn Williams
6/10/2016 05:11:22 pm
Hi Anna:
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6/12/2016 04:38:16 pm
The DID model reminded me of the Dick and Carey model as well. I have noticed a lot of instructional design models have the same basic format, some are just more detailed than others.
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6/10/2016 08:38:44 pm
Hi, Anna! I have the advantage of working in the same department as you, here at USM. So, I know exactly what you are talking about when you refer to NAACLS. I do wish that the NAACLS standards were more specific. I feel like they leave a lot to interpretation. I am wondering if my interpretation of the standards and the interpretation of our site visitors will be similar!!
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6/12/2016 04:45:41 pm
I try to find you-tube videos to share, especially in coagulation. They actually incorporate the visual and aural aspects of learning. I started thinking about how I prep for my classes. I actually do use the pedagogical cycle, I just didn't realize it. I start off by creating the overall course design, then I plan out individual lessons.
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Mary Warden
6/12/2016 06:43:00 pm
I was referring to the pedagogical style you are use within each lesson. For example, making sure that I use motivators and build bridges to prior knowledge. These are the two that I need to make sure that I add. Leave a Reply. |
AuthorAnna K. Swann, M.S., MLS (ASCP)CM Blog Roll
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