Connecting the dots…

As an instructor at the medical school, I often look at our curriculum as a unique thing that allows our students to be intrigued by what they are learning. What I failed to realize is that we are connecting the dots in education to allow our students to be engaged in their education. While watching Seth Godwin’s “Stop Stealing Dreams” I found myself comparing childhood education to my medical students education. It’s really not that different when I look at how the curriculum is taught. He used the example of, good morning boys and girls and good morning Mr. (insert teachers name). For 150 years this was ingrained into the daily schedule as children started the day. This gesture was a way to train children to start the day with respect and obedience. We continue to do this as we progress through our educational journey.

I also found the reflection of comparing work and art intriguing. Students do not like doing work but when you ask them to do art, they typically tend to want to do more. This is not only works for small children but for adult learners. This is why our medical school curriculum works so well. We do not use lecture as the primary method of providing information to our students. We make it an experience that they will not forget. Creative learning is the key to connecting the dots. If students experience something that teaches the principal in which they would have otherwise tried to memorize, in will be ingrained in their minds.

While reading the Sonia Henry “When do medical students lose their empathy” article, I also found myself comparing primary school aged children to my medical students. Often students are taught to memorize so many things they just try to get it all done and lose the human connection with education. This causes a loss of empathy. Children and adult learners often are intrigued with learning new things but when we force them to focus on specific information without an explanation of how it will matter later, often learners lose interest. Human interaction is slowly dissipating due to the use of the internet. Students do not need to be in a face-to-face class anymore because the internet make it possible for everyone to be connected electronically.  But the question is, what are we losing by reducing face-to-face interaction?

Ultimately, I think all educators should be trying to get learners vested in what they are learning. This can be done by connecting the dots. Connecting the dots can be accomplished by using a variety of teaching methods that allow learners to experience what they need to know in a non-traditional way.

Critical Pedagogy

Critical Pedagogy

What does Critical Pedagogy mean?

Critical pedagogy is teaching and learning as a shared interaction to challenge the preconceived knowledge and perceptions leading to individual empowerment and social change.

Group Conception of Critical Pedagogy

Critical Pedagogy can be applied to the following fields:

(Angelica) Educational Leadership & Policy Studies

Critical pedagogy can be applied to educational leadership in several ways. Honestly, the leaders in education should be those that are aware of critical pedagogy and provide teachers in the classroom with the freedom to teach using critical pedagogy. Leadership should help students develop consciousness of freedom and encourage them to take constructive action. Within critical pedagogy, students should recognize authoritarian tendencies and be able to challenge the theory behind what they are learning. By fostering the intent of curiosity in children, one is teaching the learner to continuously learn. An educational leader’s responsibility is to create knowledge by learning “why” and encouraging learners to always ask “why”.

 

(Jon LLoyd) Sociology/Criminology/Peace Studies & Violence Prevention

Critical Pedagogy empowers those who institutions silence, it returns conversation and curiosity to the children whose schools ground it out of them, it invites criticism and skepticism rather than punish it.

I implement critical pedagogy by inviting skepticism of knowledge systems and privileging difficult questions and marginalized knowledge. This might be by showing how “everyday” rituals, beliefs, structures, or practices are rooted in white supremacist ideology, asking provocative and unexpected questions like “Why do overpasses oppress people and who decided that was a good idea?” And it might be as simple as opening the class floor after asking, “Okay, we’ve got a good handle on the problem…now, what do you want to do about it?” In terms of teaching skills, I’m interested by the idea of relating to the familiar. Recently, I’ve read about music educators using hip-hop as a form of critical pedagogy, in particular using lyrical analysis. As my disciplines call special attention to reframing the everyday experience, such an approach might prove exceptionally useful.

 

(Riya) Physics / Science Education

Shifting from traditional lecture based classes to interactive, engaging discussion based classes, where the student and instructor are mutual learners and teachers. Creating a collaborative platform inside and outside the classrooms, where everyone has the opportunity and choice to voice their opinions and ask questions fearlessly. Knowing your students, their limitations and vulnerabilities and incorporating such tools in the lecture that would help them overcome these. Being more than a lecturer in classroom, going beyond the assigned material; engaging students to work together to develop practical experimental set-ups; forcing them to think the importance and relevance of the topic being taught. Practicing learner-based teaching: asking students to form groups and come up with ideas or topics that they would like to be discussed.  The core idea is to empower students through the learning process, to help them become independent individuals with ideas, opinions, and a lot of questions.

 

(John B.) Geology/Natural Sciences

One way of applying critical pedagogy to the natural sciences is how to effectively teach the vocabulary and scientific concepts of a field for an audience at various “skill” levels of the individual students.  In this field, the ability to question concepts to better understand the material in both the classroom and in the real world. Outside the large classroom size of the introductory classes that teaches non-majors, most of the classes are peer-based and utilizes group teaching methods.  With geology being a complex field and a lot of concepts are not readily seen in the real world, opinions are usually welcome at various skill levels to comment and theorize.

 

(Maha) Computer Engineering/Maths

One way of applying critical pedagogy in teaching a math class is to let students go beyond the lecture and ask questions.

http://www.radicalmath.org/ is a link that contains ways of integrating social and economical justice into math classes.

In a computer engineering class (like machine learning), an example of applying critical pedagogy is giving the students a chance and freedom to apply the methods learned in class to their own field. For example, if the student field is transportation/traffic, they can apply “neural networks” to predict the traffic flow on a highway segment.

 

(Pallavi) Sociology/ Post Colonial Studies/ International Development   

Critical Pedagogy is an excellent tool to teach and learn sociological concepts. Sociological concepts include learning about inequalities to address local and global social problems. Addressing the question of inequalities include discussions around gender, race, income, etc. Discussing these topics can lead to emotive responses in the class. To ensure that students learn to critically analyze these societal issues one needs to include various strategies. When I teach my courses before starting any lecture or discussion, I make sure to start with a strong example to demonstrate that this is a ‘real’ issue affecting all of us together. For instance, before discussing gender inequality persisting in society, I will show a documentary analyzing wage gap between both the genders in the US.  These strategies help students to understand and connect to the issue and makes it easier for them to grasp the concepts. In addition to ensuring that the students learn to critically analyze these concepts, I make them engage in various group activities to discuss social issues and possible solution to these issues. These group activities help them to share their learning with each other, and they also learn together, in addition to building the community.

Group 6 Members: (“We’re the best, around! Nothing’s ever gonna keep us down!)

– Angelica Stovall (Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom),

– Riya Nandi (Bell Hooks: Democratic Education, Engaged Pedagogy)

– Maha Elouni (Joe L. Kinchloe, “Moving to Critical Complexity,” in The Critical Pedagogy Primer (2004), pp. 108-110)

Jonathan LLoyd (bell hooks,”Critical Thinking” in Teaching critical thinking: Practical wisdom. Routledge.)

– Pallavi Raonka – Joe L. Kinchloe, “Paulo Freire (1921-1997)” in The Critical Pedagogy Primer (2004), pp. 69-75

-John Bartos – (Paper 3) Paulo Freire: Chapter 2 of Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Advocate and Opportunity

At times like today, when the world is a difficult place to live in, people are afraid of those that should protect them and diversity seems to have become a threat to some, we need to stand up and advocate for our colleagues and students that find themselves struggling. All of us are are of the various unjust things that occur in today’s society but as fellow students and educators, I think we should all be able to discuss such matters and find ways to advocate for those that are having a difficult time just as Dr. Faulkner did.

I often sit and wonder when in class what the person sitting next to me or across from me currently has going on in their life. I myself, have a lot going on and several people do not know what I endure everyday but I keep pressing on. As future educators, it is important that we understand our student population. We should try to be prepared for what issues may occur in their lives, be willing to listen to their worries and concerns, create an avenue for them to be comfortable enough to express themselves and most importantly advocate for their needs. There is no way to be prepared for whatever may cause distress in someone’s lives but just letting students know they can come to you is sometimes good enough.

This week I learned of the “null curriculum” and it has me intrigued. Most professors have a syllabus planned and feel it must be followed exactly with no alterations. This idea of a null curriculum leaves the door open for opportunities for students to discuss current ideas or issues that may be on their minds. Discussion related topics going on in society often lead to unique learning opportunities that within a diverse classroom. Difference of opinion and often just knowledge from a different background can be helpful for students to learn. Creating a classroom where discussion can take place is a way to advocate for those students that may not have another avenue to talk about their feelings or express themselves. Although universities say they welcome inclusion and diversity, they do not often know how to make that smooth transition for all those effected. In my opinion, it is somewhat faculty’s responsibility to help assist in this matter by offering opportunity in the classroom for students to express how they feel.

Health Disparities and Inequities

This week we had a guest speaker that spoke about teaching societal health in local and global contexts. I am familiar with this topic because as an instructor of Interprofessionalism at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, we teach this idea to our medical students. The whole purpose of our Interprofessional curriculum is to teach medical, nursing, and physician assistant students to collaborate and work together as a team to teach communities about and how to prevent healthcare disparities.

One of the major disparities that we have our students focus on is the opioid crisis. In today’s society, there ar so many people struggling with an opioid addiction. Sometimes I sit and wonder who’s fault it is that we are dealing with such a huge epidemic. When patients are in pain, they often go to the hospital or clinic to get pain medication. That is understandable but the issue that comes to mind is, are patients informed on the risks associated with addiction of opioids as well as the side effects, prior to taking them. On the other hand, we have patients that want that immediate pain relief and request medication that will provide them with instant pain relief.

Societies need for instant gratification is one that acerbates over time. Prior to 2000, as a child I played with dolls and toys, stayed outside until the dusk to dawn lights came on, rode my bike and played with my friends. There wasn’t internet in my area nor cell phone service until I was in middle school, so my parents had a house phone. Also my parents cooked us a full course meal for dinner. Now today, everything is instant. Everyone has cell phone with internet access so that they can be reached immediately. It seems as if a response is not immediately provided, someone becomes upset. One of the most flourishing businesses today is fast food. People want quick food so the fast food drive thru lines are always long. And for our youth, they all want internet access to stay connected with friends and to play video games with provides instant gratification.

With the need for instant gratification becoming a norm in society, addictive traits are increasing. When teaching our medical students about healthcare disparities, we find the most vital piece of information that should be provided to patients, is prevention. Patients are so used to receiving instant gratification in their everyday lives that it is hard to explain some treatments work for some but are not worth the risks for others. Yes, opioids provide instant gratification but we are teaching our students how to look out for signs of addiction prior to prescribing.

Years ago, one would have never thought that opioids would become such a huge crisis. Now that we do, policies ad procedures should be created to hold prescribing physicians and patients accountable.  With is concern, education on the topic has become the forefront of the curriculum. My job is to ensure medical students are aware of the disparities that exist as well as how to help prevent them, educate patients on the risks, and last but certainly not least minimize the amount of opioid prescriptions that are distributed. There are multiple health care disparities out in the world and a lot of them are due to the inequities among people. Sometimes people can’t afford the medication that is be for them and sometimes they are afraid to go to the doctor to be seen thinking they will not be able to pay the bill. We must teach future healthcare providers how to work with these patients, provide them with comfort and try to eliminate any bias against people in the community.

Guest speakers:  Dr. Emily Satterwhite, Associate Professor of Appalachian Studies, Department of Religion and Culture, and Dr. Rebecca Hester, Associate Professor, Department of Science, Technology and Society, on “Teaching Societal Health in Local and Global Contexts with a Biosocial Approach”