Our class goes through a fitness assessments course in which they are examining the overall health of a potential personal training client. At the end of the class they take a mock client through an entire fitness assessment to evaluate their overall health.
By looking at each individual part of the assessment the student begins to get a clear picture of what exactly may be wrong with the client, if anything, and what areas of improvement need to be focused on.
The client starts out as a blank canvas from which we have no judgement. By the end of the hours session the student has completely broken down the client and the separate parts of their health much as we examine different pieces of a puzzle to put them together. At the end there is a clear picture and the puzzle is put together. At this time the student has had a large active learning environment that has relied heavily upon analytical activities.
Our Personal Training Program is based largely on analytical thinking. In our fitness assessments class, for example, our students will perform what is called an Overhead Squat Assessment. With this assessment our students look at clients performing a specific movement pattern to analyze any distortions or movement discrepancies in what is considered the proper movement pattern.
This is just the beginning. We start by showing them how to notice the movement discrepancies, no matter how small they are. Guiding the students through this allows them the opportunity to get a grasp on what they should be looking for and how it effects the rest of the movement and potential injuries in kinetic chain.
Each step of the process looks at a specific body part. When discrepancies are seen, they are noted. From here the student looks at all the discrepancies from all of the separate body parts. The student can then determine what area of the body may be most crucial in fixing to prevent injury.
Looking at movement patterns is very similar to a puzzle. One has to look at each piece, put them together, then look at the body as a whole in order to find out what exactly is going on and how the student can fix it.
When teaching the anesthesia machine I will put it together wrong or leave a leak that the students must find and fix before it can be used on a patient.
I present case studies, and there are a couple I've used where things go horribly wrong in the patient scenario. I break the class into groups and have them see if they can figure out what and when things went wrong. Once we've established that I go on with asking what should have been done instead.
After presenting the most critical points to a pathology, I like to put my students in groups and have them analyze the problems for this patient. Further they have to figure out, what techniques/activities they would use, that are appropriate for this patient. e.g. a Tetraplegic patient (level C7), with what technique (using all muscles that are available) transfering from wheelchair to the bed.
We use this all the time in Phlebotomy. When a student tries to draw blood from another student and doesn't get it, I have them think about what could have happened, ex. missed vein, through the vein or no vaccum in the tube.
Hi Gary,
Applying knowledge in the classroom as to things students will encounter in the real world is great tactic to utilize to ensure our students are thoroughly prepared.
Patricia Scales
With students keeping in mind the core principles behind the demonstration, we work through outcomes, better and not so good, in their products. Then we use what they know to "try on" different solutions. Students learn that if they test and apply basic things they do know, they learn to anticipate and even control outcomes.--Gary O. Ackerman
Hi Matthew,
Awesome, this assignment certainly has great student involvement, and I can certainly see how the students must have to think both critically and analytically.
Patricia Scales
For an American Literature course, Socratic Seminars can be a powerful learning tool. The instructor creates a larger question that must be answered about a piece of literature, and a short list of smaller questions that can lead into or help students formulate answers to the larger questions. Students then use the text and/or outside resources to answer that question as homework, finding examples to back up their answers.
Then they participate in a roundtable discussion during the next class period--they must lead the discussion, and their goals are to debate their viewpoints using the examples/evidence they have found. The instructor does not participate in the discussion unless it stalls and he or she needs to use one of the smaller questions to jump start discussion again.
While students are discussing the topic, the instructor uses a basic rubric to grade each student on number of times participating, use of examples/evidence, cooperation in letting all students participate, professionalism, etc.
This can be used in any class where a controversial issue or topic could be drawn from the material.
Hi Carrie,
Awesome exericse! Everyone can benefit from an assignment as such. You can really see how your time is wasted/valued. I like the ideas of making modifications the next go round to improve time management.
Patricia Scales
I teach a lesson on time management that requires students to spend one full week tracking their time to illustrate where their time goes each week, how much of their time was used wisely (or not) and where they might make improvements. The first step in the process is to teach them how to make a master schedule and the activity is the making of their schedule. Then they begin the week tracking their time and at the end of the week, they have 168 hours to account for. Often they find after analyzing how they were supposed to spend their time and how they actually spent their time differ drastically. When they are able to identify the reality of their daily activities they are then able to recreate another master schedule that is more realistic and try the tracking of another week to make improvements where they identified problem areas in their first master schedule. The ultimate goal is to help students schedule their daily activities in a productive manner that will help them accomplish their goals and be mindful of the time involved in accomplishing said goals.
Hi JanetMarie,
What a great way to expand upon the scientific method right there on campus. It sounds like your students enjoy this assignment and great learning takes place as well.
Patricia Scales
While teaching the scientific method, I challenge the students to create an experiment to see how many species of birds inhabit the school's community garden. The students work in groups of 4, develop their experient then exchange experiments with another group. They conduct the experiment and analyze whether is was a well planned experiment. It works really well because it allows the students to see the value of the scientific method.
I could use chocolate (assuming I don't eat it all myself) to encourage students to be more specific about their descriptions. I'd have to work out the logistics rather carefully--the taster has to describe specifically enough for another taster to distinguish which of the two samples matches the first. So describer has one piece and taster has at least two, one of which is the same as the describer. And I need a way to keep track of what matches. Hmmm. Better also have some alternatives for people who don't eat chocolate or sugar.
Hi Jetonga,
I like the questions you present to your students. These are questions as they pertain to the real world.
Patricia Scales
Hi Theodore,
With accounting you are right there is much thinking that goes into that course. Students have to be very precise and know where to place numbers so that financial statements are accurate.
Patricia Scales
Hi Trish,
When voctional training is involved. It is good when you can provide hands-on activities as they apply to the students career.
Patricia Scales
I teach accounting and accounting gives the students plenty of opportunities to use analytical thinking. Analytical thinking must be employed in order to create reports such as the income statements and balance sheets. The students have to study the different accounting accounts to determine how to arrange the accounts in the proper order to solve the problem of creating the different accounting statements.
Hello All,
I currently teach a medical coding class and so some ways that I engage students in active learning is to encourage discussion of various concepts after I have lectured. If I am not mistaken the course referred to this type of activity as a way to "activate" active learning in traditional lectures. Also, once lecture has been completed, I do have the class to break into small groups of 3 and 4 to work on different coding examples from the textbook. This gives the students an opportunity to see how others would have applied the coding process to a particular coding scenario. They are also able to ask each other questions, especially as it relates to identifying the main terms in the different scenarios.
I also ask the students questions about the lectures to make sure that they are paying attention and are making an effort to retain what was discussed. Some questions would include: Why is it so important for medical coders to use the correct coding process? What happens if an incorrect code is submitted on a claim form? Basically I ask questions that allows the student to think about the entire picture of coding.
