I give students the tools to succeed and I give them the opportunities to be creative with their plate presentations.
Hi Warren,
Students really do love the hands-on portion of any course. Hands-on activities make the course interesting and fun.
Patricia Scales
In our Drivability course we have a day where we bug the cars and they have to figure out why they don't start. It's the first time they have had to apply what they have learned in a practical situation. Most students love it.
Hi Niel,
What a great activity. This is exactly what the students will be doing in the real world. You are doing what needs to be done to get your students job ready.
Patricia Scales
In small groups of 3 - 4 students, each team is given a theme and list of ingredients to create a small plated banquet of 3 courses for 20 people. In addition to creating the menu, they must write out all recipes, equipment lists, BEO's, and cost all recipes. Once this is accomplished I add twist that one of the main attendee's to the event has some sort of food allergy or dietary request, usually vegan, to which they need to plan for.
Hi Rochelle,
Wow, you certainly get your students prepared for the workplace. You do not leave any stone unturned. Your students will be ready once they finish the course. I love how you make this learning apply to the real world. This is exactly what students will encounter in a dental practice. KUDOS for thoroughly peparing your students and getting them ready for success. You do a fine job with generating critical/analytical thinking.
Patricia Scales
Hi DANIEL,
Awesome approach! I can tell your students learn a lot from this type of teaching method. Lecture, do, and review with question/answer session. I love this teaching practice.
Patricia Scales
what i do is lecture for a short time and when we are done we go to lab and do what we just lecture on and when we are done we go back to class and go over what we did and ask questions
The office systems computer course I teach for our Dental Assisting program is very lab intensive and involves both analytical and critical thinking skills. The fun part is watching the students use both components to discover and develop their NON-CLINICAL skills; this class is geared toward developing and enhancing their business office skills, which is a concept most students don't really consider when they enroll in the DA program.
Having varied levels of clinical courses, most students are able to grasp the basic understanding of certain dental procedure. My course introduces coding and computer applications of that knowledge. Our classes are a mix of guided lecture and then practical application.
To begin the course, we discuss the natural progression of customizing the office information in the software. They practice applying this in a case study.
Next, we enter basic procedure code information and then the associated fee schedules.
Third, we begin enter a patient data base. This application involves learning how to add single patients as well as families.
Next, we discuss two or three different types of insurance models and practice entering that information.
As we introduce each unit, they practice entering this information and then they are given random case studies to apply. The students are challenged to remember the ORDER of how to best enter the information, how to modify any errors in data entry, and also how to determine if any information provided is even practical or necessary for data entry.
The basics of data entry may remain the same from patient to patient; however, any one patient case may differ from another because of individual patient cases (treatment, insurance, payments, etc.). They must not only develop their anayltical skills to remember the order of data entry, but also critical thinking skills to know how to obtain the necessary information for correct development of the patient file.
Analytical skills are further developed when we teach the insurance and billing unit because they learn how to manage patient financial accounts. In this unit, they must apply skills to understand primary and secondary insurances, coding billing and patient payments, and how to interpret quesions or problems with patient balances. In this unit, accurate data entry is extremely important as it affects the business cycle of the dental office.
In the comprehensive scope of these units, students are able to see how the clinical treatment and business office applications integrate for the functioning dental office.
Hi Donna,
You have it! I love how you are trying to get your students use to just simply trying. You are really do an exceptional job with teaching your students about analytical/critical thinking. Students have to get use to thinking on their own.
Patricia Scales
Hi Steven,
Love it! This is learning as to how it applies to the real world. Students will know exactly what is expected of them in the workplace. You can really test your students knowledge base this way to determine if they are going to be ready to perform in the workplace.
Patricia Scales
Hi Fedele,
Great way to help students grasp by lecturing, demonstrating and then having the students perform.
Patricia Scales
I teach diagnostics also and create bugs for them to fix. What I do is give them a customer complaint as you would get in a shop and they have to find what is needed to repair it and explain to me why this will fix the car.
So many students today have never made decisions for themselves or learned to think things through. Parents hover over children and don't allow the freedom to become discerning.
I teach a clinical course that requires a significant amount of critical thinking and appropriate application. We practice a lot of simulated experiences with patients on one another. I make up possible scenarios (usually very extreme) so if/when the student encounters concerning conditions they aren't as apprehensive.
I believe students get roadblocked when they are afraid to fail at a task or do something wrong. I spend a lot of time encouraging students to "just try". We learn through our mistakes and adversity. It's the difficult things that make us better. Students often act as a barrier to themselves, fear holds them up. By giving them permission to mess up and try again they learn to think for themselves and reason things out. The more they engage their analytical skills, the better they become at application.
I will do a short lecture and then a demonstration on CAM profiles and how to measure, record, and map them. Then I set the students to work on engines with different cams in them and I have them measure the cam profiles. Then using the data they collected I have them determine what CAM is in the engine they are working on given the data they collected vs the data available on all the different CAM profiles.
Hi Darren,
Students tend to have a better understanding through the use of lecture, then lab, and then re-explaining. Students must know the importance of being precise.
Patricia Scales
After completing labs and covering lecture we go back to having students figure out what is so critical that engine components are assembled properly, explain what will happen if they are off by just a few thousands of an inch
Hi James,
You never know unless you try! Keep being creative and thinking out of the box. Most students like variety!
Patricia Scales
Thank you Patricia. They are excited about it, also challenged. When proposed it was met with several "really's?" by the class. When you deviate from the "road map" there are exciting results and surprising responses. :)
Hi Donald,
Awesome analogy! This is exactly how I was taught in Alegbra very analytical process. This typically makes sense to students.
Patricia Scales
