Teaching Strategies - Term Paper Example

? Teaching Strategies s 11th August The effectiveness of any teaching strategy is based on the level at which the students are able to utilize their critical thinking skills and thus, the most appropriate teaching strategy aids students in developing their thinking skills at levels that are higher than knowledge and comprehension. This paper presents teaching strategies that will be used in implementing the teaching objectives for a 50-year-older educated man recently hospitalized with stage 2 infected diabetic foot ulcer secondary to diabetes neuropathy. The objectives of the teaching strategies are to equip the patient with knowledge on how to take care of a wound, general foot inspection, proper self-care management such as blood glucose monitoring and self-insulin administration, and compliance with dietary restrictions, and weight management. Introduction Marzano (2010) stated that during the late 1980s, various educationists across the World had created a strong campaign against the traditional teaching strategy that was seen more of exam-oriented, since it emphasized more on developing cramming skills among the students instead of critical thinking skills. This made majority of the students to lack skills in solving certain problems and even apply logical reasoning in certain instances. It is because of these reasons that various teaching strategies have been developed so far by various education stakeholders with the main aim of helping students to develop their thinking skills at levels that are higher than knowledge and comprehension. Moreover, skills on critical thinking have been greatly emphasized since even the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission has incorporated critical thinking skills as a one of the learning outcomes in nursing programs. In actual sense, Weston (2009) described critical thinking as the ability to think in a rational, objective, and independent manner, in order to come up with credible and worthwhile course of actions or conclusions. Weston (2009) in his writing further added that students should follow at least six steps in order for them to become critical and logical thinkers and these steps include acquiring knowledge and perfect understanding of the topic that requires critical thinking. Secondly, the students will need to learn logic, which is the ability to construct argument and deduce meaningful conclusions. Thirdly, the students will need to learn assertiveness in order to become assertive in the criticisms that they make. The fourth step for students to become critical and logical thinkers is for them to learn comprehension, which is the ability to understand what they see/ watch and read. Fifthly, Weston (2009) stated that a critical thinker has to know about alternatives to ensure the thinking process bear valid conclusions. Lastly, Weston (2009) stated that for students to become critical and logical thinkers they have to synthesize all separate thoughts to come up with something that is critical and logical. The frameworks of most learning theories have been aligned to ensure that learners are able to go through these steps of becoming critical and logical thinkers. Furthermore, application of the learning theories as well as the level of integration of the steps of becoming a critical and logical thinker, factor in that people have numerous forms of intelligence in different degrees. In the writings by Hunt (2011), he listed the seven forms of intelligence and they comprise of spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic, body-kinesthetic, musical, and logical-mathematical. The learner The casing point for this paper is a 50-year old educated man recently hospitalized with stage 2 infected diabetic foot ulcer secondary to diabetes neuropathy. According to Mathews et al (2008), the man’s condition is attributed to the diabetes disease that he is suffering from, which facilitated the development of the diabetic neuropathy that commonly affects the feet of a diabetic patient. However, it is important to note that it is only uncontrolled diabetes that damage the nerves of a diabetic patient, and if the nerves on the feet are damaged, it means that the patient will not be able to feel any pain, heat, or coldness on the feet. In specific, foot ulcer is caused by the damaged nerve and peripheral vascular disease (Mathews et al. 2008). Thou the man is educated it is practically impossible to state whether he is intelligent or not and if he is intelligent it is impossible to tell his type of intelligence. This is because intelligence has a distinct character that is different from knowledge and abilities that are developed through the education process (Jackson and Newberry, 2011). Thus, it does not necessarily mean that an educated man is naturally intelligent but it is of essence to note that intelligence is a key component for learning things are originally centered on education. In the writings by Pritchard and Woollard (2010), they provide a solution to such an impasse by stating that an encounter with a person and even an assessment of his thinking or reasoning can tell whether he is intelligent or not. Nevertheless, this study will assume that the 50-year-old man is intelligent because of the fact that he was able to successful go through the education system; whilst it has been noted above that intelligence is crucial component for successful learning that are educationally oriented. With reference to the writings by Hunt (2011), it can be stated that an educated man bear certain general forms of intelligence that include interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, and linguistic intelligence. Teaching strategies With reference to the writings by Peg (2011), she stated that the process of critical thinking comprises of various concept that include analysis, evaluation, interpretation, and explanation. Peg (2011) further added that the critical thinking process comprises of the higher-level objectives and lower levels objectives. In the case of a 50-year old educated man with stage 2 infected diabetic foot ulcer secondary to diabetes neuropathy, he will require to meet the lower level objectives of critical thinking. This is because the health care workers are only required to teach him about wound care, general foot inspection, proper self-care management such as blood glucose monitoring and self-insulin administration, and compliance with dietary restrictions, and weight management. However, considering that under the Bloom’s Taxonomy there are six cognitive levels of complexity, Jackson and Newberry (2011) suggested that it is best to develop the patient’s higher-level critical thinking skills in order to go beyond his level of knowledge and comprehension. This will ensure the patient easily gain knowledge and understanding in case there is need for him to know more about advanced wound care, general foot inspection, proper self management, and compliance with dietary restrictions and weight management. Under the first objective of the teaching strategy, which is teaching the patient about wound care, the health care workers will integrate general theories that will require the patient to take notes from the educator and even under take some practical on wound care. The notes issued by the educator will act as a guide/ instructions on how the patient will care for the wound and a permanent reference point that would ensure the patient independently takes care of his wound. The use of practical lessons will enable the patient to apply what he was taught in the theory classes and it will incorporate a simulation experience whereby the patient will be given a life-like model of stage 2 infected diabetic foot ulcer so that he can train on caring for the wound. An instructional video demonstrating on wound care of stage 2 infected diabetic foot ulcer will also be used to reinforce the theory as well as the practical and this will enable the patient to construct his own knowledge. The second objective of the teaching is general foot inspection and the strategy that will be applied in this stage is similar to the strategies stated above for wound care. In the application of the teaching strategies, the educator will explain to the patient on what a normal foot looks like and even how a stage 2 infected diabetic foot ulcer looks like. The strategies will incorporate theory so that the patient can know about the symptoms of a stage 2 infected diabetic foot ulcer. In addition, theory will inform the patient how to respond when certain symptoms develop so that he can be able to prevent a full-blown wound. Instructional videos will also be applied in order to demonstrate how to conduct independent general foot inspection. In the third objective, the teaching will focus on proper self-care management such as blood glucose monitoring and self-insulin administration. The strategy that will be applied here is the use of theory lessons issued by well-trained and experienced healthcare workers. Secondly, the strategy will require the patient to practice checking his own blood glucose levels and even personally administering his insulin medication. Through in-class practice on self, the patient gets an opportunity to apply practically what he has learnt in the theory lessons, thereby ensuring that he can independently take care of himself. The fourth objective is teaching the patient about compliance with dietary restrictions and weight management. The strategy that will be applied while teaching this will incorporate theory lessons as well as the use of instructional videos. The focus of this strategy will be explaining to the patient on simple tricks on how to comply with dietary restrictions and even how to manage his own weight. As a reinforcement strategy, the educator will demonstrate and explain to the patient on the consequences or the detrimental effects of failing to comply with dietary restrictions and managing his weight within a desirable level. Rationale for teaching strategies The teaching strategies that have been recommended above fully comply with constructivism learning, and in the writings by Pritchard and Woollard (2010), they stated that the development of constructivism learning and teaching practices is purely drawn or developed on the frameworks stipulated by the constructivist learning theory. Therefore, constructivism learning and teaching practices are based on the premise that the learning process should be designed in a manner that will add on the basic knowledge that the learners already have, which is known as schema. Because of this fact, theory suggests that the constructivism learning should allow learners to engage fully in the process in order to ensure that the learning process is effective. This active participation creates a sense of self-worth amongst the students and it even trains learners about independent learning whereby they are in full control of their learning process. In this regard, Pritchard and Woollard (2010) further added that under constructivism teaching, educators are required to guide the learners on how to retrieve relevant information from various sources to aid in the learning process, and even tackle challenges that might arise while learning. The teaching strategies were basically framed in a three-dimension model whereby the first dimension was under the theory lessons, which aimed at giving the learners a background knowledge on what is required and a guide on how to independently manage or carry out the teaching objectives. The second dimension focused on reinforcing what was learnt in theory lessons using instructional videos, which enabled the patient to construct his own knowledge and sharpen his critical thinking skills. The third dimension, applied the use of practical to enable learners think on their own but with the supervision of their educators, which enabled them to practice being independent. According to Marzano (2010), the three-dimension model of active learning stimulates excitement in a learner, which encourages him to further think for himself on other suitable measures that he can apply to improve his personal comfort whilst taking care of his stage 2 infected diabetic foot ulcer. Appendix Learner Objective Objective level Content applicable in the objective 50-year old educated man recently hospitalized with stage 2 infected diabetic foot ulcer secondary to diabetes neuropathy Teach wound care Application Lecture notes on wound care. Demonstrate using a life-like model of stage 2 infected diabetic foot ulcer. Watch instruction video on you tube on wound care management General foot inspection Application Provide lecture notes and a demonstration with the patient’s foot. Watch a You Tube video about general foot inspection. Proper self management Application Provide lecture notes. Ask the patient to practice on himself proper self-care management Compliance with dietary restriction and weight management Affective Provide lecture notes with the DOs and DON’Ts. Demonstrate effects of failure to comply. References Hunt, E. (2011). Human Intelligence. New York: Cambridge University Press Jackson, D. and Newberry, A. P. (2011). Critical Thinking. Stamford, Connecticut: Cengage Learning Publication Marzano, R. J. (2010). Mounting Evidence of ActivClassroom Impact on Student Achievement. Englewood, CO: Marzano Research Laboratory. Mathews, D. Meston, N. Dyson, P. Shaw, J. King, L. and Pal, A. (2008). Diabetes. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press Peg, T. (2011). Critical Thinking: An Appeal to Reason. UK: Taylor & Francis Pritchard, A. and Woollard, J. (2010). Psychology for the Classroom: Constructivism and Social Learning. London: Routledge Publications Weston, A. (2009). A rulebook for arguments. (4th edition). Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company.   Read More