There is No Sage on The Stage Here - #1

 

 This Odd Couple is off and running in our teaching adventure with first year nursing students at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital.  This is our second week and we have been surprised; it is going extremely well. [John, the pessimist, thinks we must be doing something wrong - it won't last;  and Tony, the English optimist, thinks "Naturally. Trust me, I am a doctor."

                                                                                                                                                                                                              We are teaching in the same areas as we have before - Psychology, Ethics, Neurology and Sociology, but we have integrated the syllabuses into a Problem Based Learning [PBL] Format.    This approach to learning formed the basis for medical programmes at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada and has been evolving since the late 1960's.

PBL is a collaborative learning model where the students learn together through designed Paper Problems.   Research has indicated that co-operative, collaborative learning:

• promotes student learning and academic achievement

• increases student retention
• enhances student satisfaction with their learning experience
• helps students develop skills in oral communication
• develops students' social skills
• promotes student self-esteem

• Guarantees a rich and happy life.  [NOT! - just seeing if you are reading.]

It is quite different from "problem solving", and the goal of learning is NOT to solve the problem which has been presented.  Rather the problem is used to help students identify their own learning needs as they attempt to understand the problem, to pull together, synthesize and apply information to the problem, and to begin to work effectively to learn from group members as well as tutors.   [McMaster PBL Handbook , Allyn Walsh]

Tony and I [aided by our expert consultants, Marilyn and Bernice] spent many hours designing our paper people and their problems to reflect the syllabuses of our courses.   Naturally [to physicians, that is], the medical area formed our broad focus for the six cases.  Then we flavoured them with the major issues from other courses, such as sociology and ethics.

 

We were really worried, as with PBL there are no lectures. [Actually, this requires as much change for Tony, alias "I can talk about fifty unrelated issues in a one hour period" and John, alias "I can't believe I preached for 50 minutes" as for the students.]  Throughout the Guyanese educational experience, an expert talking head has always been the main pedagogical tool; the students may not even have had a textbook, so had to write furiously.   This is the reliable Tabula Rasa approach of filling empty vessels [sometimes called students] with the right knowledge.   Research in learning has shown this might possibly be the worst method for the quality and quantity of educational benefit!

Rather than talk about what PBL is ..... we designed a "Fluff" case,  we called our paper person, Jackie.  Here is the first page of her story: 

Jackie is about to begin her "lifelong dream" - nursing school.  But she is worried that she won't be able to afford all the costs.  Her family have no money, and her new boyfriend is not working.

A trusted friend tells her of an extremely rich couple who want someone to have a baby for them!   Their only requirement is that the baby must be a light-skinned girl.

They are willing to pay the mother enough money so that she would never have to work again for he rest of her life... 

From the story begins a journey into genetics, anatomy, conception, contract pregnancy, beneficence, class wealth and power [or lack thereof], maternal attachment and ......   In their small groups the students determine what they already know and form questions on what they need to know.. and then they are off to the library, internet, and staff in the hospital who serve as living resources.  [An aside:  in the past, first year nurses were not permitted on the wards or other patient areas -- another rule bites the dust in the pursuit of education!]   We are creating havoc ..... and the students love it.  To quote a self-proclaimed "brilliant "English psychiatrist", 

"We came full of trepidation, with a folder of 'Problems' we had written ourselves (we were both tutors at McMaster medical school for many years).  To our delight, the students are loving it - they are totally burning with curiosity to find out what the patient is suffering from!"

 

Well, I think that his is enough serious stuff for now... I may add another PBL blog as we go along.  Tony and I are so excited and pleased with our progress that it's hard to believe -- but wonderful.   Stay tuned!