Beyond Teaching

The sessions last Monday were definitely breaths of fresh air from the usual lecture-lab classes that we've been having for the past semesters.

First off, we did role playing, wherein the class was divided into patients and PT's and asked to teach the simulated patients, who had very challenging cases such as third degree burns, global aphasia, etc. This activity showed us how a PT must handle proper facilitation of teaching under difficult circumstances, and highlight that it is for the betterment of the patient. This gave us a taste of how we’d have to act on such cases when we finally get into internship, and it also showed us the reality that our clients will not be as easy to handle as the usual cases we have in our lab exams.

After that we had video critiquing wherein we evaluated our ACBT video from PT 153. This made us look back on how we facilitated learning before we knew of the proper way to do it. Before, we just followed the guidelines and facilitated learning depending on the score sheet. This was able to make us realize that we shouldn't carry this habit as we progress, and that the PT’s role in the learning of the patient is vital, thus we must focus on making the patients fully learn the activities that they need for their conditions.

Lastly, we did modified yoga, wherein we were the learners. This gave us a lot of insight on what the learners need in order to understand the activity optimally, as well as how a good teacher facilitates the learning process. It gave us a lot of points to focus on when we take the role of the teacher, such as different cues, feedback, mirroring, etc. Being on the end of the learner shows us how important the kind of teaching affects the results of progress.

Overall, this was a good chance to correct and improve our teaching style. Also, the sessions were eye openers as to how important it is to facilitate proper teaching and learning; that we don't teach just for the sake of it, but rather, we should teach with the patient's gain in mind, and focus on the fact that they must learn these activities since they need these to improve the quality of their lives.