Strategize Your Teaching Activity

Last Monday, the students of PT 138 were asked to make an individual instructional design for their upcoming group or individual teaching activity. My group members and I were assigned to make an instructional design for a fitness program. Our clients were CAMP administrators. The morning session focused on formulating objectives of the learning activity. We were tasked to make an objective for each learning domain – cognitive, psychomotor, and affective. The afternoon session focused on identifying the content, teaching strategy, and evaluation strategy.

Doing an instructional design made me realize that it was hard to be a teacher. The huge amount of effort a teacher puts into making an instructional design is just half of the whole teaching activity.  There is the other half, the execution of instructional design. I also realized that an instructional design is a vital part of teaching because it lets you organize your thoughts and plan your activity efficiently. It is important for physical therapists to plan the teaching activity carefully because clients may have cognitive deficits.

In the future, I will definitely make an instructional design when I’m teaching an activity. I will practice constructing an instructional design so I’ll be better when the time comes that I have to teach a real client. I will be more creative and patient when doing an instructional design. I will also consider the preference of the client and try to incorporate it to the activity. Lastly, I will also take into account what is the level of learning of my client so I can choose what strategy that will better facilitate the learning of my client.