Teaching Day One (March 16, 2015)

            Last Monday, March 16, 2015, the subject “Teaching in Physical Therapy” was commenced. Several activities were performed to kickoff the program, which included: Role-playing, vide critiquing of our own teaching demo and yoga.

            Role-playing was the first activity we were assigned to do. We had to act out typical presentations of different clients and caregivers. Other students had to take the role of physical therapists (PTs) tasked to teach a specific skill to us. This was quite fun and thrilling since students who were tasked to serve as PTs were caught unaware and had to think off their feet of strategies in order to teach their client. As different cases were presented I took notice of the fact that cases should be taken individually. To teach effectively, we get to creatively choose not just one but integrate the best possible techniques among an array of strategies.

            We then did a video critique of how we taught breathing exercises to a client. I became aware of my strength and weakness as an instructor through this reflection. I realized that we could and should find ways to analyze whether our clients truly learned. I am now cognizant of the need to constantly reflect to be able to do better as a PT.

            To cap off the day, we then had Yoga. Guided by Ma’am Mia Rotor, we got a glimpse of how it was to be instructed and how group teaching of psychomotor skills looked like. I got to be aware of what made me learn and what I could do to make others learn too.

            As future physical therapists, we not just give exercise, we teach them. As simple as it may look, teaching entails one to be creative, objective and flexible to the task, learners and their individual capabilities.