Let students struggle
?? For the past fortnight, I have been teaching EU SOF medics. We ran the RMLS, ICARE, APUS and Tropical Medicine for SOF Medics courses. It is always a high point in my calendar when we are tasked to train special forces. It is an entirely different experience from teaching non-SOF medics. There is a palpable edge felt in the classroom. In every class I teach, the students always hunger for knowledge. But for the SOF medics, this hunger feels more intense. I have to be at my best to meet this passion for learning that all SOF has.
?? Whenever I see a student struggle as they work through the scenario or learning concept, I feel an innate obligation to step in and give advice or push them in the right direction. The challenge as a medical instructor is to know when to step in. How long do I let them struggle with the task before I give direction on obtaining the allocated outcome?
?? Sometimes, this is as simple as seeing them struggle to lift a stretcher with only three people instead of four. As a Green Beret, I have an instinct to step in and help whenever I see a need to assist. But I have to prevent this instinct whilst teaching.
?? For our Remote Paramedic students, I tend to be quicker to step in to help or advise them as they work through their problem set. When teaching special forces, I tend to let them struggle a bit longer to see if they can work out a solution. Most of the time they do.
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?? This past week, during the Intensive Care for Austere and Remote Environments course, I had to remind myself to let them work through their scenario. They sorted themselves out, but I still offered a quick word of advice or a quick question that forced them to rethink their current plan. ?
?? For the medical instructors out there, my advice for you is to learn how to let your students struggle but always have a left and right limit on how far you will let them wander before you step in. This is a skill that is not taught in instructor courses. But it should be.
The Bottom Line: Be a better instructor....learn how to let your students struggle as long as it continues to enhance their learning.
Wilderness/Austere and Emergency Medicine at Atrium Wake Forest Baptist Health, Clinical Faculty
2 个月I pull a lot of lessons from things like Gallwey’s book and a few others who’ve come before us. Agreed: stepping in too early tends to cripple the discovery of cognitive offloading, decongestion of the clutter, and forming the neural connection to complete the same task when it matters in the future.
at WSP Mining (formerly Golder Associates) - Mining Hydrogeologist UK&I Mining Group Health, Safety & Security Lead
2 个月One of my undergraduate tutors/lecturers would when asked a question along the lines "how should I/we do this" often respond by saying "puff I've vanished, what decision would you make if I was not here?". Some found this extremely frustrating, but it did force us to think about what have we been taught, what information do we have to hand and based on those things what decision would we make. Only after making that choice and seeing the consequence would feedback/support be given. It worked for me!
Clinical Advisor & Curator - critical care nursing in low-resource setting.
2 个月I teach and train qualified health professionals and I've used Schon's concept of reflection in action to justify my willingness to keep the situation calm and let the candidate know that I they have the ability to complete the task and they need to dig deep into their memory and knowledge. Another maxim is "don't make a drama out of a crisis' if the candidate takes longer to perform a skill and shows they can stay calm under pressure or 'think straight' it's all due to the faculty member being confident and able to calculate the risk.