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In this essay, I will be critically reflecting and evaluating my performance in my teaching session which was delivered online to a nursing student on the topic of diabetes management. I will critique and appraise my chosen aspects of teaching including learning styles and the methods used within my session. I will consider the most effective styles of teaching and the importance of an educator’s role within nursing. Feedback was provided allowing me to reflect on my experience, this can be found in Appendix 1. I will also be reflecting on how my developed knowledge may inform my future practice, considering barriers to teaching, what implications this may have, and what provisions I could make to assist students to learn more effectively upon qualifying as a registered nurse.
I will now introduce the method used in my session to engage student learning. My chosen resource was the use of a PowerPoint presentation (PPP), which is a commonly used method of teaching. Baker et al., (2018) highlight, 67% of university students report the use of PowerPoint in classrooms and lectures. I felt the use of PowerPoint had advantages but also limitations in maximizing students’ learning opportunities which I will now discuss.
Baker et al., (2018) highlight that focusing on PPP as the primary teaching method may lead students to experience the theory practice gap. I feel this may often be seen within nursing due to the nature of the role. Therefore, this needs to be considered within nursing education. Irajpour et al., (2018) cite that students who experience this gap can become disillusioned with the reality of nursing practice and may struggle to adjust to the demands of clinical settings. In future teaching, I understand each student would vary in skills and experience, therefore I may use a PPP to give an overview to ensure the student can grasp basic knowledge on the topic area, however, I would consider the importance of experiential learning (EL) as it underpins a range of different styles of teaching and learning activities including practical based skills and case study discussions. Fry (2014) focuses on the notion that EL is a continuous process of learning for everyone, understanding that we can all bring something in regard to knowledge, ideas, beliefs, and previous experiences. In future practice, my style of teaching would encourage conceptual learning, in which my student can develop both their knowledge and skills through tasks where they must use their knowledge rather than just learn it.
I feel the use of PPP encourages passive learning, Jones (2019) expresses that nursing students retain information better when taught using more interactive methods which is consistent with contemporary education methods and clinical philosophies. I felt this reflected in my teaching session where my student appeared to have limited concentration causing disengagement early on. I felt a possible contributing factor to my chosen topic was the amount of information that I felt I had to include this led to multiple text-heavy slides resulting in a more didactic method of teaching. I felt this highlighted a key learning area, in future practice I will incorporate a variety of teaching methods to help sustain student concentration and student engagement. Hinchcliff (2010) supports this, explaining the importance of varying activities in lectures to help sustain concentration using: handouts, audio-visual aids, and working through case studies to accompany a PowerPoint presentation. Moreover, Fry (2014) adds that providing a stimulating environment engages learners in tasks that are both interesting and meaningful thus increasing intrinsic motivation in their learning. This underlined the importance of adopting innovative teaching approaches to stimulate both active participation and critical thinking.
Nevertheless, Baker et al., (2018) would argue that students prefer learning from PowerPoints as it sustains attention, has structure, and is organized with clear objectives. Multimodal learning could also be a supporting factor in helping sustain concentration levels as Brill (2016) outlines that PPP supports a multimodal approach, presenting information through the projection of different colors, images, videos, sound, and text which is known to help improve both comprehensions and recall for students. PPP supported the structure of my session, I felt I was able to set clear objectives and include the use of various multimodal approaches, however, these factors did not appear to contribute and reflect the effectiveness of my teaching session. I feel the volume of information may have overwhelmed my student which I believe was the key factor in his inability to answer my post-learning questions. In the future, I would make time to ensure the information on my slides is condensed, addressing only key points to prevent any overload. Wilson (2021) supports this idea, stating that teachers should not overwhelm students with too much information at one time and should only focus on key information that students are required to grasp. He adds teachers should not encourage students to push through overloaded memory as this can be counterproductive.
I believe the inclusion of the post-learning quiz was a key advantage, allowing me to evaluate the effectiveness of my session. I feel this was particularly useful being new to teaching as it allowed me to gain both insight and direction on possible key areas to work on for future practice. Dolan (2015) stresses the importance of evaluation in demonstrating what is taught and learned, whilst highlighting what has been missed; evaluation provides necessary information for both the teacher and learner to move forwards. This is essential for both nurses and students as the governing body states that all nurses should participate in self and peer evaluation to facilitate personal development (Nursing
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