aschoeneweis

Well, once again I have gained knowledge! Never having heard the term conscientization before and still very much struggling as I attempt to type the word correctly, I have completed my readings and will try to place my thoughts so that they make sense to myself and others!

I view conscientization as a type of transformational learning. Our readings discussed Brazilian educator Paulo Freire's sociocultural approach  where a learner becomes aware of oppressive forces in his life, gains personal empowerment through education and eventually becomes part of the process of social change. Freire describes this type of education as problem-posing education. In this approach to learning, dialogue and critical reflection are key. The dialogue of the learners and their expression of their concerns becomes the basis of the content to be taught. Critical reflection is another important element because it allows for continued problem posing and discussion with other learners.

The role of the teacher in conscientization is to be more of a partner or coach. The students are encouraged to think for themselves and should be made to feel that their own ideas are important and worthy of sharing.

When I think of Freire's theory of conscientization, I think BIG! It always involved a political act and resulted in a radical social change (ie combating illiteracy in poor, oppressed countries). I can't imagine attempting such an undertaking. I am curious to know to what degree of resistance that Freire encountered from officials in various countries once they realized that by educating their oppressed, things would never be the same. This truly is "liberating learners".

Transformative Learning...the words themselves generate a mental image of one of my son's toys that starts out as a car and then by twisting and turning certain parts, but never removing any, it becomes a powerful monster figure. Call it a simple analogy or perhaps just a humorous way for me to better understand the concepts.  

Through our readings and class discussions, I understand transformative learning to be an attempt to make sense of our day to day adult experiences. Transformative learning provides new ways to see and understand these experiences. It questions existing assumptions, beliefs, and values of self and the world acquired through life, and requires rational and critical reflection of these assumptions. The purpose of this type of learning is to provide a deeper sense of one's self and ultimately open one to alternative viewpoints. The key to transformative learning is that is requires action.

Attempting to find a specific example of this type of learning in my own life has been a challenge. Part of me believes that every adult would have to experience this type of learning. There is not a person alive that never questioned some belief or value that was drilled into them as a child. Aren't those called the teen years? I guess the key would be if the questioning brought about a more open viewpoint for the person and did they personally grow in the process.

I can never remember having an "a-ha" moment that made me instantly have a broader more accepting view of the world. And I certainly never remember thinking "wow my reflection of this has changed my life". I can look back in my life and see where different life experiences has made me who I am today. One of those is when I lived in Kingsville, Texas. While living there I worked in the small community hospital of this predominently spanish speaking population. I found that I was often unable to asses my patients because I could not understand them. I was constantly putting on the call light to ask for one of the other nurses to come and interpret for me. Often at the nurses station, the staff would be talking in spanish and I wouldn't have a clue as to what they were saying. I had grown up with the attitude of "if they are in our country then they should learn to speak our language". This work experience definitely gave me opportunity to come to grips with that way of thinking. If I stuck with the idea that my patients should know english and then I could help them, nobody was going to win. I only lived there a short time, but I often think about it. In my practice today, I never hesitate or complain about getting an interpreter or the interpreter phone so that the patient can be understood and helped in the best way possible. I also try very hard not to speak alot of english in front of those patients that I know are unable to understand me.

So I guess this is an example of transformative learning. I altered my childhood idea of non-english speaking people and now put it into action at work. I do view transformative learning more of a continuous process. Each day certain interactions and conversations are shaping who I will be tomorrow. I do question if this type of learning isn't just growing up and figuring out who we are and now we have just given it a fancy name.

I always find it intriguing to do assignments that will tell me more about myself or at least confirm what I already thought about myself. Since I was unfamiliar with Pratt and his teaching perspective inventory, I was interested to see in which perspective I would land and then to try and understand what that really meant.

To critically reflect on my perspective on teaching, I needed to think about the various teaching opportunities that presented themselvs daily in my role as a nurse. Teaching is usually done on a one-to-one basis and in a quick time frame. My "students" are either patients or fellow nurses. The majority of my teaching takes place in person but I also spend a great deal of time answering questions via the phone.

My dominant perspective was apprenticeship. After reading the description of this teaching perspective, I had to chuckle. I am just completing orienting a new staff member to our division and it described exactly how I set up her orientation. I used a combination of demonstration and obervation and then slowly began to let her go solo. After having learned about Pratt's different teaching perspectives, I wondered if her teaching perspective lined up with mine or would she have preferred and possibly gained more had I been of another perspective.

My "back-up" perspective was nurturing with a score of 34. After reading the description of this perspective, I hope that I do have a large component of these qualities in my teaching and everyday encounters with others. I hope that I provide an environment that is "safe" for not only my patients but also my colleagues so that they are comfortable to ask me questions or share their ideas.

While I found this information all very interesting, the most interesting part of this was that our professor expected the people with medical backgrounds in the class to fall in the apprenticeship perspective and we did!. This has caused me to do more reflection. Was it expected that we would be in this category because of the way that most medical programs are established with the "see one, do one , teach one" mentality? Have we been brainwashed into thinking that this is the only way one should teach? Or do we as medical professionals seek out this type of teaching in our early years and therefore end up in careers that lend themselves to the apprenticeship teaching style? 

The concept of self-directed learning was very intriguing to me. I enjoyed meeting in a small group and discussing the different ways that we had or were currently seeking out opportunities to learn. It was interesting to discover the similarities in our styles in seeking out new information. After exercises like that, it often makes me wonder if the lists truly represent all self-directed learners or just those that are in education programs.

The idea that all are self-directed learners in one way or another still just doesn't seem correct. I have come across many people that appear to not have any direction and certainly none when it comes to learning. They just seem content to go about their daily lives and just accept things the way they are and never question why or how. It does help to think about self-directed learning beyond just formal education. I had to consider things that at first wouldn't have seemed like self-directed learning but after some thought would most certainly fall in the category of learning. I think that if everyone is a self-directed learner then there are definitley degrees of self-directed learning. Some people are always looking up things or reading about different topics while others have a very small drive to investigate anything new. This notion of mine, however might come from not being able to think outside the box that learning is going on all the time and can come in various forms and ways.

I was looking forward to reading the assigned articles about the brain and adult learning. As I have stated previously, I am fascinated by the human body and how it functions. However as I read the articles, my attention was not so much on the described function of the brain and which part does what  but more on the repeated emphasis on the importance of experiences and how they aid in learning.

I thought about my recent nursing classes and how it was much easier for me to grasp a concept if I had treated a patient with what the lecture was on. I had an experience that I could draw from and therefore was able to expand my knowledge. I have also found  that being able to associate a real life experience definitely helped me with recall of the information at a later date whether it be in caring for a patient or during a test. I also know what it is like to strictly memorize material for a test only to discover that months ( or possibly weeks) later that I can't remember any of it. I hadn't learned it! There is a lot of truth to what the articles were stating, I had "experienced" it myself!

The challenge for me is to move past myself and be able to use this idea for those that I teach. How can I quickly tap into someone's experiences so that I can get them to learn the information that I need them to understand? Or how can one teach a brand new concept if the learner has no prior experience with the topic? I do see the importance of an experience based approach to education but now I need to discover how to use it.

I am also slowly seeing the importance of reflective language in learning. I still struggle with blogging, but I know that this time of reflection is helping me to gain perspective on the material and is in turn helping me to draw on my experiences so that  I can learn the information. It is truly changing how I perceive learning and that is the basis of it all... because learning is change!  

Never having heard of Kolb, I was inerested in learning about his take on how I learn and how others learn. I already had a pretty good idea of  how I study and how I like to learn things, so I was interested to see if the inventory would confirm what I already knew or possibly direct me in another way.

The Kolb Learning Style Inventory was easy to take and I couldn't wait to see what my plotted kite would show me. To my surprise, I landed in what appeared to be a "balanced style kite". I quickly read to see if that was good or not so good. From the reading, it appeared that was what one should be striving for, but then I wondered if that really was the way I learn.

In class I struggled with the whole converging, diverging, assimilating and accommodating grouping. Based on my results, it wasn't clear  as to which category I fit. Looking at the learning cycle, I definitely leaned towards the Reflective Observation (80%). I do like to have the facts before acting or making decisions. I have also found that for me to retain new information that I would like to someday use, I need to understand why it is true. For example if I am learning about a new medication, I am able to remember the name and purpose much more easily if I understand how it works to produce its desired effect.

Plotting where I fit in different learning styles, barely placed me in the Assimilating style. Reading about this style, it did seem to fit me somewhat in that I do like to have logical soundness to information and that I do prefer to formally learn with lectures and readings so that I can have time to reflect on the material on my own. Interestingly, I consider myself very much a people person and enjoy hearing what others have to offer. This is however not a characteristic of those with the Assimilating learning style.

Learning about the various learning styles has been interesting. I hope that I will be able to use this information when working with others. I can see where understanding others learning styles could be especially helpful in group projects. Being able to quickly assess where each member is coming from would help move the group towards their goal in a more orderly and timely manner and perhaps without the drama that often accompanies group work.

I would need to have a much firmer handle on this material before I would probably be able to use it successfully to resolve conflict or to help with communication challenges. I guess that would be my need to reflect more on it! Having this knowledge does however help me to understand a little about my children and their study skills or what I had previously perceived as lack of study skills. Now I can convince myself that they truly are learning but in their own learning style! 

It has taken me a little bit of time to truly gather my thoughts conerning how demographics, globalization and technology have impacted learning within my work setting. Perhaps the biggest hindrance has been that this is a new way of thinking and writing for me. Being in the medical profession, my writings are strictly based on facts and the evidence that supports it. This assignment has forced me to step out of the usual and explore beyond. My work setting is different plastic and reconstructive ambulatory clinics within the VCU Health System. Demographics, globalization and technology have each in some way impacted learning within my current work setting.

When examing the impact of demographics on learning in my work, I realized it was hugely impacted by the large influx of the Hispanic population within our surrounding area. This population presents the challenges of not only helping them to learn about their medical condition but also the educational challenge for the medical staff to be able to converse with them. VCUHS offers medical Spanish classes free of charge for the staff to help with the language barrier. There are also interpreter phones within each locality so that the medical staff can have a conversation with the patient or family member with the aid of a live interpreter. Most of the mandatory documents required by The Joint Commission ( an authoritative agency for hospital accreditation) are posted in both English and Spanish in all clinics. As a nurse, I must now take into consideration the cultural background of my patient when I am educating them, especially when suggesting altering diets.  I must also be aware that often the non-educated Hispanic population has no understanding of the preventative care that has become the standard of care in the USA. The other huge impact of demographics is the increase in the number of people in our population over the age of 65. In the medical professon this has and will continue to pose a big challenge. We have focused a large screening effort for all of our patients concerning their risk for falls and take this opportunity to educate them on fall preventions. Our education concerning medical conditions such as hypertension and diabetes have been stepped up due to seeing the long term complications in our elderly related to these diseases. In fact, we have begun to focus much more on educating the public on the prevention of the disease to avoid the complications. 

Globalization and its economic effects within my current work setting have had little direct impact since I am involved in the service side of healthcare,  We did have a shortage of gloves within our facility and it was due the manufacturer in China having to close their plant during the Olympics to control the air pollution. This illustrates the impact of globalization in the medical supply sector. There are a substantial number of medical students from foreign countries at VCUHS. One in particular is from South Africa and upon completion of his education here, plans to return to his home to provide care in the impoverished areas. I did experience some globalization effects when I lived in Texas. I was about 100 miles from the Mexican border and  the small community hospital that I worked in would routinely have Mexicans crossing the border to have their babies in our hospital.They knew that they and their baby would receive the best medical care.

Out of all the areas, I believe technology has had the biggest impact on learning within my work setting. With the vast advancements made in technology, the medical profession now has access to the most current information regarding any condition at the click of a button. Printed educational information for the patient is ready at discharge. We may obtain records via fax for patients that are coming to our practice as a referral from another physician. This allows our staff to learn about the patient and their condition before actually meeting them. We are able to reach our providers for consultation on patient care via cell phone or e-mail at anytime. We  receive and send digital pictures of our patients wounds so that we can  alter the current treatment plan if necessary. We can participate in learning exercises via on-line courses. We are kept up to date on current medical concerns such as the H1N1 flu via mass e-mails. The medical profession can also share information with the use of the numerous collaborative tools on the internet such as blackboard, powerpoints, Wiki and Blogs. I no longer go to the library in search of a medical book, instead  I do my research on-line and have access to thousands of current journals. There is currently a big push at VCUHS to computerize all of our charting. This would allow every provider caring for a patient to have full access to the patient's entire chart.This goal has prompted quite a bit of learning for the entire medical staff to become familiar with the computer. The use of the computer and the internet have also provided more educated patients concerning their conditions. It has also brought to light, the big gap between the more affluent, educated population and the less educated people.This has forced my profession to take the time to asses where each patient is on the learning curve and then individualize the paitent's education.