Susan Toth-Cohen, PhD, OTR/L

Associate Professor & Director, Occupational Therapy Doctoral Program Jefferson College of Health

Professions Thomas Jefferson University

Tracey Vause Earland, MS, OTR/L

Clinical Coordinator Center for Applied Research on Aging and Health

A New Twist on an Old Learning Tool

Learning through Discussion

1987 2007

Learning through Discussion format (adapted from William Fawcett Hill, 1977 —see separate page for details).

Learning Through Discussion

• Outline for Preparation: (Write out and bring to class)

• Step One: Definition of terms and concepts: List all of the words of which you are unsure. Look them up and write down their definitions.

• Step Two: Statement of author's message: Write down your version of a general statement of the author's message, in a paragraph or two.

http://www.d.umn.edu/~ppederse/psy3215/learndiscuss.html

Adapted from William Fawcett Hill's Learning Through Discussion: Rabow, J., Charness, M.A., Kipperman, J., & Radcliffe-Vasile, S., 1994 - by LeAne Rutherford, UMD's Instructional Development Service. Also adapted for OT555, Older Adults and Their Living Environments by Susan Toth-Cohen (parts in italics are what I changed or added)

Learning Through Discussion

• Step Three: Identification of major themes: Identify the subtopics of the article

• Step Four: Discussion of major themes and subtopics: Write out a brief statement of the subject matter of each subtopic.

• Step Five: Integration of material with other knowledge: Write down the meaning or usefulness the material has in relation to other concepts or information that you previously learned. You may want to think about what other ideas the material substantiates, contradicts, or amplifies.

Learning Through Discussion

• Step Six: Application of the material: Write down how the material can apply to your own life or clinical practice situations -past, present, or future-or what implications the article has for your own professional development or knowledge-building intellectual interests or pursuits.

Main focus for the Older Adults and Their Living Environments course

Graduate-Level Course in

Occupational Therapy

• Course Focus is on:– Gaining an in-depth and advanced understanding of older adults and the

environments in which they live – Evaluating effects of different environments (home, adult day care,

nursing home) on the older adult’s ability to perform everyday activities given a range of physical and cognitive conditions.

– Using different person-environment theoretical frameworks and examine the implications for occupational therapy intervention and research.

Course Instructors:Tracey Vause Earland, MS, OTR/LSusan Toth-Cohen, PhD, OTR/L

Older Adults and Their Living Environments

9 students

- Learning through Discussion format (Rabow, et. al., 1994) is used as a basis for online, onsite, and field classes. Students present and facilitate discussion of assigned article

– The assigned articles drawn from disciplines including occupational therapy, environmental gerontology, and neuroscience

– Students chose article based on their interest,from a collection of articles chosen by instructors

• Blackboard

• 2 meetingsin class

• Field visits

• Online(synchronous)

More about the Course

Class Format

• All classes except for introduction and presentation of final projects used the Learning through Discussion format

• Half of the discussions took place at clinical sites (older person’s home, assisted living center, senior center)

• Other half used Synchronous learning program-- Elluminate!Live

Consensus on Format Student-Developed Guidelines

• As a group, we decided that only the student leader and the instructors would use microphones

• After the first session, students completed a survey of leader characteristics they felt were especially important for the online Learning through Discussion classes

Student Recommendations for Peer LeaderSkills solicited after first online class LTD

• Do some further reading if necessary to clarify any points that seem unclear

• Have a well thought out plan and direction for the discussion

• Monitoring time is key to a productive power point-- allowing enough time for the answering of questions but also knowing when to move onto other topics of conversation. 

• Ask a variety of types of questions to stimulate discussion • Make sure that the questions posed are easily

understood• Asking for examples or asking students to elaborate on

their answers are great ways to facilitate more discussion or redirect the discussion

• Ask participants to draw on their personal experience to contribute to the discussion

• Have good examples to illustrate points during discussion

• Encourage participants by acknowledging their responses and showing appreciation for their participation.

• Make sure everyone has an opportunity to participate, especially those who tend to hold back, and don't allow any person or persons to dominate the discussion.

• Give the rest of the class time to think about and respond to the discussion questions

Student Recommendations for Peer LeaderSkills solicited after first online class LTD

Demonstration Clip

• Student: Melissa Tiernan (MS, OTR/L)Article Discussed:– van Praag,H. Gempermann, G., & Gage, F. (2000).

Neural consequences of environmental enrichment. Neuroscience, 1, 191-198

Lessons Learned and Recommendations

• Organization

• Teacher Factors

• Student Factors

Organization Factors

• Double Meaning – Organization of the course—upfront time

investment is critical– Organization = people power

• Academic computing support – they help you to continually expand the options

• Lead faculty (“techno-champions” in Departments) must encourage and empower others

• Students – need to mobilize and listen to them!

Lessons Learned Recommendations

Teacher Factors

• Make sure you “set the stage” for the online format to work (more about this under Student Factors, next slide)

• May have to adapt some of the LTD for online use (depending on the needs of your discipline)

• Make sure all faculty online always have a microphone– Trying to interject an important point does not work

well with text only (learned this the hard way )!

Lessons Learned Recommendations

Student Factors

• “Set the stage:” • Make sure students know how to lead a discussion--provide

guidance in addition to sharing the LTD format, e.g. MacKeachie’s Teaching Tips, Skills in Leading Discussion (this is Chap. 4 in the 4th edition)

• Do a “dry run” first so students can see what this involves and get on board

• Get feedback from students• Surveys can be helpful, during all phases of the course (may

be especially useful after the first online session)

• Monitor student involvement and make participation a requirement

• Cannot prevent slacking, but participation requirement is an effective motivator (put on syllabus, make a small %)

Lessons Learned Recommendations

For more information contact:

susan.toth-cohen@jefferson.edu

http://www.jefferson.edu/jchp/ot/stc.cfm