Wednesday 29 January 2014

The Art of Reflection

I was listening to our national radio broadcaster (CBC) interview a botanist, Lyn Baldwin, at one of our BC universities and she was describing what she used to do when she'd go out on a field walk. She always took her handy notebook to jot down what she observed, however she realised this use of text lacked sufficient description to what she was seeing. Thus, she decided to take art lessons so that she would be able to do more with her journalling by adding her impression of what she saw through drawings. These are on display at the Kamloops Art Gallery "Not Just a Snapshot" (Jan9-Feb1).

She found that her artwork enhanced her ability to do better reflections. This makes sense. Words can only go so far to describing something one is thinking about or is reflecting on based on something they have seen, smelled, touched or heard. I spend a lot of time reading student reflections and sometimes, although for most part what I read is very thoughtful, they still lack something that had they had the opportunity to draw what they saw or felt, maybe it would allow them to express themselves better.

At this point, the method of entering the reflections is through a web interface where they simply type in their reflection. I log in as a faculty member, and can read them. We have become incredibly text oriented in our modern age of technology. I communicate almost exclusively via text in some form or another to my health mentor students. Yes, they have all met me once or twice but after that it is all online. Am I missing something from them? Students feel so comfortable with this approach since most of them communicate the majority of their time to their own friends, via text. Yes, they do take photos like crazy and post "selfies" on Facebook but does that really communicate everything?

Should we expect something different in their reflections? When I read how excited they are to see an accessible home for the first time and discover how homey it feels, wouldn't it be neat to see a drawing of what they saw or a photograph (as long as they get consent if a person is in the photo)? I know that many of our students are incredibly gifted artists with one form or another but when do they have an opportunity to use these talents outside of the Medical School Spring Gala or the "Do Bugs need drugs" video project. I would love to see more creative ways for students to express themselves in a reflection. The question is whether our online learning modules allow for this to happen easily. Guess I better start figuring this out! Love any suggestions if any other school is already ahead of us.



Sunday 12 January 2014

The joy of teaching

The first question people ask me when I say I am a prof at UBC is, "what do you teach?" As someone who does primarily research but still has a teaching portfolio I find that it is a difficult question to still answer. My main job is to teach graduate students how to do research in the field of biomechanics. I have to say it gives me great joy to do what I do because I mainly get the creme de la creme of students. My students want to study with me and often travel to work with me. I have had students from BC, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Iran, Amsterdam, Germany, Australia, Mexico, US, and of course, Vancouver. Typically one does not get too many poor students this way, but even so I do find it stressful meeting a new student the first time.

It doesn't take too long until we've found an understanding of how my lab works and the expectations are. For many, it is their first exposure to working with people with spinal cord injuries so that is very new. I love watching them learn and discover for themselves what research question they want to tackle. After that it is a struggle to see them develop their projects, work with equipment that can be so finicky and with a population that has many health challenges. However once they get through it and data is collected, analysed and synthesised, it's fun to see them get through their thesis successfully. I'm amazed at how much they can learn and accomplish in such a relatively short time.

They are amazing people who not only are highly intelligent but often artistic or athletic or both! They have a passion for learning and often go on to work in research labs, clinics or do professional training like medicine, physiotherapy or occupational therapy. Why wouldn't I like my job.

As mentioned in previous blogs I teach within a special program called the Health Mentors Program. My role is to supervise the 51 medical students who are in small groups of health students along with a mentor over a 16 mo block. Students write what they learn after each session and I read those and write back to them, responding to what they've learned and give guiding concepts or questions for next time. Reading what they learn in their groups is fantastic. They discover the human element of medicine, meeting the person with a disability or chronic illness. So many things make sense to the students once they have met with their mentors. Again I feel so privileged to teach and dialogue with these young adults as they prepare to become physicians. 

Maybe my job isn't what people think when they ask, "what do you teach?" However my role of teaching young adults in  the university system is a total joy and for many faculty I am sure their favourite thing is seeing the pieces connected in someone's mind. It is a gift to do what I do and I hope my enthusiasm comes through to the students. I have learned so much from these individuals as well. I hope that I maintain my passion for teaching well up to when I retire, but hope I recognise it when my time is finished to let another young faculty member inspire the next generation.