Making My Anatomy Classes Fun and Meaningful
by Sheila Schuehein
Manager, Make Yourself at Home Program, Wellington Seniors Association
About a month ago I took a course with Global Learning Partners on Dialogue
Education™. Going into the course, I thought the concept of educating through
sharing an exchange of life experience would be invaluable to my work as a
gerontologist. I facilitate education events for older adults who are peer
leaders, so exploring the wisdom and insight they, as individuals, bring to the
group is a key to successful engagement in their learning process. Conventional
adult learning methods most often deliver information rather than building on
what learners already know.
During the course I had to design a learning event connected to my work. I
decided to explore a topic of universal interest but that is generally taught
didactically via memorization: basic anatomy – muscles (click
here to see my
workshop and photos). One of the courses I facilitate is designed to prepare
peer leaders to develop and instruct fitness classes for older adults. This
specific content has, in my experience, been challenging to facilitate as many
of these adults I work with tell me they have not participated in 'formal'
education for many years and the expectation that they will be able to recite
anatomical terms from memory is very intimidating.
I set out to use what I was
learning through Dialogue Education™ to teach this content in a different and
meaningful way. One of the things I knew innately about myself, but that was
rarely accommodated until the course Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach, was
that the best method for me to integrate new information was kinesthetically.
While I was teaching the workshop I was shocked to see how quickly others also
learned the material this way: people really DO learn by doing! I also wanted to
present the information in a format that promoted personal connection to the
content: Everyone has experienced the complexities of anatomy through the
movement of muscles in their daily activities. Hence, the warm-up activity.
I believe that the education events I will now facilitate, after completing this
course with Global Learning Partners and the
Geriatric Education Cooperative,
will be fundamentally improved through incorporating the simple yet powerfully
inspiring learning principles of Dialogue Education™.
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