Nursing education

OPEN  NURSING ARTICLES & QUESTIONS

Teaching Skills

A). INTRODUCTION

Teaching is an essential part of education. Its special function is to impart knowledge, develop understanding and skills. It is usually associated with the imparting of 3 Rs- reading, writing, arithmetic. The teachers play a vital role in imparting knowledge to the learners.

“to know how to teach is the great art of teaching”

“you teach what you need to learn”

B)    WHAT IS A TEACHING SKILL?

The teaching skills are defined as a group of teaching acts or behaviors intended to facilitate students learning directly or indirectly.

C)    WHY DO WE NEED TO HAVE SKILLS IN TEACHING?

D)    STEPS OF TEACHING SKILLS USED IN DISCUSSION METHOD

1. Analyzing the student group:

a) Getting to know them

b) Enthusiasm

2.  Discussion leading

a) BUILDING

Here are four ways to keep a class discussion going:

b) BRAINSTORMING

It is a technique for obtaining idea from a group. Here is how:

c)      SOCRATIC DIRECTION

In order to encourage audience participation to prove to a point, use Socratic direction.

Add your own points.

d)     CLASS CONTROL

a) REGULATING-------interrupt long winded talkers with questions.

b) FOCUSING---------keep the current topic in front of the class

c) GUIDING------------ask reflective questions.

d) INTERPRETING-----interpret or paraphrase badly throughout contributors.

e) SUMMARIZING----give overview and recall points covered at every logical or convenient point.

e) TEACHING TEMPO

There are two factors which will govern the tempo of your material coverage and discussion periods:

a) Students level of knowledge and general intelligence.

Low=slow

High=fast

b) Your own teaching skill.

Snappy /authoritarian/directive=fast

Relaxed, informal, facilitative=slow

How to change tempo

a) Slower-use more cases, examples, anecdotes. Speak slower. Ask open questions.

b) Faster- speak fast, use directive tone. Cut down discussions. Ask closed questions.

f) METHODS FOR DEALING WITH STUDENT QUESTIONS OR STATEMENTS.

a) STRAIGHT FORWARD-----answer the question.

b) OVERHEAD------------------ good question. What are some of the other questions    we should also ask about----?

c) RELAY------------------------thanks for the question. Have some of you met the same problem?

d) RICOCHET------------------- good point!

e) REVERSE---------------------when the question is really a statement, hand the answer back to the poser.

f) STATEMENT? --------------what point are we discussing now?

g) STATEMENT! ---------------“I think we should come back to this point later”.

g) QUESTIONING SKILLS

Closed questions-WHO CAN tell me on which date?

Open questions

a)     “About”            -how do you feel about-------?

b)     “Reflective”       -you don’t feel comfortable with------?

c)     Hypothetical      -what do you think would happen if----?

d)     Framing            -help me to see how this fits with------?

e)     Silence             - ---------------------------------------------?

f)      Statements      - you look as if you wanted to say something.

h)  LUBRICATORS

VERBAL                                        NONVERBAL

a)      “I see”                                  Nodding  

b)      “Ah, ah”                              Constant eye contact

c)      “That’s interesting”              Leaning forward

d)      “Really”                                Stepping aside

e)      “Go on”                                Raising eyebrows

f)       “Tell me more about that”     Frowning

3. questions and interruptions

Most participant questions are not questions. They are request for the spotlight if it is one of those rare, close d real questions-answer it succinctly. If not, first;

REFLECT back to the questionnaire what you thought was the question.

Or

DEFLECT it as follows-

a) Group: how do the rest of the group feel?

b) Ricochet: to one participant-“you are an expert on this?

c) Reverse: back to questioner:-“you have obviously done something on this. What’s your view?

4.  dealing with difficult participants

a) THE HECKLER: probably insecure, gets satisfaction from needling, aggressive and argumentative.

a.  What to do: never get upset, find merit, express agreement, move on, wait for a mis statement   fact and throw it out to the group for correction.

b) THE TALKER/KNOW ALL-an eager behavior, a show off, well informed and anxious to show it.

a.  What to do- sit till he/she takes a breath, thanks, refocus and move on. Ask him or her with a tough question.

c) THE GRIPER-feels hard done by probably have a pet “peeve”, will use you as scape goat.

a.  What to do- get him/her to be specific, show that the purpose of your presentation is to be positive and constructive, use peer pressure?

d) THE WHISPERS- don’t understand what’s going on clarifying & translating.

a.  What to do-stop talking, wait for them, to look up and nonverbally ask for their permission to continue.

e) THE SILENT ONE-timid, insecure, shy, bored, indifferent

a.  What to do: timid- ask easy question. Boost her ego in discussing the answer. Refer by name by giving examples. Bolster confidence.

b. Bored- ask tough questions. Refer to by name someone who surely knows that, use as helper in exercises.

5. using one’s voice

a) Projection: speak louder than usual.

b) Articulation: don’t swallow words.

c) Modulation: vary tone and pitch.

d) Pronunciation: watch tonic accents.

e) Enunciation: over emphasize.

f) Repetition: repeat key phrases with different vocal emphasis.

g) Speed: use delivery speed to manipulate the audience!

6. listening

Whenever a participant interrupts or responds emotionally during the class, he/she is probably overstating his or her feelings in order to justify the outburst. In every such case use active listening. Never attempt to counter, argue, defend or take sides.

E. WHO, WHOM, WHY, WHERE, WHAT, HOW AND WHEN OF TEACHING

To play this role completely, a teacher is expected to understand the significance of the following:

1. Who is to teach

The teacher is to teach and must understand herself/ himself thoroughly- his/ her strengths and weakness, strive to present a reasonably good model before the students.

2.Whom to teach

The student is to be taught. Therefore, a teacher should understand the abilities, aptitudes, attitudes, manners, temperaments and accordingly cater to the individual differences of students.

3.Why to teach

The teacher should always keep in view that the aim of education is to develop harmonious personalities, who are culturally refined, emotionally stable, ethically sound, morally upright, physically strong, socially efficient and spiritually enlightened.

4.Where to teach

The teacher ought not to visualize the school to be merely a place of importing information, but a place where students of tomorrow are trained to take their place as enlightened citizens in the society and contribute to professional development.

5.What to teach

The teacher must have mastery over the subject he/she teaches.

6.How to teach

The teacher must use new teaching –learning technology to make teaching effective and inspirational.

7.When to teach

Appropriate steps need to be taken by the teacher to develop motivation of the student in the entire work.

F. CONCLUSION

Despite the huge value of the skills of teaching to the future of nursing there is still little opportunity to develop vital skills within the curricular constraints at many nursing schools. However, without basic training in teaching skills at undergraduate level, it cannot realistically be expected that, students without a natural flair will spontaneously be able to show the necessary skills, attitudes, and practices required of a competent teacher.

G. REFERENCES

  1. Davis Barbara (1993).Tools for Teaching San Francisco: Jossey-Basslt. Pg No. 159-167.

  2. Patry Jean (1992) Effective and Responsible Teaching the New Synthesis, USA: Jossey Bass Publishers.pg.no. 422-425.

  3. Brookfield Stephen D (1995).The Skillful Teacher on Technique, Trust and Responsiveness in the Classroom. 1st Edition USA: Jossey Bass Publishers.Pg.No.38-42.

This page was last updated on: 19/12/2020