Learning Theory

Objective: Apply content knowledge, pedagogical, and professional knowledge necessary to carry out teaching responsibilities and for successful performance in the health professions field.

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Artifact 5: Social Cognitive Learning Theory Paper from Foundations of Health Professions Education Course (HPTT 601)

 

After studying several learning theories throughout this course, I find that my teaching style most closely identifies with the social cognitive theory as described in an assignment for the Foundations course. The social cognitive theory highlights the idea that human learning occurs in a social environment where people acquire knowledge, skills, beliefs, and attitudes by observing others. Throughout my medical education in radiation sciences and similarly to the social cognitive theory, modeling has continuously played a huge factor in my motivation to learn and will remain important as I become a mentor to radiation therapy students as the clinical supervisor at our clinical site. I also believe that setting goals, motivation, and giving feedback are important aspects of the social cognitive theory and each has functions that I will stress while educating others.

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Artifact 6: Curriculum Integration with the Social Cognitive Theory Project from Foundations of Health Professions Education Course (HPTT 601) 

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Another artifact from the Foundations course takes the social cognitive learning theory one step further by incorporating it more specifically into radiation therapy curriculum in a hypothetical course entitled “Radiation Therapy Principles for Pediatric Patients.” The course will help prepare the student to work in a pediatric clinical environment through applying their conceptual knowledge in online weekly discussions and activities on assigned readings, with a few in-person guest speaker presentations and opportunities for hands-on lab experiences in an on-site clinical setting. The students will also be working on a semester long group Wiki project covering the topics of radiation safety and the use of low-imaging protocols for pediatric patients that includes peer evaluations. This project helped me take what I had learned about teaching theories and figuring out how to create curriculum to best fit not only my own teaching style, but also the learning styles of students. Creating learning objectives and grading rubrics with space for written comments in this project also helped my type A personality trait of being organized to help make curriculum writing seem less daunting. Healthcare is essentially like a team sport and I liked being able to plan out curriculum that involved learning from others, both professionals and classmates, and having the hands-on experience that healthcare demands.

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