How do we learn in our leisure activities?

~ some ideas for teaching medical statisticsFiona Reid

King’s College London

Are you here?

Kayaking – what’s to learn?

• Moving forwards, backwards, sideways, turning

• Staying upright – support strokes, eskimo roll

• Entering a current; crossing a river; negotiating rapids

• Learning to ‘read’ the water – optimal route down the river, spotting hazards

• Safety, risk management, and rescue

• Planning journeys, protecting the environment, river access

My canoeing CV

• Started canoeing in 1990

• Mix of white water, sea kayaking, slalom

• Member of Civil Service Canoe Club (weekly trips to pub on the Thames every Tuesday, new members welcome!)

• Attended courses at Plas y Brenin; Plas Menai; National Whitewater Centre Bala – personal skills; safety and rescue; and instructor training.

• British Canoe Union, Level 3 Coach, 1998

Honey & Mumford – learning styles

• Honey & Mumford’s 80-item Learning Styles Questionnaire (1982, 1992, 2000)

• Based on earlier work by Kolb

• 4 styles: Activist, Reflector, Pragmatist, Theorist

• ‘No single style has an overwhelming advantage over any other. Each has strengths and weaknesses, but the strengths may be especially important in one situation, but not in another.’

Honey & Mumford

learn by doing; like to dive in to activity

learn by observing and thinking it over;

like to stand back and view from

different perspectives

concerned with how the

learning can be put into practice

in the real world; what’s

the utility?

want to understand the underlying theory and models; analyse new information and check for logic

Honey & Mumford

Kayaking example – How to turn the boat in a circle?

Activists Straight into activity, immediately explanation is finished

Reflectors Want to watch some demonstrations first, ask some questions, check the task

Pragmatists Ask ‘Why would I ever want to turn my boat in a circle?’

Theorists Ask why should the instructions work? e.g. ‘Why does putting the blade in the water further away from the kayak help the boat to turn?’

Honey & Mumford

Statistics example – Tutorial on interpreting p-values

Activists Launch straight into exercise; not overly worried if some things still unclear

Reflectors Hesitant to start exercise or contribute to debate, wants to think it over, e.g. how does it all fit with previous teaching?

Pragmatists Ask ‘Why do we need p-values’?

Theorists Ask ‘How exactly are p-values calculated?’ – not happy to take on trust

Honey & Mumford

Caveats

• 65% of students do not express a single strong preference – most are a mixture of different styles

• Little evidence that matching teaching methods to learning styles influences outcomes

• ‘The labels are a convenient oversimplification – a starting point for discussion on how an individual learns’

Honey & Mumford

How can we use this?

• Expect a variety of responses in the statistics class – greater patience with students?

• Be prepared with flexible teaching options; may need to explain in more than one way

• Consider our own preferred learning style – do we teach in the way we like to learn? – need more empathy with students different to ourselves?

• Can gently encourage students to move from one learning style to another, if they are ‘stuck’

‘Guided Discovery’ approach

• Students are encouraged to discover the best approach by themselves, with a little help

AB

• Kayaking – How to cross a white water current? Ask for ideas; just have a go; what would happen if you try X or Y…? e.g. try pointing boat more or less upstream – what works best?

• Statistics – How to evaluate a new clinical treatment? Suggest no control group to start, ask students to critique; then comparing with historical data; then with a concurrent control but not randomised; eventually they will hopefully invent the RCT!

‘Sequencing’ approach

• Statistics – Selecting a significance test Component parts – types of data; the normal distribution; paired vs independent groups; equality of variances …

• Complex skills are broken down and then developed incrementally

• Kayaking – Learning to eskimo roll Component parts – the support stroke; the ‘hip flick’; correct paddle hold; correct starting position …

‘Client-centred’ approach

• Focuses on the student’s aspirations, and jointly construct personal learning outcomes

• Kayaking – Ask about prior experience; what do they hope to achieve from kayaking course?; adapt learning opportunities to meet student aspirations, where possible

• Statistics – Ask about prior experience (and offer ‘remedial’ help); ask students what they want to get out of statistics course; could we set personal learning outcomes, as well as curriculum-driven? … and adapt learning opportunities to reflect these?

Giving feedback

• Kayaking – Usually individual; as close to activity as possible (often during); repeated; constructive; formative assessment >> summative; gives sense of achievement

• Statistics – Individual feedback in small group tutorials; incorporate questions / quizzes / mini-exercises into lectures; online exercises … other ideas?

OVER TO YOU ….

Examples of good practice in teaching from your own leisure activities? or children’s?

What is your preferred learning style - Activist, Reflector, Pragmatist, Theorist? - and does this influence your teaching style?

Examples of Guided Discovery, Sequencing, Client-centred approaches from your teaching?