Forwarded on behalf of Scott Richardson
Subject: learning with questions
To: EBH <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-to: [log in to unmask]
Howdy! Here are some bits and pieces about learning with our
questions to add to this discussion:
1. I agree with Andrew Booth's points about
using question components to help plan search strategies, including
both coming up with synonyms within components and the idea of
using the components sequentially in searching, rather than all at
once. Bob Badgett here in San Antonio tells me he too teaches this
sequential idea - if patient/problem and intervention yield too large a
set, add in comparison, etc. [but I'll let him speak for himself]. To
extend this idea a bit, I see this primarily as an issue of "halfway
technology", i.e. that search interfaces are not yet fully evolved to
fit the way humans think and learn. If our important questions can be
thought and stated whole, perhaps someday the interfaces will work
with such wholeness directly [maybe even to the point of obviating
the need for teaching about questions!].
2. We began thinking and teaching about questions in order to
help people learn, starting with what they don't know, phrasing it
explicitly and using the resulting questions to guide subsequent
steps of learning [search, appraisal, integration, etc.]. We thought of
questions (and still do) as a step toward learning, not as ends unto
themselves. The 'anatomy' has been meant as an explicit yet
adjustable scaffolding to help learners start building knowledge, not
as a rigid shell to constrain learning. I agree with Andrew that a
great many clinical questions can be recognized as 2
component background questions or 3/4/5 component foreground
questions. Yet not every important question need fit this structure.
If something works a majority of the time, need we require it to work
all the time before declaring it useful? Don't think so.
3. One of the things I find most challenging about using
questions to teach is the acculturation many learners exhibit to hide
when they don't know something and what they don't know. Early on,
most folks seem to learn that most teachers reward us for 'knowing
already' - we are not rewarded for 'not knowing yet but now ready to
learn as witnessed by my question'. As teachers, we need to
demonstrate to our learners that we really mean to help them learn,
not humiliate them, if they don't know something they need to know.
We have to earn their trust, in order for them to go against decades
of behavioral conditioning that makes them hide their knowledge
gaps and be reluctant to ask questions. I don't blame learners for
adapting this stance to survive their schooling, but once in
professional practice, hiding when/what we don't know becomes
maladaptive. It nearly guarantees our obsolescence. I believe we
share a responsibility to help learners turn this around; it would be
nice if others in positions of power in educational institutions would
join in, too. Happy holidays and cheers!
WSR W. Scott Richardson, M.D.
Audie L. Murphy Memorial
Veterans Hospital ******************* 7400 Merton Minter
Blvd. Ancient pond San Antonio, TX 78284
frog jumps in T: (210)
617-5314 water sound F: (210) 567-4423
Basho Email:
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------- End of forwarded message -------
Andrew Booth BA MSc Dip Lib ALA
Director of Information Resources and
Senior Lecturer - Evidence Based Healthcare Information.
School of Health & Related Research (ScHARR)
Regent Court
30 Regent Street
SHEFFIELD
S1 4DA
Tel: 0114 222 5420 or 5214 Fax: 0114 272 4095
The author of Netting the Evidence:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~scharr/ir/netting.html
and Trawling the Net:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~scharr/ir/trawling.html
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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