Proposal Title

More Engagement, Less Lecturing, with Breakout Groups

Session Type

Presentation

Room

PAB 106

Start Date

10-7-2013 10:30 AM

Keywords

Engagement, group work, clickers, teaching and learning

Primary Threads

Teaching and Learning Science

Abstract

To underscore nutritional issues that are prevalent in healthcare, I encouraged students to interact and draw from their own diet or nutritional preferences in order to reiterate important concepts and aid in retention of course content, as well as to illustrate the generalizable nature of the problem. Aligning with the less is more theme, less lecturing and more time spent discussing and engaging with a topic, my aim was to promote deeper learning and student satisfaction. A series of breakout group exercises1 were inserted in between lecturing in a third year health science nutrition course for nursing students last fall. These exercises were designed in collaboration with a dietitian, who is part of a family health team, to highlight the issues that are frequently seen in the clinic. Various amounts of time were given to calculate nutrient quantities from a diet log or published nutritional data, depending on the exercise. When the allotted time had elapsed, the students reported their results using i>Clickers. At the end of the course, students were asked to complete a survey about the utility of and their satisfaction with the exercises. This presentation will include an example of one of the exercises, “What’s in Your Drink?”, to engage session participants and illustrate the technique. The talk will also discuss the preliminary findings from the survey and the implications for the use of these exercises in the future.

1 Justan Lougheed, James Kirkland & Genevieve Newton (2012). Using Breakout Groups as an Active Learning Technique in a Large Undergraduate Nutrition Classroom at the University of Guelph, The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Volume 3, Issue 2.

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Jul 10th, 10:30 AM

More Engagement, Less Lecturing, with Breakout Groups

PAB 106

To underscore nutritional issues that are prevalent in healthcare, I encouraged students to interact and draw from their own diet or nutritional preferences in order to reiterate important concepts and aid in retention of course content, as well as to illustrate the generalizable nature of the problem. Aligning with the less is more theme, less lecturing and more time spent discussing and engaging with a topic, my aim was to promote deeper learning and student satisfaction. A series of breakout group exercises1 were inserted in between lecturing in a third year health science nutrition course for nursing students last fall. These exercises were designed in collaboration with a dietitian, who is part of a family health team, to highlight the issues that are frequently seen in the clinic. Various amounts of time were given to calculate nutrient quantities from a diet log or published nutritional data, depending on the exercise. When the allotted time had elapsed, the students reported their results using i>Clickers. At the end of the course, students were asked to complete a survey about the utility of and their satisfaction with the exercises. This presentation will include an example of one of the exercises, “What’s in Your Drink?”, to engage session participants and illustrate the technique. The talk will also discuss the preliminary findings from the survey and the implications for the use of these exercises in the future.

1 Justan Lougheed, James Kirkland & Genevieve Newton (2012). Using Breakout Groups as an Active Learning Technique in a Large Undergraduate Nutrition Classroom at the University of Guelph, The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Volume 3, Issue 2.