From bedside to brain: The science and art of good teaching

We mistakenly believe that everything learners need to know can come from the expertly prepared lecture, delivered by an experienced nurse. After all, lectures are safe, self-contained; a lecture has intentional boundaries between delivery and questions.

Devoid of curiosity—that has been the practice. Our responsibility as educators has been seen as: Get through the content and teach everything needed to function at the bedside. The brain will magically know how to apply that knowledge in context. But content, in and of itself, is the beginning of learning; content that is not applied in the real world of nursing practice has little value. True learning happens when learners have opportunities to apply content knowledge and then reflect on the experience.

What if curiosity—at the bedside—became the driver of clinical teaching? A curious educator, seeking to understand the learner’s perspectives, can then guide the learning using strategies that build cognitive muscles so the brain can perform immediately—at the bedside. Eureka!

In our volume 2 monograph, Critical Conversations: Moving from Monologue to Dialogue, we take educators through a neuroscience journey to explore key strategies from the education discipline that enhance critical thinking. We believe that dialogue is the foundational thread, and that curiosity underpins these neuroscience strategies. In this monograph, we weave together the latest in neuroscience teaching and learning strategies with the art of dialogue. Let’s explore a few ideas.

Course

What good is content if we can’t assure that learners carry it forward into new and different contexts? Helping learners see how content mastered in one situation can apply to others in the future creates durable, flexible learning. This where the bedside meets the brain. A variety of teaching and learning strategies are available to help our learners connect concepts and ideas within a domain of learning. The educator’s ability to move fluidly between Content and Course constitutes the dynamic and critical nature of the learning space dialogue. Metacognitive dialogue, collaborative cognition, and analogical transfer are key to engaging learners in conversations that help them navigate between what they know and how that knowledge can be applied to future, similar situations. This is an important dynamic that leads to solid learning now, and a likelihood that learners will be able to successfully use the learning in future contexts (Kirschner et al., 2018; Weidman & Baker, 2015).

We are excited to bring you the second volume in our critical conversation series: Critical Conversations: Moving from Monologue to Dialogue. This volume curates the best evidence in neuroscience-based teaching and learning strategies. Tables highlighting points of dialogue illustrate how to immerse your learners, keeping them at the center of the learning encounter. We invite you to explore how to build on to your repertoire of teaching and learning strategies as you develop your expertise and begin to transform the learning space. Additionally, please join us for our upcoming webinar, October 29, 2020 – Bedside to Brain: The Science and Art of Good Teaching where we will dive into these techniques and share more about the use of neuroscience teaching strategies in nursing education.

1. Forneris, S. G., & Fey, M. (2020). Critical conversations (Vol. 2): Moving from monologue to dialogue. National League for Nursing.
2. Josephsen, J. (2015). Cognitive load theory and nursing simulation: An integrative review. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 11(5), 259-267.
3. Kirschner, P.A., Sweller, J., Kirschner, F., Zambrano, J.R. (2018). From cognitive load theory to collaborative cognitive load theory. International Journal of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, 13, 213-233. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11412-018-9277-y
4. Meguerdichian, M., Walker K., & Bajaj, K. (2016). Working memory is limited: Improving knowledge transfer by optimizing simulation through cognitive load theory. BMJ Simulation & Technology Enhanced Learning, 2(4),131-138.
5. Sweller, J. (1994). Cognitive load theory, learning difficulty, and instructional design. Learning and Instruction. 4(4), 295-312.
6. Van Merriënboer, J.J., & Sweller, J. (2010). Cognitive load theory in health professional education: Design principles and strategies. Medical Educator, 44(1),85-93.
7. Weidman, J., & Baker, K. (2015). The cognitive science of learning: Concepts and strategies for the educator and learner. Anesthesia & Analgesia, 121(6), 1586-1599.

This article has been republished from NLN Nursing Edge Blog.