The Electronic Portfolio of Greg Mertens

There are two very specific instances where I have positively contributed and helped to advance the work of a group member or classmate.

EPFR 515

The first instance that comes to mind took place in EPFR 515.  One of my classmates, Josh Paddock, and I worked together to complete our course project.  We both gave invaluable contributions tha tcombined to result in a final project.

We were given a braod set of guidelines to choose a topic from.  Because both Josh and I are special education teachers, he suggested that we research a topic that is centered around helping students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).  In my experiences, I have seen that allowing students with ADHD to physically move around the room has had positive benefits.  We then decided on a topic of using physical movement in the classroom.

Upon beginning my research, I found that using physical movement in the classroom could benefit more students that simply those with ADHD.  I found that it also helps students who are kinesthetic learerns, sluggish learners, students with IEPs or 504 plans, and students who attend schools that have longer class periods because of block schedules.

After we both finished our research on these topics, we got together and created the first portion of our PowerPoint presentation.  We then decided that we should give some examples.  I found a program called Brain Gym, which is specifically designed to use physical movement to help students improve their performance in school.  Josh cam up with several additional examples of instances where physical movement could have a positive impact in the classroom.  We both gathered specific examples and organizes them into a PowerPoint.

In this project, Josh and I worked cooperatively to achieve a common goal.

IT 500

Our final project in IT 500 was to design instuction for a specific purpose.  Throughout the process, the members of the class gave feedback to each other on how to improve our projects.  We did this through the BlackBoard discussion boards.

I feel that I was very helpful to Itzhak, who was one of my classmates.  One of our assignments was to describe our topic and discuss which learning theory we were considering using for our project.

In his post, Itzhak wrote, "Looking at Bloom’s 3 different Domains of Learning (mentioned in Dr. Knowlton’s Cognitivism Powerpoint), I can only see my topic, of checking patient vitals, fit into one domain: the psychomotor domain. The psychomotor domain, according to Bloom, consists of kinesthetics and physical skills. Checking patient vitals involves more physical skills (psychomotor domain) than emotions and attitudes (affective domain) and thinking (cognitive domain). The theory of behaviorism also deals with the psychomotor domain, as it is more concerned with the behavior of an action or response than the thinking behind the response. For my project, I will be concerned with the learner knowing how to perform the action, such as checking a patient’s pulse, rather than the learner thinking about the action, such as knowing the biology behind the ability to check one’s pulse.

Using behaviorism as my basis would simplify the project. For example, if I was looking at my project from the cognitivism side, I would be worried about where the action, let’s say checking a blood pressure, fits on Bloom’s Cognitive Taxonomy pyramid: does checking a person’s blood pressure fit under knowledge? Does it fall under comprehension? Or maybe analysis? Then, after I figure out where checking a person’s blood pressure fits, I would have to devise an instructional strategy that only works for that cognitive domain. With behaviorism, I have a little bit more wiggle room. I am more concerned about the actual activity of checking a person’s blood pressure than worrying whether the instructional strategy I use appropriately fits in with the cognitive domain. The instruction will focus more on teaching the procedure than the thinking behind it."

As you can see, he wanted to use behviorism for his design.  I thought that he should consider using constructivism.  In response, I posted, "As I stated earlier, I think that you have a good project here.  Because of that I decided to see if looking at it a different way would help.  I am going to see what it would look like from a constructivist point of view.

You mentioned that the learners for your project would be people who already have a background in this field.  Because of that I am assuming that I am assuming that they already know things about pulse, blood pressure, etc.  Becuase they have at least a little bit of knowledge in this area, we can put them in authentic learning situations and let them learn.

I think that you could challenege groups of learners who are learning together to find a more effecient way to take a patients vitals.  This might be especially important in a mental health setting if this has to be done as a part of a crisis situation.  I think that this would hit all of the characteristics of constructivisim.

Characteristic 1:  Learners construct unique understanding

There is no doubt that not all of your learners have the exact same experiences in taking a pateients vitals.  Each one of your learners has something unique to bring to the table.  By getting new information from other learners, they might have a new mindset about the process.  It also might help them to think about a potential situation that they would not have before.

Characteristic 2: New learning depends on our context

Becuase the learners are faces with actually doing this in real situations as part of their job, anything new that they think will be for a specific context.  If you were teaching someone like me who has never had to take vitals before how to do it, I would have no context for the task.  Your learners will.

Characteristic 3: Learning occurs through social interaction

In the scenario that I laid out, the learners will be working as a group.  Because of this they can bring up new ideas and remind each other of important points.  They explain things that they do that work well and things that they wish they could do better. 

Characteristic 4: Meaningful learning occurs through authentic learning tasks

I am sure that there are times when taking a patients vitals at a mental hospital can be a fairly easy task.  There are probably other times, however, when doing so is very stressful.  Being able to take them quickly and accurately could possible avert a bad situation.  This task is something that is very authentic."

Later on in the course, we completed an assignment that required us to describe how our projects met each of the categories of the C.R.E.A.T.E.S. brain set created by Dr. Shelly Carson.

As part of his post, Itzhak wrote, "Transform: This is the brain-set where the learner uses negative energy to be creative. I honestly have a hard time seeing how this brain-set can be reached through my instruction. One idea, that may sound repetitive, is to have the learner imagine a scenario where the learner is upset over something, maybe some personal bad news the learner heard of, and asking the learner to check a patient’s vitals. The reason why this is hard for me to work out this brain-set, is because there is not much room for creativity when checking a patient’s vitals, so it would be difficult for the learner to use (imaginary) negative energy to create something."

I thought that I had a solution to his problem.  To try to help Itzhak, I posted, "About the transform mindset, you said, "This is the brain-set where the learner uses negative energy to be creative. I honestly have a hard time seeing how this brain-set can be reached through my instruction."

I think that there are quite a few ways that you could do this.  I think that the more ways you crystalize "negative energy" the more creative you will be able to be with your project.  You don't have to necessarially think of negative as sad.  It could also be stressed or under pressure.  One example I can think of (this may be an awful one) but maybe give them a time limit that they have to complete it under.  I don't know how long it takes to take vitals but I think that putting a time limit on it could make it a bit more stressful. 

Another idea I have might be to take away one of the tools that you need to take vitals.  Maybe this will force them to be creative in case something that they usually rely on isn't working."

Itzhak read my post and responded.  He liked the feedback that I gave him, but my post caused him to rethink his initial idea.  He tool my suggestion even further and posted the following, "Those are good ideas for getting someone into the "transform" brain-set, and I could probably expand on one of your ideas. You said: "One example I can think of (this may be an awful one) but maybe give them a time limit that they have to complete it under". I do not think your idea is so bad if you reframe it into a scenario: "you have an upset patient on the unit and you have a patient who must get his vitals checked because he is on special medications. How do you handle both? or What do you do first?"

I believe tha the feeback that I gave Itzhak help to improve his project and pushed him to think differently about his project.