Barry Westling

Hi Pandora: I believe pretests can be extremly valuable. I agree that if possible, students should be informed about the level and difficulty of a course, and I think most students are at least willing to try. Sometimes, even under the best of circumstances and selection, students have difficulty and require extra time, tutoring, or assistance with certain ideas or concepts. It is here that pretesting can be of value. These don't have to be lengthly or time consuming. How valuable it would be if a teacher knew that class time didn't have to be spent on one topic, but… >>>

Hi Erika: This event is not an unfamiliar one, and unfortunately the instructor is burdened with the responsibility of working with all students enrolled whether they are prepared or not. Not real fair to student or teacher. Using enrollment admission tests, giving an intial pretest, or establishing prerequisite courses are the most common methods to try to match students abilities with their course choices. In vocational schools, often none of these exist, so I have adopted an approach that assumes I will every student is some way to some degree. Som e students may not make it or pass the… >>>

Hi Pandora: Yes, a trained individual can detect much about a patient and their status, even just standing at the door - if they learned to be observant. Of course in earlier times, health workers senses had to relied upon due to the lack of sophistication of lab, technology, and accurate bedside measurments. Many of the senses tend to be lied upon more than others. But I truely believe almost any of the dozen or so sensense can be trained to be stimulated and used in the classroom or lab for student study, classroom lessons, or skill testing. It takes… >>>

Hi Heather: Certain professions are going to naturally lend themselves to enhanced use of the senses. Healthcare is one of them. But I also believe all of our senses can be trained to tune in and contribute positively to the learning environment. One of the keys is to learn to stimulate or "wake up" a sense. Then, associating bthat stimulation with some type of enjoyment. Finally, merging enjoyment with study, engagement, or thinking cloes the loop. So essentially every sense can be used to assist students learning and retaining needed information, and storing it in the long term memory portion… >>>