1. WORKING WITH
DIFFICULT
LEARNING
SITUATIONS
Deirdre Bonnycastle
Clinical Teaching Development
College of Medicine
December 2012

2. OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of this
session, you will be able to:
1. Reflect on your feelings
2. Diagnose a student’s
learning needs
3. Manage difficult learning.

3. REFLECT ON YOUR
FEELINGS
What type of student
really makes teaching
worthwhile?

4. REFLECT ON YOUR
FEELINGS
What type of student
really annoys/clashes
with you?

5. REFLECT ON YOUR
FEELINGS
What type of student do you have
no idea how to work with?

6. DIAGNOSE

7. DIAGNOSE

8. MANAGE NOT TAUGHT
Teach It Learn It
Self Directed Illness Script
http://medicaleducation.wetpaint.com/page/Self+Directed+Learning
http://medicaleducation.wetpaint.com/page/Illness+Patterns

9. DIAGNOSE
Lack of
Knowledge
Not
Understood
Attention
Issue
Language
Issue
Learning
Issue

10. MANAGE NOT UNDERSTOOD
 Language
 Tutor
 College of Medicine
 Apps
 ?
 Attention
 Motivation/Relevance
 Learning Style
 ?
 Learning
 Learning Style
 Learning Disability

11. Self Reflection
1. What Is a Bottleneck to Learning in This Class?
2. How Does an Expert Do These Things?
3. How Can These Tasks Be Explicitly Modeled?
4. How Will Students Practice These Skills and
Get Feedback?
5. What Will Motivate the Students?
6. How Well Are Students Mastering These
Learning Tasks?
7. How Can the Resulting Knowledge About
Learning Be Shared?
-Decoding the Disciplines: A Model for Helping Students
Learn Disciplinary Ways of Thinking
2004

12. Break

13. Threw it on the ground
http://youtu.be/melDW18wCs0

14. DIAGNOSE
Clash

15. Challenge Awareness
Awareness
Practice Learning

16. DIAGNOSE

17. MANAGE CLASHES
CALMER Technique
C atalyst for Change
A lter Thoughts
L isten
M ake an agreement
E ducation & followup
R each out
Based on work of Pomm, Pomm and Shahady 2004

18. CATALYST FOR CHANGE
Is this situation a danger to patients, staff
or myself?
Where is the student generally on the
Learning Cycle?
What part of this situation do I have
control over?
Who else might I bring in to help?

19. ALTER THOUGHTS
 How does this student make me feel?
 Are my feelings about this situation
getting in the way of solving it?
Am I taking the student’s behaviour
personally?
How might I change my feelings in order
to be more effective in teaching this
student?

20. LISTEN THEN DIAGNOSE
 Beware Assumptions
Ask student what they think they are
doing well
Ask student what areas they are
concerned about

21. MAKE AN AGREEMENT
 Share your feedback with the student
Ask the student what might be done to
improve X
Student agrees
to work on X
You decide to
accept the
behaviour
Student is
reassigned
Decision Point

22. EDUCATION & FOLLOW UP
Look at the Learning Cycle again
What does the student need to move
forward?
Ask for help from me or your
department
Refer the student

23. REACH OUT
Where do your feelings go when you
set them aside to work with the
student?
What is your support system for
dealing with anger and tension?
??

24. When do you contact the university?

25. THANK YOU
Next Session
Jan 17 and 24 th
TIPS
6-10PM