teaching techniques

[Rolandicfissure]

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I am curious what literature exists on the effectiveness of different teaching techniques. Specifically, I am curious about techniques that involve confrontation.

The reason for my inquiry is that, as some of you may know, traditional medical school clinical teaching often involves what is widely known as "pimping." This involves a resident or attending physician putting a student on the spot (usually in front of the clinical team), and asking a series of questions to test the student's knowledge. It could be likened to Socratic teaching in law school because it involves quizzing an unsuspecting student in front of a group.

It is sometimes used to patronize or intimidate students, though it is mostly used with good intentions in my experience. Obviously, pimping is an impetus to study for situations in which you forsee it happening (assuming that you also have a pretty good idea what the topic may be).

HOWEVER, I am interested in whether the student is more likely to retain information learned during this, or a similar, scenario of what I call "confrontational" teaching, for lack of a better term.

 

[50960]

Good question, and I do not have a research based answer. My guess is that most students taught this way will be much more likely to want to do it to another student when they arrive. We have all has this happen, and I know all I learned was that I needed to be wary of that person in the future. Hope you get a real answer.....

😎

 

[psychgeek]

I think the effect of arousal in this instance would be fairly complex. There is a good deal of research indicating that stress-related hormones and neural pathways aid memory through improving consolidation. However, there is also research that suggests high levels of arousal (i.e. highly anxious reactions) interfere with other memory processes. The theory I am vaguely remembering posited that under conditions of extremely high arousal attention will focus upon the most salient or threatening aspects of the situation while retrieval will rely more heavily upon availability than would otherwise be the case. So I would guess (and it is only a guess) that the physiological arousal state induced by pimping aids most students while it distorts memory in a few of the more anxious individuals. Within this more anxious group I might expect to see over-reliance upon common answers and incomplete encoding of information after they provide an incorrect answer.

This isn't really my area of expertise, and I hope if I have made some sort of glaring error it will be corrected by someone who knows more than I do 😀 .

 

[Pterion]

I think the effect of arousal in this instance would be fairly complex. There is a good deal of research indicating that stress-related hormones and neural pathways aid memory through improving consolidation. However, there is also research that suggests high levels of arousal (i.e. highly anxious reactions) interfere with other memory processes. The theory I am vaguely remembering posited that under conditions of extremely high arousal attention will focus upon the most salient or threatening aspects of the situation while retrieval will rely more heavily upon availability than would otherwise be the case. So I would guess (and it is only a guess) that the physiological arousal state induced by pimping aids most students while it distorts memory in a few of the more anxious individuals. Within this more anxious group I might expect to see over-reliance upon common answers and incomplete encoding of information after they provide an incorrect answer.

This isn't really my area of expertise, and I hope if I have made some sort of glaring error it will be corrected by someone who knows more than I do 😀 .

Nicely done. I would add anecdotally that for those with sub-clinical forms of baseline anxiety, there is also an anticipatory effect - one which is addressed in some individuals by thorough preparation.