PTSD Course

Adult Learning: PTSD Course

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Adult Learning: PTSD Course

Whole-Part Model of the Content of the Course

Whole-part model is a method that encourages critical thinking among students. Whole-part model can be used to help students on how they can evolve in reflecting and analyzing the impact of the content of the course. Below is the whole part model of the course.

Connecting Student’s Prior Knowledge to What They Need to Learn

Before starting to teach the content of the course on how to cope with combat veterans who have PTSD, the students would be asked whether they have interacted with the combat veterans in the past. They would be requested to provide information on their interaction with combat veterans suffering from PTSD went. They would then be requested what they think would be the most effective means of improving the ability of people to cope with combat veterans with PTSD. This would help in identifying whether they have previous knowledge on the issue.

The instructor would then link the responses of the students to what should be taught to the students. As such, the responses of the students would be starting point of teaching the course. This strategy would help in connecting the prior knowledge of the students to the content of the course. It would ensure the content of the course is relevant to the experiences of the students. From time to time, during the course, the instructor should refer to the responses of the students during the beginning of the course, as this would help in reinforcing the content of the course. This would make it for the students to apply what they have in their interactions with combat veterans who have PTSD or with family members, friends, or acquaintances of combat veterans who have PTSD.

Self-Assessment for the Students

The instructor would encourage students to engage in self-assessment by creating culture of reflective analysis and self-assessment during the course. During the beginning the course, the instructor would discuss the expectations and goals of the course. It is vital for the instructor to acknowledge the fact that each learner has a different background and experiences. Therefore, they may not have had the chance to learn how to reflect on their individual experiences and its importance. During the learning process, the instructor would highlight the importance of reflective analysis.

While undertaking the course, the learners would be required to maintain a journal where they can write down what they have been doing, how they felt, how they felt, the connections between what they have learnt and their previous experience, what conclusions they can make from the course and they may apply them in the future. The learners’ journal would provide the students with an opportunity the elements of reflective analysis throughout the course.

The instructor would also provide the learners with feedback that would highlight the methods of self-assessment. The instructor would help in creating a culture of self-assessment to show that it is not final. Instead, the learners should perceive assessment as simply a process of evaluation that is vital in the learning process, which should be continuous.

Methods of Motivating the Students

Two methods would be used to motivate the learners during the course. Building on what the learners already know and using story-telling are the methods that the instructor would use to motivate the students. A significant proportion of learners may have interacted or they know of people who have interacted with combat veterans with PTSD. Therefore, the learning program would anticipate and account for the knowledge that the students already possess. During the course, the students would be required to demonstrate their existing knowledge by ensuring they actively engage in class discussions. As mentioned in the previous section, the instructor would ask learners questions on their experiences while interacting with combat veterans who have PTSD. The instructor would build on this knowledge. Showing the learners that they have useful knowledge on how to cope with combat veterans with PTSD will motivate them to learn new methods of coping with combat veterans with PTSD.

Admittedly, people enjoy listening about the experiences of other people. Therefore, during the course, the instructor would use storytelling to increase the level of engage of the students. According to Paul (2012), using stories enables the listener to feel the words instead of merely hearing them. The responses of the brain would make it feel as if the learner actually encountered the experiences in the stories. As such, it would encourage the students to engage in the classroom activities.

Addressing Diverse Needs of the Students

Problem-based learning and the discussions would be used during the course to address the diverse needs of students. Problem-based learning is a learning strategy that encourages critical thinking and the use of problem-solving skills. The instruction would merely act as a facilitator to stimulate, guide, and summarize discussion among students. Problem-based learning will ensure the learning incorporates considers the diverse needs of the students. It would also ensure the course considers the previous knowledge of the students.

Discussions would also be used to teach the students. The instructor will ensure there is active participation of all the students in the class discussions. Engaging in the students will help in identifying the gaps in knowledge of certain students, which would make it easy for the instructor to address this gap. In addition, classroom discussions would help in reinforcing what has already been learnt. The students would be requested to provide real-life examples of some of the issues they have learn in the class. This would ensure they apply them later outside the classroom context (McKeachie, 2002).

How the Learning Activities Would Be Supported By Educational Theory

The learning activities are supported by social learning theory. According to this theory, people learn from one another through observation, imitation, and modeling. This is one of the reasons as to why discussions would be used in teaching the course. Discussions would provide the learners with an opportunity to detail their experiences during their interactions with combat veterans who have PTSD. This would help in highlighting some of the issues that other students can learn from (Illeris, 2018). The use of story-telling will provide the students with the chance to learn certain issues related to coping with combat veterans suffering from PTSD from the experiences of other people. Therefore, the instructor will ensure there is interaction among learners. Interaction will help in reinforcing what the students learn in the classroom environment. This will increase the likelihood of the students implementing what they have learnt in the classroom in real-life. If they do so, the course would have achieved its objective as it would have helped in improving the ability of people to cope with combat veterans with PTSD.

References

Illeris, K. (2018). Contemporary theories of learning: learning theorists… in their own words. New York, NY: Routledge.

McKeachie, W. J. (2002). MeKeachie’s teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Paul, A. M. (2012, March 17). Your Brain on Fiction. The New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-neuroscience-of-your-brain-on-fiction.html?pagewanted=all&mtrref=undefined&gwh=F805F58299EC2C2B0AE588664F4C1D46&gwt=pay