Assessment and Analysis of Brainstorming, Case Studies and

Simulation

Over the past semester, I have learned about teaching strategies

along with their rationale of use. I can honestly say I have been using

some of the instructional strategies already in my classroom. It was

beneficial to learn more examples of how these strategies are used

along with their purposes. I felt it was also beneficial for me to be able

to reflect on the use and student response of these instructional

strategies.

Audience and Environment

In Health Occupations, there are 23 diverse students. There are

15 in Health Occ. III and eight in Health Occ. II. Overall, Six students

are juniors and 17 are seniors. There are two male students out of the

entire 23 students. Three of the students have IEPs. This year is the

first time my class is racially diverse. I have one African American

student and one Hispanic student in class. All students have diverse

learning styles. It is clear to me I have an array of visual, auditory and

kinesthetic learners. Due to the variety of learners in class, it is

important to use many different instructional strategies to help instruct

all students.

The Health Occupations classroom could be visually divided in

two. In the front of the classroom there is a theory classroom. This is

equipped with whiteboards, projector, tables and chairs. The other

portion of the classroom is the lab. This section of the room looks like

a small hospital. It is set up with hospital beds and mock bathroom.

The set up of the classroom is cohesive for the use of multiple

instructional strategies.

Instructional Strategies

Brainstorming

Brainstorming has multiple benefits for students. This

instructional strategy requires students to use background knowledge

to share ideas about the topic being discussed. More importantly, it

allows students to share and respect each others answers because

there is not a right or wrong answer (Instructional Strategies Online,

2006). It is important with any instructional strategy to have a clear

goal or objective.

When using brainstorming, I used it as a way to introduce a new

lesson to my students. The topic was Life Stages. I had them share

ideas on what they felt they would be learning about. The objective I

had for each student was that each of them could share at least one

idea they thought the topic was about. Overall, students responded

well to brainstorming. It was very interactive for them and stress free.

They did not feel that they were being evaluated and they knew they

would not be wrong with their answers. Their enjoyment of the activity

was clear to me when students were willing to share more than one

idea. It was clear the objective was met.

Case Study

Case studies allow students to be problem solvers. Students are

put in a scenario and develop more skills such as critical thinking,

interpretation and analysis (Instructional Strategies Online, 2006).

When case studies are utilized in a group setting, they also encourage

more conversation between peers.

I developed case study scenarios with the Life Stages unit. I

would give basic background information about a person and the

student would need to identify the life stage the individual was going

through as well as how they would be acting in this life stage. I also

included for students to determine how health care workers should act

toward the individual. I felt that the students did well with this activity.

I will say they were not keen on the writing aspect of this task. I did

notice that in some of their writing, they were able to think more

critically about the content we covered.

Simulation

Simulation is a teaching strategy that I utilize a lot. In health

care, students need to practice in simulation before they actually

perform a task on an actual patient. In simulation, students are put in

a situation that is close to reality. They learn it is acceptable to make

mistakes because they can be easily corrected and make changes to

their thinking (Instructional Strategies Online, 2006).

 The most recent simulation done in my classroom is postmortem

care. In health care, there may be a time that one needs to care for a

person who has deceased. In this simulation, students use a

mannequin as the deceased patient. The objective was for students to

complete postmortem care with 85% accuracy according to the rubric.

In my opinion, students enjoy simulation. It gets them moving around

and interacting with other students.

Overall Impression

Overall, I feel my students did benefit from the use of multiple

instructional strategies. I could tell by observation that students liked

some more than others. As an educator, I think it is important to

continuously utilize new instructional strategies to help students

become the best they can be. As stated above, students can be

auditory, visual or kinesthetic learners. In order for multiple types of

learners to learn, we must use multiple types of instructional

strategies.
 References

Instructional Strategies Online. (2006). What Is Interactive

Instruction? Brainstorming, Problem Solving. Saskatchewan

Education, Regina, SK.

Instructional Strategies Online. (2006). What is Indirect Instruction?

Case Studies. Saskatchewan Education, Regina, SK.

Instructional Strategies Online. (2006). What Is Experiential Learning?

Simulations. Saskatchewan Education, Regina. SK.