Activity 12
How can you include examples of New Zealand's indigenous culture in the design of your eLearning courses - language, society, history, political issues etc.?
We do this as a School of Nursing in our week long introductory course (as in previous blog). We covered the history of colonization in New Zealand and looked at why the indigenous people of New Zealand have a worse health outcome than non-indigenous people.
The competencies for Registered Nurses require all nurses to practice according to the Treaty of Waitangi principles of partnership, participation and protection.
Student nurses must demonstrate how they meet this competence on all of their clinical placements.
I will post an example of how I think I met this competency while I was on clinical placements.
What approaches can you utilise to meet the needs of indigenous learners?
Allow time for one on one instruction.
Have flexible deadlines.
Provide mentoring (by other students) and support services available at OP.
Provide alternative means of instruction and assessment including oral presentations and use of other audio visual media.
Outline any experiences you have had working with indigenous learners.
I worked in Wuhan, China for 4 weeks teaching on a MBA programme. I taught in English which was the second language for all students.
I used a microphone to speak through so that I could be clearly heard and I wrote English works on the blackboard so that student’s could see how the words were spelled.
I had taken videos to use in class but found that once the video started, the whole class (52 adult students) would fall asleep.
I then used case studies from the text book and set up a competition which the students greatly enjoyed!
I used short breaks where we sang children’s nursery rhymes (with hand actions) just for fun. After singing a song such as “Three Blind mice” (if you don’t knoe it, have a listen and imagine the hand actions!) with hand actions, we would walk quickly around the building and then start class again as the teaching sessions were timetabled to run over 4 hours (8am- 12). This kept them engaged and active.
What were some of the challenges that you and the learners faced?
Staying engaged…(and awake). For me, maintaining interest and stamina to live in a huge campus as the only white European woman in sight.
The assessment was a written one (part of the course structure that I couldn’t change). My expectations about the content and scope of the assignment were changed to meet the student’s ability to write in English.
How did this affect their learning?
We spent considerable amount of time in class discussing the assignment and I arranged for them to work in peer support groups so they could help one another with the written part of the assignment. This worked really well and all students learned (and passed the exam).
Great strategies with the students in China Liz. Do you use mnemonics and song with your nursing students also? :) perhaps the video is best kept short - how do you use video in your nursing classes to keep the students engaged?
ReplyDeleteI guess another thing to think about is how to maintain inclusiveness in your classes so the culture of the indigenous students is integrated - use of imagery, Maori terms, correct pronunciation of Maori place names etc. Have you noticed that nursing mannequins are always white.
Do your role plays and case studies include scenarios about indigenous people and some of the health issues facing their population?
I still cringe at the way I handled a particularly challenging situation when I was a student nurse, many years ago now. I was asked to disperse a large group of Maori visitors, most of whom were wearing gang patches. This was in a North Island hospital. My fear of the situation meant I acted rather arrogantly and I loudly and forcefully ordered them to leave. They went but it was done very insensitively, and could have been handled with a lot more aplomb and decency - gang patches or not.
Do your students get a chance to practice how to handle challenging situations with patients and their families - I am sure they do.