This is how I teach
This month we spoke with Mrs Ingrid Sierp from the School of Allied Health Science and Practice, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. Ingrid is an Advance HE Fellow and co-facilitator of the Effective and Engaging Teaching and e-Learning Communities of Practice.
Here she explains how meaningful human connections in the classroom are critical to student success and wellbeing.
How would you describe your approach to teaching/your teaching philosophy?
From class one, day one, I aim to dismantle the preconceived notion of a teacher-student hierarchy. I utilise a social constructivist approach, where my classes are an opportunity to share knowledge and learn together, thereby actively involving the students in the learning process. By promoting open communication in a safe-to-fail setting, I find my students develop a willingness to continually participate. I foster an inclusive classroom culture, underpinned by evidence that meaningful human connections are critical to student success and wellbeing. In my experience, when students feel as though they belong, regardless of how they feel about the course content, they show greater engagement with material and maintain high levels of attendance. In line with the principles of ‘Learning and Teaching in the Round’, I use the physical space to further engage students and foster connections. During content delivery, I move around the classroom to interact with each table, using eye contact and gestures. This further flattens the hierarchy and promotes inclusive classroom dynamics. Additionally, I encourage the students to move around the space to engage in active learning-based activities. I design hands-on activities that engage students in distinctly different ways, which ensures that students have multiple opportunities to learn and succeed. For example, I utilise anatomical specimens to create immersive, tactile learning experiences; team-vs-team exercises to introduce a healthy element of competition; drawing activities to support creative and visual learning; and digital gamification to enhance engagement and reinforce key concepts in an interactive way.
What do you like most about teaching in your discipline?
One of the things that I love about teaching anatomy/physiology is that there is a direct relevance to the learner.
Almost every piece of knowledge delivered relates to something taking place in the human body at that exact moment in time. It doesn’t get any more relevant than that.Ingrid Sierp
Furthermore, I enjoy incorporating ‘fun facts’ into my content delivery, which serve as non-examinable, real-life applications of knowledge that spark curiosity and deepen student engagement with the material.
Another wonderful thing about teaching anatomy/physiology is the plethora of resources that are available to support the advancement of students' conceptual knowledge of the human body. Due to the complexity of anatomical subject matter, students can often find it difficult to determine ‘how it all fits together’. Here at the University, we are very fortunate to have access to skeletal material, anatomy/pathology pots, human cadaveric material and interactive, touchscreen tables to aid in teaching. Resources such as these bring the theoretical concepts to life, allowing students to engage with anatomy in an authentic way.
How does your teaching help prepare students for their future?
The use of a social constructivist approach, in conjunction with a diverse range of activities to consolidate knowledge, provides students with the opportunity to explore how they learn best. This is particularly important with first-year, school-leaver cohorts who are navigating the nuances of tertiary education, particularly relating to the reduction in one-on-one time with educators. Students knowing how to approach learning can set them up for success in their learning journey. Additionally, use of the social constructivist approach, which encourages active and open dialogue, helps to grow student confidence in communicating with both peers and educators and promotes respectful discourse. Given that our students are preparing for careers in the health sector, it is essential that they develop the ability to engage in conversations that lead to optimal patient outcomes.
What is your favourite way to use technology to enhance learning?
Anatomy/physiology subjects are notoriously content-heavy and are often perceived to be overwhelming. I utilise digital technology to reduce the students’ cognitive load and to encourage self-reflection on understanding. For example, when delivering live lecture material, I embed strategically timed interactive questions (Echo360 ‘live polls’ function) between key concepts to assess student comprehension in real-time and to serve as cognitive ‘circuit breakers’. These optional, anonymous interactions also function as formative assessments, giving students the opportunity to gauge their current level of understanding. Additionally, their responses to these interactions provide me with immediate feedback, enabling real-time, dynamic adjustments to content delivery rather than delaying improvements until future iterations.
This digital technology is equally effective for asynchronous online material, where interactive questions can be embedded into pre-recorded content using platforms such as H5P. Whether used for flipped content, revision material or content delivered solely online, incorporating multiple choice, drag-and-drop and fill-the-blank questions between concepts can transform the resource into an interactive, valuable learning tool.