ENroute Yearbook 2015-16
Demonstrating in Biomedical Science Laboratory Classes
Sunil Mathur, School of Applied Sciences, Associate Fellow
Laboratory demonstration classes are often synonymous with passive learning.
Student laboratory experience requires regular interaction with the environment and
other students, as well as availability of equipment.
In 2014, I had the opportunity to give a microbiology laboratory demonstration with
a senior colleague. For each class, we had 35 third-year students in attendance who
were required to run five rotations.
As microbiology is not my primary forte, I needed to polish up my skills to ensure
that my delivery of the subject was well-communicated to the students. More so,
there was a need to ensure that the atmosphere was engaging enough to create
a sense of purpose for the class. This was necessary because the relevance of the
skills learnt is expected to be applicable in real-life scenarios. This way, the students
would have the requisite skills needed to succeed in industry.
Firstly, I addressed concerns regarding Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) as the
laboratory could accommodate at least 35 students. This way, the class was
subconsciously grouped to effectively address student communication with myself
as it was easier to attend to and create more time for individual students, thereby
maintaining active learning and an engaging environment. Secondly, I designed and
used the PiVAF (Prior Introduction-Visual-Actual Class-Feedback) model which
involves prior introduction through visual learning (analogy/animation) in the class,
resulting in predication, observation, and explanation of the experiment.
Ob
se
rv
at
io
n
Im
pr
ov
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t
The PiVAF strategy helps students explore
Pr
ed
Learning
ica
and justify their own individual ideas,
tio
science
n
exclusively in prediction and reasoning
Prior
areas. I made it my aim to pull out the
Feedback
introduction
ideas from the student rather than
‘spoon feeding’ them by asking engaging
Actual
Visual learning
class
(eg animation,
Ex
questions and introducing required
pl
analogies)
an
techniques to be learnt. This approach
at
io
n
initiated the opportunity for active and
reflective reasoning among the students
Schematic design of PiVAF model
(Moon, 1999). Every session required
feedback to the student on their laboratory manual and practice and I always
encourage students to self-assess on a regular basis as it helps them to develop
their practical and critical skills (Boud, 1995). Furthermore, it helps me to understand
them personally and allows me to gain their confidence level in my teaching style.
The PiVAF strategy is an effective approach for eliciting and promoting discussions
of students’ science ideas. Every session was interactive and entertaining, but most
importantly educative. Every student achieved good grades in their practical session
as they followed GLP techniques to understand the importance of every session.
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