The benefits of therapy dogs for Students

My daughter and I deliver the local Victoria News free newspaper together twice a week.   I was reading an article about the benefits of pet relationships in health related settings in the Wednesday, December 28 edition of this paper.  The article went on to say that interactions with dogs lowers stress, the focus is on the dog and if you have a focus the symptoms reduce.  Dog therapy is calming and lowers anxiety levels so much.

The benefits of volunteer therapy dogs have also been recognized with university students and for children at elementary schools.

Twice a year before exam time, UVIC student volunteers organize an event to help students get through one of the most stressful parts of the year.  Along with a variety of other free activities pet therapy dogs are brought on campus to help ease student anxiety.  Basically the event involves sitting on the floor, petting and playing with friendly dogs and talking with their owners.

At my daughters school the school counselor has a rescue dog named Jimmy who accompanies her on class visits and is available for kids to spend time with in her office.

I have tried this strategy before in my classroom and I love it!  One year when I was teaching first year students a Patient Care course I brought my five year old Havanese dog Coco in for a visit a couple of days prior to final exams.  He is not a certified pet therapy dog but he is super friendly, loves people and wagged and licked his way around the room.  He spent the 50 minute block with us in class and both he and the students thoroughly enjoyed themselves.  These students now have nine months left before graduation and this term whilst doing a liaison position for the college where I work, I visited them at their clinical practicum sites.  These students expressed once again how much they loved being able to spend time with Coco.  I would most definitely do this again for students as I think that it is a great way to ease stress and anxiety levels.

Whether you are a dog love or not I believe that dogs make us healthier and can help to create a positive learning environment in classrooms.

https://www.dal.ca/news/2012/12/05/dal-goes-to-the-dogs.html

https://www.utoronto.ca/news/bark-break

http://www.uvic.ca/alumni/home/home/news/archive/de-stress-fest.php

Characteristics of Adult Learners

     There are many different ideas around how adults learn.  This blog post discusses some of the main characteristics of adult learners and then compares these with how children learn.  This information is based mainly on information taken from the course text and from the attached article.  The information in the article and the text are pretty much in line with one another.  At the end, I have summarized a few ideas of how I design my classroom instruction to suit the needs of adult learners in my classroom.                                  

     To begin, it seems like adults often like to be more in control of their learning.  Adults who are responsible for their lives and decision making, tend to be more self directed and less dependent than children who are learning.  Often times because adults are juggling many roles, the more flexible a program is the more opportunity there will be for an adult learner to be successful. 

     Also, adults often draw on life experience when learning and frequently life’s experiences or an adult’s stage in life will create a need to learn.  In the text, Adult Learning: Linking Theory and Practice, it states that for adults, their experience is who they are whereas for children experience is something that is happening to them. (p. 50) For children who they are is derived mainly from things that are external to them such as family or where they grow up.  

     Generally, adults choose to learn to either improve their situation or for professional or personal growth.  As a result, there is often a desire for immediate application of knowledge learned.   Children on the other hand spend a majority of their time learning in preparation for future tasks and responsibilities.

     Finally, because there is a tendency for adults to draw on prior knowledge and experience when in a learning situation this may cause some adults to be less open minded and more resistant to change or new ways of doing things.  As opposed to ignoring a participant’s life experience it should be used as a rich resource and should be drawn on in the adult learning environment. 

I think that there are many ways that classroom instruction can be designed to suit adult learners.       I feel that it is important to create a community in the classroom from day one.  Students should feel a sense of belonging and they should feel comfortable and safe; there should be a trust relationship between students and instructor.  Icebreaker activities are a great way to have students and instructor interacting from day one.  In this kind of environment everyone can contribute to planning course content together.  Classroom activities involving role playing or discussion groups (think, pair, share) allow learners to draw from their experience when learning and work together to problem solve.  Also, discussing theory and then following this immediately with an application either in lab or the classroom helps to solidify the material and show the why for what is being covered.   

 https://elearningindustry.com/8-important-characteristics-of-adult-learners

                                                      

Trends in Adult Education

Personally the only way that I am able to juggle a half time job at the hospital, a half time teaching position at the college,  maintain my family commitments and do  PIDP 3100 so that I have some teaching credentials, is because it is an online course.   According to the article, “Becoming the Majority: Adult Students on the Rise”, there is considerable growth in the adult student population in post secondary institutions with more than 40% of all enrolments being students age 25 and older.  Further, adults require unique programs since going to school during the day is not an option.  These programs might be accelerated classes, those which are offered one night a week, or in my case an online format.   Online learning makes education for adults accessible.  Benefits include the ability to log on to courses at nearly any time or location, which means convenience and flexibility for the learner, and the option to complete a program more quickly.   After reading the attached article I realise that I am smack dab in the middle of this latest trend.  Although I often feel overextended I am so thrilled to be able to improve my skills as a teacher through the PIDP program despite how busy my life is right now.

https://evolllution.com/opinions/majority-adult-students-rise/

Trends in my Field

I took an x-ray today on a patient who professed to weigh a quarter of a ton.    Not only was it extremely difficult for this patient to maintain the appropriate positions for a quality image, but it was also very challenging to modify technical factors in order for diagnostic images to be obtained.   After the procedure was completed I realised that my patient actually exceeded the maximum table weight of 330lbs but fortunately no damage was done to my equipment.  Upon the patient’s request the volunteer then sought out a special bariatric wheelchair to assist him in getting out of the x-ray room since laying down for his images left him feeling lightheaded.  

I have been working in the health care field, more precisely as a Medical Radiography Technologist for twenty years.  One of the trends that I have noticed with regards to my patients is an overall increase in their size.   Not only are more Americans overweight but so are more Canadians. There are many unique challenges that overweight and obese patients present to Medical Imaging departments. 

Check the attached link and you will find more information about this trend in Medical Radiography Technology.

http://www.ajronline.org/doi/full/10.2214/AJR.06.0409