The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

No students were harmed in the making of this blog – not physically but perhaps a few bruised egos maybe.

             

In my line of business I don’t pander to the late phone call or e-mail of distress… “I’ve left it very late to hand in my essay…can you help me? ”.

I am always happy to help the “ I’m just a bit stuck…can you help?” student,  and use a mental algorithm [more like a professional barometer] before deflecting the more panic stricken soul back to their rightful tutor if that is needed. It's just not professional to offer support otherwise, the work won’t be organic, just rushed.

The problem always stems from a lack of reading or sticking with material that just doesn’t inspire. As academics, we guide students to resources and/or people that still inspire us but the term horse to water springs to mind.  There is a formula that works on the whole and it is about not teaching just to assess. It doesn’t always work in reality. Students on the whole will flip through module handbooks and wince at the challenge of the Learning Outcomes and the old chestnut comes up even before the timetable or reading material section has been touched, especially in Higher Education…

“Can you just explain what critical analysis means again please? ”

                

The struggling student always seems to take shortcuts, they READ, to ANSWER… they travel such a small step. You can see the evidence of repetitive strain injury in their swollen index finger from flipping journal pages trying to find a “quote” that goes with an idea.  Their eureka moment never seems to come and the lack of a sense of purpose or connection with their subject remains lost. It becomes a chore, a hurdle rather than an opportunity to test themselves and gather skills or knowledge for their professional toolbox.

I start by asking a student to be honest with me.  I ask them to sell to me what they have just read… “Come on tell me about it….....why do you like it…....is it believable….....do you trust it and, what do you get from reading it?”

The sucker punch on the whole is my  “Are you inspired by it ?” question.

There are simple steps to recovery if we are truly asking health and social care students to connect with their subjects and be inspired. Curriculum designers should not focus on the assessment so much but the process of getting there.  Students need shown how to move from casual reading to researching with intent, cognitive intent. 

When I am in marking mode, I don’t really want to see an array of soulless referenced material. For a good mark, I want to know what has been gained from the student reading the referenced material and for a higher end mark at undergraduate and postgraduate level, how it will help them innovate and create new ideas. It’s not really asking too much.

          

They don't give gold medals to academics but a worthy one is James Atherton - a very modest education guru who deserves more praise. His blog and explanation of education processes are sound e.g Bloom’s Taxonomy Model  [classifications of learning] . All too often students achieving lower end marks [and a disappointing fail] misunderstand Bloom’s hierarchical framework and their knowledge of it is dated and just not useful. Atherton highlights changes made over a decade ago to the stepping stones of movement through Bloom’s 1956 Taxonomy Model and the “create” challenge is probably more applicable now, half a century on, as we struggle to empower nursing, midwifery and healthcare students to feel strong, lift their shoulders up and tackle change in today’s NHS.

Critical analysis comes from thinking critically and reading critically.

Even if it is in print...black and white....it's not necessarily true.

Thinking critically is about being professionally suspicious, being sceptical about what is seen or read.

Think with some cynicism before taking on frameworks to critically evaluate research  or exuding the confidence of Tricia Greenhalgh [despite her being a brilliant author]. 

Take a look at these two You Tube films and although they have nothing to do with health care [perhaps a few injuries maybe] viewers should be inspired by the effort, practice and skill that has gone into all the tricks, stunts and general tomfoolery. However, view them with some cynicism. Before you start talking them up, take a moment to think about the pillars of deeper thinking and critique:  is what you see credible, and wholly trustworthy ???

[Sadly I had to burst the bubble of belief in my teenage son with some of the content....1000' s of Google contributors and hard evidence of editing mischief can't be wrong].

Film One

Film Two

1    Reading [and writing] critically is a also skill. So in order to make the leap to undertake critically analysis, time must be taken to be disciplined and master the demands [and art] of answering other key verbs [known as active or action verbs: doing words] as stepping stones to reach the depth of writing required, regardless of the order tackled first:

Define, List, Outline, Name, Explain, Evaluate, Compare, Summarise and Analyse

Master these first...don't just drift along.

So, if you are reading this before making a call for some help, or steering someone else to call…..my opening questions will be:

What have you been reading-  what do you remember about it?

Did it inspire you ?

Did you understand it?

Could you tell me about it in your own words?

Can you apply it?

Was it credible, valid and could you trust it?

Can you use it to analyse?

Why are you not including this in your repertoire of skills already, what has been stopping you?

Evaluate

Whats it’s value perhaps or is it valid?

Creativity

How can you use this to influence or modify your leadership or management of care?

Good luck.