EDUCATION
Pedagogy Manifesto
Eye Care Technology is a technical program offering three pathways for success. The most saw out is the Associate Applied Science degree in which that graduate can choose to take either the certification for an ophthalmic assistant or technician though the Joint Commission Allied Health Personnel in Ophthalmology.
Two pedagogies used are the blended learning and flipped classroom. All eye care courses have some element of on-line use. In all the courses, materials, assignments including discussion boards and announcements are provided to the students on-line through San Jacinto College Blackboard system. In the face / face courses the student is given the materials the Saturday before the next class time. This gives the student two to three days to study the material for the next week. The student must be prepared to enter the lecture and lab sessions with the knowledge to be successful and use time wisely in the lab sessions. This is a technical program, students must bring knowledge from each course to the concurrent courses. An example of bringing knowledge forward is ocular pharmacology taught as a distance learning course at the same time the student is taking basic ophthalmic techniques course. The student must bring the knowledge and understanding of ocular pharmacology to the techniques course, where the student is performing medical history including medications and allergies to medications.
Flipped classroom pedagogy is introduced in ophthalmic techniques (OT) and again in advance ophthalmic techniques (AOT). Students guide each other in lab sessions in which they are learning the basic steps of an ophthalmic eye exam. The students role play as "mock" patients and then reverse the role of the technician. After a few weeks the advance ophthalmic technique students are introduced into the course. Those students then guide and instruct on their current knowledge of being in clinical rotations. And at the same time are developing their advanced skills with the OT students becoming the "mock" patient. This pedagogy has aided both the OT and AOT students to know where they are going and to remember where they have been.
Both of these pedagogy fall in line with the TPACK and Learning Pyramid models. Again, as a technical program, the students must learn the material, discuss the material, practice performing the skills in the material, teach the material to peers and be assessed on the performance of the material.
The student is given instruction, performing the task and teaches a lesson
References
Kelly, Rob, (2014), Five Pedagogical Practices to Improve Your Online Course, Magna Publications. http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/five-pedagogical-practices-improve-online-course/
Kelly, Rob (2013), Blended Learning: Integrating Online and F2F, Magna Publications. http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/blended-flipped-learning/blended-learning-integrating-online-and-face-to-face-courses/
Shibley, Ike (2011), Putting the Learning in Blended Learning, Magna Publications. http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/blended-flipped-learning/putting-the-learning-in-blended-learning/
Honeycutt, Barbi, (2016), Five Time-Saving Strategies for the Flipped Classroom, Magna Publications. http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/blended-flipped-learning/five-time-saving-strategies-flipped-classroom/
Honeycutt, Barbi, Garrett, Jennifer (2014) Expanding the Definition of a Flipped Learning Environment, Magna Publications. http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/blended-flipped-learning/expanding-definition-flipped-learning-environment/
Small-Benjes, Candice, Archer, Alyssa (2014) Tales of Undead.... Learning Theories: The Learning Pyramid, ARClog. http://acrlog.org/2014/01/13/tales-of-the-undead-learning-theories-the-learning-pyramid/
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