PGY-1 Pharmacy Resident
Holy Cross Hospital
Most of us had experienced bad teaching at some point in our student lives. But the question is whether that experience is purely due to lack of competency as perceived by your educator or if there are other factors that were simply overlooked from the learner’s perspective. In my fourth year of pharmacy school, I had a preceptor who expected everything but have done nothing to guide me through the learning experience and I also had a preceptor whom on day one of my rotations asked me how I learn best and followed through. These two examples might be on two extreme opposite ends, but it is my belief that educators need to meet their learners where they are and guide them through where they expect them to be. Providing proper guidance is almost impossible without getting to know your learners’ backgrounds. If you don’t make the effort to get to know them, it’ll be hard to find out how much of an impact, if any, you have made in their learning experiences. Therefore, the first thing an educator should consider is balancing between spoon-feeding and guiding the learner appropriately.
Even though the meaning of spoon-feeding is well understood, there’s not a well-defined instructional practice that illustrates it.1 What is considered an example of spoon-feeding? A well-organized syllabus with objectives fully spelled out, a well-designed course or an exam review session where the teacher explains the answers to each question in detail? Moreover, besides being able to spot spoon-feeding in an instructional system, it is also crucial to identify learners background and level of education to differentiate the concept of spoon-feeding based on their past learning experiences.1 For instance, most pharmacy schools in the US do not require a bachelor’s degree to join their program. As a result, first year pharmacy students have different backgrounds; some completed their bachelor’s degree, some simply went through the pre-requisite requirements and others come with a few years of work experiences. In this case, would it be appropriate to set the same expectations for the entire classroom in their first year of school? I believe instructors need to take careful considerations and draw a line between the fear of spoon feeding and leaving their learners unguided.
Another concept that is often considered spoon-feeding is the use of an explicit assessment criteria. A fundamental goal of higher education must be to support learners to manage their own earning.2,3 As a result, clearly stating expectations, outlining course objectives as well as creating a well-defined assessment is the paramount of supporting students to enhance their learning experiences. The EAT framework is a research-based pedagogy that states that the purposes, processes, and requirements of assessment are clear and explicit to students.4 It includes three dimensions of practice; assessment literacy, assessment feedback and assessment design. These three dimensions are interconnected and each of them have a series of four areas for lecturers, students, and program leaders/ directors to consider. The assessment literacy component urges lecturers to clarify the requirement of the discipline, student entitlement, how assessment elements fit together and what constitutes good academic practice. This will provide students with diverse backgrounds to have equal opportunity and access to learning environments.
Teaching should never be a “one size fits all” approach. Instructors should focus more on making effort to close the gap between learners’ background and their level of expectations and pay less attention to crossing the line of appropriate guidance. At the end of the day the most important thing is helping students reach their destinations by enhancing their own learning.
References
1. Going Beyond the Spoon-feeding Metaphor. Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning. Published May 31, 2017. Accessed September 30, 2021. Available at https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-classroom-management/going-beyond-spoon-feeding-metaphor/
2. Balloo K, Evans C, Hughes A, Zhu X, Winstone N. Transparency Isn’t Spoon-Feeding: How a Transformative Approach to the Use of Explicit Assessment Criteria Can Support Student Self-Regulation. Frontiers in Education. 2018;3:69. doi:10.3389/feduc.2018.00069
3. Boud, D. (2000). Sustainable assessment: rethinking assessment for the learning society. Stud. Contin. Educ. 22, 151–167. doi: 10.1080/713695728.
4. EAT Framework. Accessed September 30, 2021. Available at https://www.eatframework.com/eat-framework
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