HelpfromHobson

Observing a trainee today. She asks a student: "And where does fertilisation take place?" He isn't sure, she tries prompting him once but he doesn't know. She goes to someone else, who says "The oviduct" She then goes back to the initial student and says "So what happens in the oviduct?" And he says "fertilisation." It's a very short interaction, but it's really lovely teaching. First, the principle of going back to students who get stuff wrong (at Carousel Teaching we call this "Looping.") Second, not just going back to them with the exact same question, but slightly tweaking it. This lowers the chances of students just mimicking each other by introducing a bit more cognitive effort. Of course, we would want to recheck later, but this moment was handled perfectly. To be clear: I don’t think teaching like this is particularly difficult. But I get to see hundreds of lessons across the country, and it is definitely uncommon. If you want to teach like this, or you want to support your colleagues do so, let us help!

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