A Double Lesson

Our feedback exercise in class led us to draw attention to behaviors in class that we might need to evaluate and adjust in order to improve our professional demeanor as OTAs. The lesson itself was enlightening, as we each had the opportunity to be evaluated by our peers and then reflect on their thoughts. I found it fascinating that as we discussed our "flaws" there came to light the fact that maybe some of the things we perceived as flaws, were in fact, often just differences in learning styles. For example, some students were told that they were too quiet in class, didn't participate enough, others were told the exact opposite. When this was discussed, it was explained that this level of participation was really about their learning style more than it was about level of comfort, shyness, or even intelligence.

This lead me to the realization that although we are all students in the same class, learning the same things, we are all learning in a different way and it is very important to acknowledge and accept these differences. Participating verbally a lot or a little is not objectively a good or bad thing that needs to be changed.

In practice as OTAS, we will often be in the "teaching" role and have to adjust what we are teaching to a huge variety of deficits, illnesses and learning styles. Just as we need to understand and adjust to our peers now, we will need to be able to adapt our treatments to our patients learning styles to be effective.

The lesson that I took from our class on negative feedback was the importance of flexibility and tolerance as students and eventually OTAs.

The link provided is to a site that discusses learning styles and even gives you a free test to determine your own learning style. I think it is extremely important to learn your own style to be an effective student, but also to understand the other styles to be an effective leader.