Catherine Macdona Assessing and Teaching for Dental Nurses

OUTCOMES:  Recognise the skills and attributes needed to become an effective assessor or tutor.  Discuss the importance of good communication skills relevant to the assessing and teaching process.  Have a clear understanding of the qualification process and where to access training.  Explore the career pathways for assessors and tutors working in dentistry.

Why become an assessor/tutor?

Advantages?  Opportunity to be able to have a new career.  A good way for me to maintain interest in my chosen profession.  Opportunity to be able to pass on my own skills and knowledge.  I will be constantly learning new things/ will keep me current.  Will help me to identify gaps in my own skills and knowledge.  ANY MORE?

Disadvantages?  Time element involved in retraining.  Lack of confidence in my abilities.  Lack of knowledge in my profession.  Worried about my lack of key skills.  Could I stand in front of a class and deliver a lecture?  ANY MORE?

Skills and Attributes  Organised  Professional  Honest  Articulate  Committed  Flexible  Good communication skills  Empathic  Respectful  Supportive  Patient  Realistic  Assertive  Fair

Challenges you may face when teaching adults.  Boundaries – even adults need rules!  Limited basic skills of your learners.  Bad experience/past experience.  Time issues – family pressures.  Cultural/language difficulties.

How can you overcome some of these barriers?  Identify key skills at initial training – signpost learners to access extra support.  Treat adults like adults! Let the class set some ground rules and write them down to refer to if needed.  Be professional at all times – let learners know they can come to you for support and advice.  Arrange 1 to 1 tutorials for learners who may need extra support.  COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY

QCF  Qualifications and Credit Framework is a national credit transfer system.  Every qualification has a credit value.  AWARD – 1 to 12 credits  CERTIFICATE – 13 to 36 credits  Diploma – 37 credits or more  I credit represents 10 hours of learning time

Assessing  Usually but not always one to one.  Can assess in a college or a work environment.  QUALIFICATIONS AVAILABLE: Three new QCF units replacing the A1/D33/32 Qualifications  Level 3 Award in understanding the principles and practices of assessment. This is a theory based assignment, suitable for people wishing to understand the role of the assessor, but not currently working with candidates.

Level 3 Award in assessing vocationally related achievement.  Suitable for those assessing in a college or training environment.  You must have access to at least two students.  You are required to plan four assessment activities – two for each student.  You will be observed by your college tutor at least once.  Portfolio of evidence required.  You complete Understand the principles and practices of assessment assignment as part of your award.

Level 3 Award in assessing competence in the workplace  The same criteria applies to assessing vocationally related achievement, but you assess learners in their place of work.  You can complete all three units together by taking the level 3 Certificate in assessing vocational achievement.

What next?  You could go on to complete Internal Quality Assurance qualifications within your place of work.  Become an internal verifier/moderator for the qualification you are involved with.  Assessing and mentoring other assessors.

PTLLS, CTLLS, DTLLS  Preparing to teach in the lifelong learning sector level 3/4  Certificate in teaching in the lifelong learning sector level 3/4  Diploma in teaching in the lifelong learning sector level 5 (also called Cert Ed)  (New suite of qualifications being rolled out in 2013).

Mentoring  A role usually taken on by an experienced person who can pass on their knowledge and experience to a less experienced colleague.  Can be formal or informal.  Focus is usually on career and personal development.  Mentoring courses are available in colleges/distance learning so you can achieve a formal qualification.

How do you see yourself?  How do your students see you?

A little bit about communication...  NON VERBAL – body language – including ACTIVE listening skills.  VERBAL – including paralinguistic – tone of your voice.

How would you handle the following situations? ACTIVITY

What will I learn?  Planning learning – how to identify needs  The training cycle  How to write session plans, schemes of work  Aims and objectives – SMART  Formative and summative assessment principles  Learning styles and how to use them effectively  Theories and principles of learning – humanist etc  A lot about yourself!

Berne’s(1973) Transactional Analysis Theory  A method of analysing communications between people.  He identified three personality states –  CHILD - PARENT - ADULT  Adult to adult state is best.  Recognition that people need encouragement and appreciation to achieve.  Can you think of any examples of these three states, perhaps in your own work environment?

MOTIVATION  Comes from within – a learner may want to learn something just because the subject interests them.  They may want to learn something in order to advance in their place of work/earn more money. INTRINSICEXTRINSIC Motivation can be difficult to sustain.

Maslow (1960) Hierarchy of needs

Responsibilities of a Tutor  Completing attendance records  Learners progress reports  Marking homework  Giving feedback  Preparing sessions/lessons  Attending standardisation meetings  Keeping records (very important)

Who can you go to for help?  Line manager where you deliver your course  Awarding body - NEBDN, CITY&GUILDS etc  An experienced colleague  A mentor  Internal moderator/verifier  External QA  Syllabus to follow

Feedback and evaluation  Feedback should be developmental and constructive.  Even negative feedback can be useful to a learner if given in a professional manner.  THE PRAISE SANDWICH!  Always try to turn negative to positive.  Evaluation of yourself and your session should be carried out also – a good teacher is always learning!

Feedback exercise

Legislation  Equal opportunities legislation  Health and safety  Data protection  Disability Discrimination  The protection of Children  GDC  The awarding body for your course – always follow the guidelines and principles laid down by them

What next?  Examiner for the NEBDN  Formal assessing position in a college  Informal assessing role in your place of work  Mentoring role/new staff/trainees  Formal teaching position in local college or training centre  The confidence to seek out other duties/place to work – confidence to further your nursing career (post qualifications?)

“By learning you will teach; by teaching you will learn” (Latin proverb, quoted in Sedgwick, 2008)

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