Summary of Teaching
The proposed teaching plan targets to get the students acquainted with the Disease Prevention and Health Promotion activity. In order to ensure that the teaching is of a practical character, it is proposed to narrow the scope of the material to the HIV/AIDS prevention problem.
The proposed teaching plan targeted a series of objectives. At the knowledge level, the students are expected to get a clear idea of the disease spread, prevention, and the key participants of the change. At the comprehension level, they are supposed to acquire a profound understanding of the key mechanisms of the prevention measures and the change communication. At the application level, the teaching targets to help the learners to apply the new knowledge to the generation of the new ideas.
The constructivism learning theory is applied as the framework of the proposed teaching. Hence, it is assumed that the teaching process will be more effective, in case the learners are not provided with the ready-made material but employ their knowledge to generate their own concepts.
A particular focus is put on the learners’ readiness to perceive the proposed information. Hence, it is assumed critical that the emotional barriers are eliminated; therefore, the teaching process will be carried out in a friendly and tense-free manner, putting a particular emphasis on such forms of work as common discussions and group activities.
The teaching program has a multi-level structure. First and foremost, the students will be provided with a brief overview of the topic and the related statistics. Hence, they will receive the materials’ summary in advance, so that they possess the essential knowledge when they come to the class. During the class, the students will get acquainted with such aspects as the sources of the infection transmission, the main preventative measures, and the key population groups that need to be addressed. The final stage of the teaching implies designing a consistent Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Program
At the end of the class, all the students will be proposed to complete a test to examine their understanding of the studied material. They will also receive two individual assignments to do at home: a reflective essay and a report in order to evaluate the depth of their comprehension and encourage them to perform additional research. From the assessment perspective, the most important element is the projects’ presentations that will illustrate how students apply their knowledge to the design of new complex concepts. The students will also be encouraged to leave their feedback on the class’s structure and their recommendations for its improvement.
Epidemiological Rationale for Topic
In the process of selecting an appropriate topic for the proposed teaching, several aspects were considered. First and foremost, it was assumed critical to choose such a topic that would be particularly acute in the selected community. Students are less likely to get interested in the problem that does not relate to their environment immediately. Secondly, it was considered important to focus on a specific issue. Hence, Disease Prevention and Health Promotion activity is a very broad area that is problematic to analyze unless narrowing it to a particular aspect. Finally, it was considered crucial to choose such a problem that can be addressed and resolved in practice. In other words, it is assumed that students will feel more engaged if they realize that their participation might change something.
Hence, research shows that the Disease Prevention and Health Promotion problem is of high significance for the Miami region. There are little committees and organizations that focus on this kind of activity specifically. In the meantime, there is a Consortium for a Healthier Miami-Dade that claims to promote health and disease prevention through education and the support of healthy behavior (Consortium for a Healthier Miami-Dade, 2011). Therefore, it is considered rational to focus on this topic as, on the one hand, it seems to be insufficiently addressed in the target community; on the other hand, there are some organizations that might agree to collaborate.
While trying to narrow the problem, the burden of different diseases was carefully examined. As a result, it was found out that the main concern of this region is HIV/AIDS. According to the official statistics, the major point of concern in Miami, Florida, is the rapid growth of the HIV/AIDS incidence. In 2014, Miami exhibited the highest AIDS/HIV rate throughout the USA. Within only four years, the incidence rate grew by almost 6%, and within ten years, it increased by 23%.
The health care community explains this rapid growth by the fact that the major part of the population of Miami is composed of Hispanics and Latinos. Statistics likewise reports that one in 99 residents in Miami is HIV-infected. Therefore, it is considered rational to elucidate the problem of HIV/AIDS in the context of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
The recent data provided by the Florida Department of Health In Miami-Dade County shows that the most typical sources of the disease transmission are bisexual contacts, unprotected sex, and injections (Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County, 2016).
It means that the spread of the disease can be impeded in case the appropriate preventative measures are applied. Therefore, it is supposed that students might get interested in the problem as they will see the prospects of their participation and change performance. In addition, statistics show that the key risk groups are represented by Hispanics and Latinos from the racial standpoint and by bisexuals, transgender individuals, and drug addicts from the social perspective (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). In other words, working with this problem implies addressing the so-called “problematic” groups that can be useful for the development of the students’ tolerance and multi-cultural competence.
Evaluation of Teaching Experience
It is proposed that the evaluation of teaching experience is carried out with the help of three tools: students’ feedback, peer evaluation, and self-evaluation (Oxford Learning Institute, 2016). The former element is of particular importance as one of the key aims of teaching resides in getting the students interested in the proposed subject and inspiring them to perform additional research. Therefore, the students’ opinion of the class is very important.
Thus, it is proposed that every student is welcomed to leave his or her feedback including their recommendations related to potential improvements. Nowadays, there is a large scope of instruments that enable a teacher to collect the necessary feedback in a quick and easy manner. Hence, for instance, the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching recommends such tools as SurveyMonkey and Qualtrics. These web survey platforms allow designing simple questionnaires and spreading them within the target population (Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, 2016).
The second element is peer evaluation. It is critical as it can provide the expert assessment of the proposed teaching program. Peer evaluation can be carried out in two forms. First of all, peers can be involved to examine the draft teaching plan and comment on its structure and content. Secondly, they can be welcomed to visit the class and evaluate the immediate process of teaching. It is proposed that both forms are used.
A peer review of the draft plan will help to point out some strategic drawbacks and make the theoretical material more comprehensible. The peers’ presence in the class, in its turn, will assist in determining the communication problems and the key flaws of the explanation method.
The last element is self-evaluation. In order to assess the outcomes of the proposed teaching accurately, it is necessary to set initially clear and concise goals so that it will be possible to check whether the real outcomes meet the targeted objectives. The Oxford Learning Institute also recommends comparing the personal teaching experience with that of being taught. Hence, it is proposed to choose the most successful classes from the past and analyze whether the proposed class is equally interesting and informative (Oxford Learning Institute, 2016).
Community Response to Teaching
On the whole, it is expected that the community response to the proposed teaching will be positive. Hence, the main forms of work will be common discussions and group work that generally reduce the tension and encourage students to use their creativity. In addition, the learners will be stimulated to apply all their knowledge to generate their answers and new ideas; hence, they are more likely to be involved in the process.
It is believed that the best way to ensure community engagement is to let it feel that its actions can be significant. The selected problem is likely to assist in reaching this goal – the students will see that their knowledge can be used to generate new Disease Prevention strategies, and their communicative skills can be applied to addressing the target population groups. Otherwise stated, the proposed class will help them realize their professional significance.
In the meantime, it is realized that the problem of HIV/AIDS prevention is not a novelty for third-grade students. Thus, they should have already examined this problem throughout their studies. As a result, some of the students might show a lack of interest in the subject assuming that they already know everything about it. For this reason, it is proposed to focus on the practical application of the existing knowledge rather than retelling the theoretic background once again.
Areas of Strengths and Areas of Improvement
It is believed that the main strength of the proposed teaching is its practical character. Hence, it is mainly targeted to encourage students to employ their analytical skills to problem-solving and try their hands at the change-making process. Another advantage of this teaching concept is the evaluation element. Hence, it is believed that the proposed evaluation pattern includes all the effective evaluation tools that are currently available.
Speaking about potential areas of improvement, it is supposed that there might be some problems with the insurance of the essential theoretical base. Hence, even though the students will be provided with the problem’s summary in advance, it does not guarantee that they will essentially study the materials. Hence, it might turn out that some of the students have a clear idea of the discussed subject, whereas others have little knowledge of it and thus, feel too unconfident to participate in the discussion.
Reference List
Care Resource. (2014). HIV/AIDS statistics. Web.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016). Today’s HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Center for Research on Learning and Teaching. (2016). Evaluation of Teaching.
Consortium for a Healthier Miami-Dade. (2001). Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.
Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County. (2016). HIV/AIDS Surveillance.
Oxford Learning Institute. (2016). Evaluating your teaching. Web.