Reflection. Part 5: informal and formal reflection

I still remember the first lesson I taught as a clinically based nurse teacher over 30 years ago. I was employed by a college of nursing, but the duties involved visiting students in their clinical placements and helping them learn on a one-to-one basis. I visited Jane, a student nurse in her second year of training and asked her what she would like to learn while on her placement, after a while she said ‘epilepsy’. I said I would return next week and confirmed a time. I then spent many hours reading all I could about epilepsy and condensing the information in a number of text books into my notes. I returned the following week and Jane and I sat down in a quiet area and she listened patiently while I spent about an hour regurgitating my notes on various types of epilepsy, treatments and first aid. Jane was wonderful and listened so patiently. Jane may have learnt a few facts about epilepsy, but I doubt if she retained much after a few days. I might have been ‘teaching’, but I doubt if she was ‘learning’.