Fostering Learning in Small Groups: A Practical Guide (Springer Series on Medical Education) - Softcover

Westberg, PhD Jane

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0826193315 ISBN 13: 9780826193315

Publisher: Springer Publishing Company, 2004

Synopsis

Drawing on years of experience, the authors address the questions that educators may have about teaching small groups in the health professions. The first half of the book focuses on practical strategies involved in planning and facilitating learning in small groups. The authors discuss the characteristics of effective groups and emphasize the importance of using a collaborative approach. The second half focuses on planning for leading small groups that have specific purposes, such as providing a forum for discussion and dialogue, teaching communication skills, and helping learners to reflect on their patient care experience, and more. The book's broad orientation and practical emphasis will be useful to all educator in health care.

About this title

About the Author

Jane Westberg, PhD, is Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Faculty Associate in the Ethics and Humanities Program at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. She is also Associate Editor of Education for Health and Co-Director of the Center for Instructional Support in Boulder, Colorado. Previously, she served on the faculties of the University of Miami School of Medicine (where she was Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Associate Director of the National Center for Faculty Development) and George Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Westberg has consulted with, and designed and facilitated workshops for, thousands of health professions educators in a wide range of areas, particularly teaching, learning and communication in education and health care. She has written numerous articles, chapters, and instructional materials for health professionals and is senior author (coauthor Hilliard Jason) of the CIS GuideBooks: Providing Constructive Feedback (1991) and Making Presentations (1991), and of the Springer Publishing Company books: Collaborative Clinical Education: The Foundation of Effective Health Care (1993), Teaching Creatively with Video: Fostering Reflection, Communication and Other Clinical Skills (1994), and Fostering Learning in Small Groups: A Practical Guide (1996), all with Hilliard Jason. She is co-author, also with Jason, of Teachers and Teaching in U.S. Medical Schools and lead writer and producer-director of more than 40 educational video programs and an audiotape program and set of manuals entitled, Spanish in Health Care, which is designed to help students and professionals learn the Spanish needed for interacting with Spanish-speaking patients.

Review

"Westberg and Jason provide a most complete guide to small group content, indicating how it can be used for communicating skills, for problem solving, for enhancing clinical judgment, for honing attitudes, and for a variety of other desired educational outcomes. The text is replete with practical, down-to-earth information....I find this text a most valuable contribution to the educational literature for health professionals. One might parallel the advertising slogan by saying 'Don't begin instruction without it!'"--

--Vincent A. Fulginiti, MD, Chancellor and Professor of Pediatrics, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer Publishing Company
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0826193315
• ISBN 13: 9780826193315
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288