Brain Changers: A Quick Faculty Development Resource Series

Have you ever been on a mission? I mean the type of mission that consumes you all day, and you are always thinking about how you can achieve that goal. Those of you who know me or worked with me or have taken one of my classes or workshops probably have an idea about my mission, even if I never verbalized that goal directly. So, in an effort to make sure everyone is aware, I have decided to articulate my mission to everyone. Ready? My mission is to help you be the most effective educator you can be with an emphasis on learning science. My mission is to make you aware of learning science while you are training the next generation of health professionals. We know the necessary knowledge and skills in healthcare science is expanding at an exponential rate, and our learners (students, residents, fellows) do not have time to waste on ineffective and non-evidence-based learning strategies. They need the “good stuff”! They need the skills and strategies proven effective by our cognitive science colleagues. But how are our learners going to get those skills and strategies? You. You have to provide them!

This is an important component of my mission! I need you, the HSC faculty, to understand the latest in learning science and model those skills and strategies for your learners. I need you to recommend to your learners the evidence-based practices that have been shown, repeatedly, to work. If you were lucky enough to see Dr. Chris Barton’s HSC Faculty Development Educator Grand Rounds last week, you would remember him emphasizing that TEACHERS ARE BRAIN CHANGERS. What you do with students and trainees has a direct impact on the development of their neuropathways. Educators can positively impact the development of these pathways, or educators can do the opposite. My mission is to help ALL of you be the most influential brain changer to ALL your students and trainees.

At this point, you may be thinking, that’s nice Staci, but I don’t have the time to come to faculty development programs or take a formal course. My response is simple. I know the challenges you face day in and day out. I understand the struggles, and I can empathize with the lack of time to do everything you are expected to do daily. So let me help you. I would like to provide you with short and simple resources that can make small changes in what you do with learners every day. My goal is to take about five minutes for each resource, be it a post to read, a podcast to listen to, or a video to watch. I will introduce two different resources each month. One that will help you as an educator in your professional growth and the other resource that can benefit your students during their self-study process. Today I will provide links to quick videos:

• The first resource for your professional growth is a four and a half minute video that discusses the Myth of Learning Styles. As an educator, I find it odd that the idea of learning styles is still prevalent even though there has been no research to support this idea!
• Next are resources to share with your learners. First is a one and a half minute video that discusses the problem with highlighting, and the other video is four minutes long and will provide students with other options to study instead of highlighting.

I hope you will help me with my mission. UofL is a great place to learn, but together we can make it even better!

Do you have specific questions about teaching and learning? Feel free to ask, and if I don’t know the answer, I will ask some experts. Email me @ staci.saner@louisville.edu

If the embed links in the text are not working, you can copy and paste the following URLs into a browser.

Myth of Learning Styles: https://youtu.be/NvM4mnEIxuQ

Problem with highlighting: https://youtu.be/2TRBJfI7nAs

Get more bang for your buck studying: https://youtu.be/7nI62dU58GE

Link to the recording of Dr. Chris Barton’s Educator Grand Rounds from January 12, 2021: https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/722de00f-0dc6-4c8d-b7cb-921bf9b97313