LM324 - Now That's a Great Question! Using Effective Questioning to Enhance Clinical Education

Abstract:
There is no such thing as a stupid question, but there are better ways to ask questions to enhance the learning. Preceptors often use questioning as a method to better understand a graduate clinician's depth of knowledge. What if this tool could also be used to enhance the clinical education of the student? By asking questions that are scaffolded to meet the learner where they are and support them in developing their skills preceptors can deep their training of gradate clinicians. This session will focus on using Bloom's Taxonomy to assist preceptors in developing questions that scaffold student learning.

Summary:
Clinical education is a cornerstone of the education and training for the Doctor of Audiology. This aspect of the graduate clinician's education comes from practicing clinicians who likely have no had specific training in how to be an educator. The good news is that clinician's do not need to re-invent the wheel. Preceptors can improve their ability to support graduate clinicians by looking to other areas such as education for effective tools.

Questioning is an educational tool that not only assesses a learner's knowledge, but used appropriately can also engage the learner, reinforce concepts, and refine understanding. Preceptors can tap into the power of using questions in their role as a clinical educator to create an enriching learning environment. By scaffolding questions a graduate clinician can move beyond simply doing a task to having a deeper understanding of the implications of completing that task. The key to this tool is preceptors knowing the higher order questions to ask!

Bloom's Taxonomy is a framework educators use to categorize educational goals. When Bloom's Taxonomy is applied to questioning it is possible to help learners develop their higher-order, critical thinking skills. Audiology preceptors both with the university setting and in the community can enhance their support of students by varying the levels of their questions. This will enrich the clinical education experience for the graduate clinician and support their growth.

This session starts with orienting all attendees to the importance of using questions as a tool in education and Bloom's Taxonomy. The goal of this aspect is to ensure understanding and looking outside of our field to support this educational tool. This will be followed by group activity and development of questions at different levels of Bloom's Taxonomy that clinicians can use right away with students in their clinic. Overall, the goal of this session is to be practical and assist clinical educators gain strategies for strengthening their precepting.