New developments

Life does keep popping up with things to keep it interesting. I have been corresponding a little bit with Flinders University and on Friday I received a call from the aphasia lecturer there. We had a chat about potential roles for me and she said she would get back to me once she had spoken with her manager. It was a really good conversation - it lasted for awhile and we found out we know many of the same people (as you will when you're speech pathologists in Adelaide). Anyhow, yesterday I got an e-mail from her offering me the chance to do a guest lecture at Flinders and provide tutorial support for the third year students in their aphasia course! So there you go...me, lecturing at a university, and getting paid for it...madness! The Flinders program is structured differently than the one at UQ and I think universities are starting to head more towards the model Flinders is using, which is problem based learning. Instead of stuffing around and trying to describe this, I'm going to search for a definition and slot it in here: WHAT IS PROBLEM BASED LEARNING? Traditionally, students learn by listening to lectures and reading, and are assessed on their ability to recall and communicate what they have learned. With problem-based learning, students are assessed on their ability to go through a problem solving process. WHY PBL? Research shows that PBL gives the learner greater long-term benefits than traditional learning, and many successful and progressive universities around the world use it in their courses. Graduates of PBL courses advance faster and further in their careers. Other benefits of PBL: Develops critical and creative thinking; Creates effective problem-solvers; Increases motivation; Encourages lateral thinking; Improves communication and networking skills; Is based on real-life situations. WHAT IS INVOLVED? Every PBL project is carefully designed by experts to expose you to the information and skills that we want you to learn. When assigned a project, you are given: A statement of the problem (eg. diseased animal; failing business; anorexia case study); Questions to consider when solving the problem; A framework for the time and effort you should spend on the project; Support from the school. The problems that you will solve in your course will relate to what you are learning. They are problems that you might encounter when working that field, adapted to your level of study . I think it's definitely a good model and I'm looking forward to being involved with it. The reason I bring this up is that this is where my tutorial support comes in - I will be the person who guides the group as they discuss the case. Flinders has also offered me the chance to come in any time and use a "hot desk". This could be very useful as sometimes it's difficult to fully focus at home, where it is easy to go make another cup of tea or have a nap. It will also be nice to be in an academic environment. Besides all that, I'm still plugging away at my PhD. I sent in the draft of my introduction to my narrative review for my advisors to read/critique. I have started recruiting for my first studies. It's all rolling along. Jeremy is busy at the practice in Clare. Currently, the practice consists of Jeremy's boss (the consultant), another registrar with a bit more experience than Jeremy, and Jeremy. Unfortunately the other registrar will be leaving just after we return from our holiday (early August) and there will be no one replacing him. This means things are about to get very busy for Jeremy...but I suppose it will be a good learning experience?? I have less driving to do these last weeks because Jeremy is often in Adelaide for courses. LAst Saturday he did a full day course on shared care, which enables him to look after pregnant women as a GP in conjunction with the obstetrician. This week, he has another course with AOGP and then will go out to the Coorong National Park for some Aboriginal cultural awareness training. This will involve camping and sounds pretty cool! That's pretty much it at the moment. I just have to complain again - I DO format these posts into paragraphs, but for some extremely annoying reason this blog program has started publishing it as one giant block and this irritates me to no end :/