How we learn is a fascinating subject that even students who have reached professional school have not mastered. WesternU faculty member Linda Garavalia, PhD, presented the latest research on learning to the Seminar Elective course offered to the first year Class of 2019. A couple of reflections written by student pharmacists in the course are posted below:
Reflection#1: Sherry Kuo, PharmD Candidate 2019
Dr. Linda Garavalia went over how people learn which I found quite interesting. I already knew that people only learn what they pay attention to and that reading something repeatedly isn’t the best way to learn something, but I was surprised by how we learn. Though people may receive the same stimuli, they construct different meanings from it and the more ambiguous something is, the more likely we are to make assumptions. When Dr. Garavalia read us a story and quizzed us on it, I missed questions because my assumptions misled me. This might explain my tendency to pick well-disguised wrong answers, because I’ve noticed that my reasoning is at fault, not my knowledge level. I will try to focus only on information presented in the question to help me find the best answer and try to recognize when I’m making assumptions, to avoid making erroneous conclusions. Not only will this help me perform better on examinations, it will also further develop my critical thinking skills.
Reflection #2: Joseph Kanaan, PharmD 2019
The topic that was covered by Dr. Garavalia was important to me as a student because it concentrated on different ways that I can learn and understand new information. Specifically, we learned that cramming is no good and that memorization is not the best way to learn. It is crucial to continuously learn the certain material so that you better apply it later on in life, and not just on examinations. As a pharmacy student, we learned techniques to help consult our patients later on when we actually become licensed pharmacists. My keeper lies within this aspect. It is easier to remember something that is said first and last, so it will be necessary to include all special instructions during these areas. To better help the patient understand everything that is said, we need to get rid of all ambiguity that may exist. As a health care professional, a pharmacist will always want to fill in all the blanks so that the patient will not assume something and endanger themselves due to the miscommunication. Overall, I greatly enjoyed Dr. Garavalia’s presentation and would love to have her back for more lectures.
Reflection#1: Sherry Kuo, PharmD Candidate 2019
Dr. Linda Garavalia went over how people learn which I found quite interesting. I already knew that people only learn what they pay attention to and that reading something repeatedly isn’t the best way to learn something, but I was surprised by how we learn. Though people may receive the same stimuli, they construct different meanings from it and the more ambiguous something is, the more likely we are to make assumptions. When Dr. Garavalia read us a story and quizzed us on it, I missed questions because my assumptions misled me. This might explain my tendency to pick well-disguised wrong answers, because I’ve noticed that my reasoning is at fault, not my knowledge level. I will try to focus only on information presented in the question to help me find the best answer and try to recognize when I’m making assumptions, to avoid making erroneous conclusions. Not only will this help me perform better on examinations, it will also further develop my critical thinking skills.
Reflection #2: Joseph Kanaan, PharmD 2019
The topic that was covered by Dr. Garavalia was important to me as a student because it concentrated on different ways that I can learn and understand new information. Specifically, we learned that cramming is no good and that memorization is not the best way to learn. It is crucial to continuously learn the certain material so that you better apply it later on in life, and not just on examinations. As a pharmacy student, we learned techniques to help consult our patients later on when we actually become licensed pharmacists. My keeper lies within this aspect. It is easier to remember something that is said first and last, so it will be necessary to include all special instructions during these areas. To better help the patient understand everything that is said, we need to get rid of all ambiguity that may exist. As a health care professional, a pharmacist will always want to fill in all the blanks so that the patient will not assume something and endanger themselves due to the miscommunication. Overall, I greatly enjoyed Dr. Garavalia’s presentation and would love to have her back for more lectures.
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