Introduction/ Scenario
The scenario that instigated me to reflect on was when I was observing my preceptor during her session with the graduate students. It was a four hours session and I noticed that one of the students in the class was a bit edgy and asked a lot of questions which were already answered during the lecture by the faculty. Though it seemed that the student paid attention to the lecture, however, she wanted to make sure whether she understood the concept right or not. This attitude was acceptable in the beginning but as time passed by, the other students seemed to get irritated (they made faces whenever she asked anything) however the faculty still patiently tried to explain and clarify the concepts. Gradually this behaviour of the problematic student increased to an extent that she held back the students when some of them tried to help her as she wanted only the faculty to answer her.
My Observation/ Feelings
Looking at the situation as a silent observer, initially I thought that since it was the first class the student might be a bit more anxious. However, I still kept myself from thinking that as I thought I might be exaggerating as everyone has different fears and apprehensions related to their experiences and from whatever they might have heard from the previous students. Moreover, it could be because of any other problem, personal or family issues or may be the student might not have done her pre-reading and had come unprepared for the class. These were my assumptions when I observed the student. On the other hand, though the lecture was based on the previous concepts that were learnt by the students in the BScN program. However, since the students were from varied backgrounds, a blend of national and international students, and all had different experiences, the faculty was trying her best to explain those basic concepts. I could see that she was skilful enough to recognize and read the faces of her students; kept asking them whether they’d understood or not. While this was a particular case, there were also some smart students in the class who had done their pre-reading and understood the concepts as they were fresh BScN graduates.
Reflective Exercise
After that session, I was asked by my preceptor to reflect back on the proceedings of the session. I started with a positive note, appreciating the preceptor for her efforts. She had started the class with encouraging remarks and an optimistic note, encouraging the students to continue their efforts and hard work. Before the class, I sat with my preceptor while she was preparing herself for the lecture and I could see that she was so much engrossed and working hard editing her slides and adding new examples so as to make it easy and more understandable for her students. During the lecture, she was also vigilant enough to read the faces of her students, made sure that all of them participated. I was still a bit hesitant to share the awkward feelings regarding that particular student/ situation with the preceptor. As soon as my preceptor intimidated me to share any negative or unusual observations, I was confused. But I was wrong. When I shared this observation, she not only appreciated me but also shared her own point of view regarding where she went wrong. Since this is a class of graduate students and there are students of all ages with different backgrounds and experiences, therefore, we have to take all of them together. Simultaneously, we can’t and should not spoon feed them otherwise, they will never learn to struggle for themselves.
Strategies to Resolve the Issue
Reflecting back on the situation, I thought that taking an immediate action would do no good. In fact, any unplanned action could either threaten the student, de-motivate her, or may harm her self-esteem. Therefore, if I were at the place of my preceptor, I would have decided to wait and observe the behavior, analyze the situation and infer about the reason for this attitude and then intervene. Secondly, if that behavior continued in the upcoming classes as well, then I would have called this student separately to my office for counseling.
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