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Over at the Simple Dollar Trent responded to one critic’s comments about his qualifications to provide financial information.

The critic’s comments got me to thinking about exactly what constitutes an expert. Think about this. What does make one an expert?

 

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I ran into a former high school student a few days ago. Harried with her college school work and working full-time to survive, she still looked happy.

Let me tell you a little about her. Mary had been kicked out of her mother’s house at age 15. she had lived with aunt for  few months – until she got tired of having a teenager hanging around, cramping her own lifestyle. (more…)

[author’s note: This post is admittedly out of sync with other recent posts. Once in a while I have run across an idea that just doesn’t want to be held at bay. This is one such post.]

One of the things I quickly realized when I started teaching was that students today just don’t seem to have been given the skills that we were given thirty years ago. Now, granted, some of what I learned is no longer relevant. When was the last time you saw a card catalog, for example? Other skills, such as learning how to develop and outline for a paper, do basic research, provide references to support your paper and so forth hasn’t really changed. Neither has the ability to think critically and even creatively.

It seems that students are expected only to recall information. There is no expectation that they can apply what they’ve memorized to new and unique situations. This ability, critical thinking, is especially important in nursing where you are never going to see a textbook patient. Every patient is different and each one requires that we apply our knowledge to their unique situation. Testing isn’t based on memorization, but on application. And they fare poorly.

Creativity Stifled

My sister is an aspiring writer whose work has been praised by several published authors. They have encouraged her to pursue writing and to seek publication.

She’s also a college student. Her professors (at least some of them), rather than encouraging her creative work put boundaries on her. “you can’t say that!” they exclaim. Why not? I wonder.

The question that comes to my mind is: Can one learn to write well creatively in a classroom? You see, where I stumble is in the acknowledgement that when I write, I express my ideas, my visions, my understandings. Can a professor, no matter how learned, truly judge my work objectively, provide truthful, honest feedback while leaving my creative work intact and undefiled by their own perceptions, visions, ideas and understanding?

This is a question I’ve asked of art school, as well. How can an art teacher tell his student “this is wrong! It must be done this way”, when the very act of creation and the expression of the artist’s vision has taken her in a very different direction.

I don’t want to write as Hemingway, or Steinbeck, or Roth. I want to write as me. I don’t want to paint as Cogan, Money or Goya. I want to paint to the vision that I have. Where would Picasso, Dega, or Gauguin be had their art teachers insisted that they remain within the boundaries she defined?

Yet, these are the things we seem to do in education. We establish rubrics which are, in essence, boundaries. This is what you are expected to learn; you must learn it this way. There is no room for, no allowance for, no recognition for creativity. Indeed, creativity is punished for it does not comply with the rubric. This is true, even when the same outcome was achieved, and perhaps more, as the student learned and internalized a greater understanding of the subject than was required.

To Think Uncritically

Critical thinking – the ability to use our knowledge to think outside the box – is also stifled. Rubrics provide the structure for the learning. Current educational theory is that the teacher should provide the “essential question” of the day and should clearly outline what the student can expect to learn. It is over this material, and this material alone, that they are tested. To test on anything else would be unfair to the child!

Yet, when does the student develop the skill to discern the wheat from the chaff? When does he learn to identify that which is important, without others blazing the trail for him?

It has occurred to me that my students cannot think critically, because the system has failed to teach him that. It is more concerned with his ability to recall when the War of 1812 was fought.

But, this is understandable, this focus on rote memorization and the impatience with creative thought. After all, the school’s success or failure is measured not by what its students do in some future time, but how well they perform on a standard test. It doesn’t matter that the student pens a bestselling saga. It doesn’t matter that the student grows up to develop whole new technologies. What matters is only how well he performs on the test.

My Sadness …

My sadness over this sorry state is that I see no solution. Education is a highly politicized industry. The politicians fan the flames of concern about how bad schools are (despite that fact that they really aren’t, overall [see this post]).  Schools can’t get past their own inefficiencies and teacher, bless them all, find it easier to grade the paper written to follow a rubric, than the one written with the creativity of the unfettered mind.

This is a long rant and for that I apologize. Some times I just run across things that need to be said. What’s your feedback?

Education always seems to be a big topic in politics. The talking heads would have us believe that education is worse now than ever before and that if something soon isn’t done we’re all headed for the trash heap. Politicians love education. They can pontificate about the perils of failing to address education issues, posit new ideas and write new laws, then point to the positive changes the laws wrought. Problem is, it is unlikely that their new laws made any difference. I’m inclined to think that any fundamental changes in education would not become evident until a class has gone through the entire educational process – one taking twelve years. By that time the politician is history. He knows that, but he can show how aggressive he is about education without having to face the consequences of his meddling.

The fact is that the drop out rate today is lower than ever before. The fact is that students are learning more today than ever before. As a teacher, I sometimes look at a student and wonder how he manage to get out of bed without help in the morning, he seem so dense. But recently I began to realize why that is. You see, education has lost its way. Perhaps it has to do with all the meddling the politicians have done. Perhaps it’s because education has begun to internalize the negative messages about itself. Or, perhaps it has to do with the fact that education no longer knows what it’s really supposed to be accomplishing.

Recently I read a blog about personal finance. Some on the blog argued that the schools should require a personal finance course. Others argued that this was the domain of the parent (who also, it must be noted, lacks skills in personal finance). The argument was that schools have so many other responsibilities to meet that a personal finance course is way down the list. We have to prepare students for college, let’s don’t forget, when is there time in the curriculum for personal finance?

Maybe it’s time for education to take a step back and figure out exactly what its role is in society.

I grew up in a middle-class neighborhood. My father worked in the offices of a trucking company. On one side, my neighbor drove a bread delivery truck. My other neighbor ran a restaurant. Across the street, there was a mechanic, an architect, an engineer, a teacher and a man that worked in local plant. Some had college educations, many didn’t. Yet they all lived in the same neighbor and shared the same values and provided the same standard of living to their families. My father never attended college, yet he was as knowledgeable on many subjects as anyone else. The discussions between these neighbors often reflected an awareness and understanding of the world around them that was as good, if not better than what you’ll often find today. These people managed to handle their lives in positive, effective ways. They understood the need to live within their means while reaching for just a little more. They understood the threat that dependence on credit posed. Where did they learn these things? Where did they develop the skills for understanding the world around them, if not from their high school education?

So, what is the purpose of education? Is it, as some have said, to prepare us for college? Or, is it to prepare us for life?

Ask any high school principal about the goals of the school and he or she will tell you that it is to prepare students for college. High school counselors talk to the students less about their career plans than about their college plans. High School graduation is no longer an end goal, it is simply a way station.

Every politician talks about the right of every child to a college education. I don’t think this has always been the goal, nor do I think it should be now. If everyone goes to college, who will collect our trash, trim the lawns at the local park, repair our homes and vehicles, pave our roads and the myriad of other jobs required to keep our society humming along? We NEED people who don’t have a college degree.

More importantly, there are people who simply aren’t college material, either because they lack the mental wherewithal, or because they are simply not interested in it. Perhaps their interests are more technical. They want to be a carpenter, electrician, mechanic or beautician. These careers don’t require a college education. If you stop and look around, there are literally hundreds, even thousands, of jobs that don’t require a college degree and still provide a solid, stable living for the worker.

And, while schools have focused more and more on preparing students for college, colleges have complained that students come to them unprepared for the rigors of collegiate academics. The number of remedial courses continues to increase, as colleges work to bring their students up to a reasonable academic level. This further extends the time to completion and the cost. How can this happen if the public schools are teaching “college prep”?

The focus is wrong. Schools have lost sight of the goal.

One of the metrics used to determine the quality of a school is the number of students who graduate within four years of entering the program. How does that determine quality? I can graduate you in four years without problem – if I don’t set high standards that demand that you actually know how to read, write and do math. It seems to me the better metric is the number of students who, upon graduation, can carry on an intelligent conversation, write a coherent sentence and actually make change without a calculator. If it takes more than four years to get the student to that level, then so be it. Which is more important? That the student possesses the skills, or that he graduate in four years?

It seems to me that a high school graduate should have the requisite skills for living while possessing the foundation knowledge needed for continuing on. Yes, let’s teach him English and math and science and history and political science. But let’s also teach him how to interview for a job (or for a college admission), how to comprehend an application and how to balance his checkbook. Let’s teach them, in the form of teaching math, how credit works and what the long-term impact can be on his future. Let’s give him the skills he needs to perform meaningful work NOW so that he can deal with whatever comes his way even while he is in college. Let’s get back to looking at high school as an end point upon which we can build a college education. And, let’s make sure that if the student chooses to go on to college that he has the skills to succeed there.

Students first entering nursing are often most concerned about learning those hands-on skills we most associate with nursing: starting IV’s, inserting catheters, giving meds and so forth. The reality is, though, that these hands on skills represent only a small fraction of the skills that truly make you a successful nurse.

If these were the only skills needed, nursing school would be over in a few weeks. But it is not. Depending on what level of education you choose, nursing school could last anywhere from one to five years. Why the difference? Because the one skill that most important for a nurse to develop – and the one least often associated with nursing in the minds of most people – takes quite some time to develop and requires a significant amount of knowledge in order to do well. What I’m talking about is the ability to think critically.

Critical thinking has many definitions. The one I like best defines it as a process of evaluating facts in their arrangement and proportions to understand certainty of our beliefs and interpretations. My own definition is that critical thinking allows us to take imperfect information, mix it with our knowledge and understanding of the underlying processes to select the most appropriate action to take in providing care for our patients. Critical thinking does not apply the same standard to all situations but adapts to the situation based on the information available.

Convincing students that this skill, more than any other, is what defines the best nurses is one of my hardest tasks as a nursing instructor. Why? Because it is neither sexy nor obvious and because it is hard. We don’t like to think. Thinking requires a level of effort that many of us are simply not accustomed to doing. But do it we must, if we are to become quality nurses.

The simple fact is, we may be admired for our ability to find a vein in even the most challenging arm, or for the imperceptible way we administer an injection. But, the nurse that gains the greatest respect from the doctors and nurses with whom he or she works is the one who can see patterns emerging that suggests the patient’s condition is deteriorating and takes or suggests the appropriate course of action to prevent the continued slide.

To successfully think critically about a situation requires knowledge. I can hardly anticipate a patient’s needs if I’m unfamiliar with how their illness affects their overall functioning. Anticipating, for example, that the renal patient may experience cardiac dysrhythmias when hisr potassium level rises requires that I know what normal potassium levels are, how the kidneys regulate the potassium level as well as how potassium affects the body. This is a simple example, but one that demonstrates that critical thinking requires the evaluation of multiple pieces of information to arrive at a decision. That decision requires study.

To gain that knowledge requires personal responsibility. It is incumbent upon the nurse to identify his or her learning needs and to take definitive action to fill those needs. That means not relying on others to answer questions, but seeking out reputable sources to support your knowledge. That means taking the time to find answers to questions you have. Taking on the responsibility for self improvement regardless of your employer’s requirements. These are the habits of the successful nurse.

Whether you are a new nurse, or have been around the block a few times, recognizing the impact of knowledge on critical thinking and the impact of personal responsibility on your level of knowledge positions you to be the very best nurse you can be and gives you the power to control your own destiny.