In the November 1^st edition of The PA Educator, the topic of extra credit was presented. According to the literature, the use of extra credit in higher education appears to be more in favor these days than previously (Izienicki & Setchfield, 2019; Norcross et al., 1989; Norcross et al., 1993;...

As someone who spends a lot of time ensuring that curriculum, teaching, and assessment are aligned so we can confidently conclude and provide evidence that our students learned what they needed to know, a question posed by a colleague gave me pause. Though his question focused more on the...

The other day I came across two interesting videos, one by Dr. Michelle Thaller, a NASA astrophysicist, and the other by Dr. Carol Dweck, a psychologist best known for her groundbreaking work in motivation, specifically, the growth mindset. For some reason, I listened to them one after the other,...

The concept of self-care has gotten a lot of attention lately, given the new requirement added to the ARC accreditation standards. Although the standard speaks to teaching it to our students, I believe it is also a call for us to revisit it for ourselves. As clinicians, how many times did we...

In a previous article, I wrote about the importance of considering synchronous and asynchronous approaches to teaching this fall (see link below).  Like any other method of teaching – no one method is best. The role of the teacher is to know which method or approach is best given the...

What? Really?  I suspect a good many of you have heard about learning styles. Probably from your days as a student. I even bet some of you know what your "learning style" is. Visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. I am totally there with you. Many years ago, during my undergraduate...

With many courses continuing to be taught online, a key question to consider as you are planning is whether to deliver content via live streaming such as Zoom or to let the students work on the content material individually. I am sure many of you have learned some of the online educational...

It is evident now most PA faculty will be teaching all or part of their courses online this Fall. This reality means we will continue to work from home, so here are some suggestions for ways to stay productive and sane!

1. Semester-monthly and weekly goals

Planning and setting goals or target...

As many of you are now planning to teach your fall courses online, here are two evidence-based tips to consider that are grounded in what we know from neurobiology about how the brain learns best.

1. Keep ‘em short by chunking. From neurobiology and cognitive psychology, we know that short...

We constantly hear about the importance of assessment and evaluation. These are ways in which we can determine whether our students have learned what we needed them to learn. Many times, these terms are used interchangeably. But the reality is there is actually a difference.

Assessment refers to...