Journal of Academic Development and Education JADE Issue 9 | Page 34

34 | JADE
HIGHLIGHT #3 | 35
SARAH AYNSLEY
Method
With this in mind a creative approach was taken which aimed to give
the students freedom to direct their own learning and ownership
over how they wanted to complete the task, whilst still preserving
the core aim which was to give them an opportunity to experience
presenting in a semi professional manner. The hypothesis was that
they would engage more with the task and subsequently gain the
experience in researching information and presenting. The students
were told to select any topic related to cancer which they thought had
made a significant contribution to our understanding, diagnosis or
treatment of the disease. They could then present that information in
any manner that they felt was suitable for the topic they had chosen
but must produce both a physical piece and a verbal presentation.
Students were given dates and a few examples at the start of the unit
with the first half of the cohort due to present two weeks later and
the second half a week after that (Figure 1). They were informed that
it was a formative piece and that another group would be randomly
selected on the day to ask questions about the topic.
Figure 1: Direction given to the students regarding the task.
The students were given free rein to choose a topic and method of delivery
within the constraints that it should be related to cancer and suitable for the
topic they chose. To enable groups to feel comfortable in the task examples
of ideas were provided.
Results
There was a huge variety of presentations put forward by the groups
and anecdotal evidence from talking to tutors and groups seemed to
suggest that they had been thinking about the topic to choose since
they were first introduced to the concept at the start of the unit. There
was a high diversity in the topics chosen and the presentation types
used; with several of the groups presenting mock BBC interviews
and others role playing a consultation between patient and health
professional (Table 1). From listening to the student presentations
CAN WE USE CREATIVE FREE REIN TO ENHANCE STUDENT SKILL LEARNING?
all of the groups seemed enthused and the work was of a much
higher quality than that which had been submitted in the past. All
of the members of each group were involved in the presentation of
the topic and all answered the questions well from their peers and
members of staff.
Topic
Verbal presentation
Physical output
Fasting and preventing
cancer BBC news report and
interviews BBC news page
HPV vaccination Role play classroom
teaching Presentation
CRISPR News segment Advert
Breast
Self-Examination Dance showing how to
self-check Leaflet
Celebrity effect on
screening uptake Presentation Poster
PET-CT Role play Drs surgery Information leaflet
History of surgery for
cancer Presentation Timeline poster
Bowel cancer
screening barriers News interview with
video segment Video explanation
Mustard gas as
chemotherapy Presentation Poster
Discovery of BRCA1 ‘Historical’ video of
discovery Presentation
Right to Decide end
of life Role play discussion Poster
Table 1: The variety of topics and delivery methods chosen by the groups
There was high diversity in the topics chosen by the groups for presentation
spanning a range of disciplines; scientific research, clinical treatments, history,
psychology and public health. Whilst some groups chose traditional methods
in which to present their topic others explored other genres with mock news
presentations and role play used well to convey the subject.
For the formative feedback staff were asked to comment on the ease
of understanding the presentation, appearance, clarity and how well
the students answered the questions that they were posed. In previous
years the feedback received commonly highlighted cluttered slides,
poor layout and irrelevant information in the presentation, alongside
variable quality in delivery; with some groups preforming well but
relying on confident presenters whilst others were not clear and read
from notes. The area which groups have clearly struggled in the past
is their knowledge around the topic and ability to handle questions
from peers and tutors. With the alterations to the task the overall