These activities follow Dr. Simon Walker and Prof. Anne Harris’ articles on providing engaging occupational health learning and help develop training courses that bring complex subjects to life.
short CPD activity
Design of non-verbal teaching materials
People learn in different ways. General integration is the ability to communicate ideas and information without the need for words.
Your job is to design materials to convey complex ideas that can be understood without needing to understand language or words. Test this out with your colleagues and consider what your resource limitations are and how you can overcome them.
Create a “research board” style learning resource
There’s a reason there are millions of detective stories, crime shows, and mysteries. Humans are curious and love to solve problems. The survey board works like a jigsaw puzzle and with enough pieces you can find the answer.
Design survey boards that encourage learners to form connections autonomously. Consider the evidence you can provide to answer your key questions and consider ways to overcome this resource limitation.
Extended CPD activity
Create a non-professional lesson plan
Teaching is more than sharing knowledge, it is a process that facilitates learning. What you teach is as important as how you teach it. One of the best ways to assess your teaching ability, rather than passing on your knowledge, is to teach what your knowledge is limited. This encourages you to think about how to engage students, present information clearly, and not make assumptions about learners. “Foreign knowledge.
Plan training or educational sessions that include activities on topics outside your specialty. You will need to devise reading lists, lesson plans, and potential assessments. Find out how to create informative sessions without doing a significant amount of personal learning. Finally, consider experience and potential pitfalls.
become a mentor
One of the best ways to check your own abilities and encourage you to think about improving your technique is to teach others.
Your task is to create a structured 6-12 month coaching program with goals, intervals and milestones. Sketch ideas for learning resources to use with your mentee. Next, write a short reflective analysis considering whether designing a training program for others has changed your perspective.