As an instructional designer, I have had the opportunity to collaborate closely with various programs on course development, which has allowed me to experience and observe numerous complex learning situations. One such instance involved the course development for the 12-week MITC120: Interpreting Skills in Medical and Healthcare Settings course at my institution. The course structure provides the scaffolding approach, which not only allows students to build on their knowledge and skills progressively but also enhances students’ engagement, knowledge, and practical skills in a specialized field like medical interpreting.
In this 12-week course, students start with foundational skills (research, shadowing, memory enhancement, note-taking, sight translation, and video remote interpreting) and progressively work on more complex tasks (interpreting in mental health settings, interpreting in Pre/Intra/Post-Op settings, etc). This method ensures that learning is contextualized and situated within real-world tasks, “which motivate developing subskills and requisite knowledge, in context, as needed, applying this knowledge and skills as they are constructed” (Tabak and Reiser,2022, p.55).
The design of the MITC120 course emphasizes the iterative process of building, using, and refining skills (Tabak and Reiser, 2022) to “improve learners’ use of knowledge” (Tabak and Reiser, 2022, p.72). By employing the scaffolding, the course ensures that students progressively build on their knowledge and skills, preparing them to tackle real-world medical interpreting challenges. In the first six weeks, students focus on a specific skill each week, with guided modelling practice and feedback from instructors, which helps them refine their abilities progressively. The provided instructional materials, demonstrations, and practice exercises are scaffolded to help students build a solid base. Initial Skills such as basic notetaking are simplified to be manageable for beginners. As students gain confidence, the complexity of tasks gradually increases. Students start with simple skill exercises and gradually progress to more complex such as sight translation and video remote interpreting, which allows students to develop confidence and competence in each skill area before moving on to the next.
The course provides “strategic support to manage the process” (Tabak and Reiser,2022, p.56) through guided practice and feedback, enabling students to engage in realistic interpreting tasks. As students advance through the course, they begin to apply these skills in increasingly realistic and complex scenarios – Real-world practice (Roleplay). The last six weeks focus on the integration of all learned skills, which are practiced weekly in real-world practice sessions, such as interpreting in mental health settings, interpreting in Pre/Intra/Post-Op settings, etc. By incorporating realistic scenarios and role-playing exercises, students can apply their skills in contexts that closely mimic actual medical interpreting situations. This practical piece can bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-world practice. Students engage in authentic, real-world medical interpreting scenarios, allowing them to “experience and explain phenomena or solve authentic, real-world problems” (Tabak and Reiser,2022, p.75). This scaffolding approach through the course ensures that knowledge and practice are inseparable, promoting effective problem-solving and decision-making skills.
References
Tabak, I. & Reiser, B. J. (2022). Scaffolding. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (3rd ed., pp. 53-71). Cambridge University Press.
Leave a Reply