Cultural Expectations - Video Transcript
I’m just going to talk now briefly about putting out the expectations of the learner and you as the preceptor or teacher. With some students from other cultures whether you’re called a preceptor or a supervisor – students from some cultures will just see you as the teacher. So whatever you say goes. And some students will wait for direction before they will do anything; this is because of their education culture. So, before, if you have a student who seems hesitant or that you’re not sure has understood an instruction or an advice or a clinical direction. Then sometimes you’ve got to have a bit of a think about how does this student understand your role as a preceptor or a teacher? So, a good question to ask that student is – tell me about being a student in your home culture, what do you expect your teacher to do? What do you expect your teacher to tell you? Then you will learn and you’ll understand a little bit about the student’s education culture and it might be very different to the sort of western communication and education culture where – students put their hands up, they ask questions. They say – I’m sorry, I don’t understand you need to tell me that again. Or there might be a myriad of things that you uncover by asking respectfully how a student is used to learning in a learning environment. Then you can ask a question, for example: So when I say to you, I need you now in your third year to start showing some initiative – what does that actually mean to you? It’s by asking these questions that you will get an insight into the students understanding of what you’re asking them to do. Then you need to explain to a student who is from another learning culture – ok, so, in this environment, the clinical environment, I now as your teacher expect you to be behaving and performing in a way which tells me that you understand – and you are being able to function and practise as a beginning level practitioner. Because when you are a registered nurse, your teacher is not going to be there. So you are going to need to start to demonstrate to me your understanding. That means when I ask you a question – do you understand? I might frame it like – tell me, explain to me what I just asked you to do. Then the student, instead of just saying – do you understand? To which a student will often say yes. Then they demonstrate that clearly they haven’t understood because they go and do something that isn’t what you asked them. Then it’s a much better framing of a question to say – tell me what I just asked you to do. Then get them to reflect back on that situation and that request that you’ve made of them. It’s much better to be honest and get it out in the open about your expectations of a learner and the learner’s expectations of you. Because sometimes a student might say – you are my teacher, you must tell me everything I need to know. Then you’ve got a good idea about that person’s education culture and it’s very different possibly from your own.