Teach using the DEAR model
The Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Monash have created and embedded the “DEAR” model of active learning across their curricula, which stands for “Discover, Explore, Apply, Reflect”. For more on this model view this article Development of a Vertically Integrated Pharmacy Degree and see their Four Pillars model for learning and teaching.
How does the DEAR model work?
In this model, students are active participants in loud energised spaces with different activities happening and occurring almost every ten minutes in the classroom. Students are engaging with the content, refining their skills, asking questions and always striving to be better learners.
Here are the four stages that the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences uses.
Stage 1: “Discover”
Activities are incorporated even before students enter the classroom. Students are encouraged to inquiry by presenting core concepts pre-class, preparing them to explore them in greater depth and enabling constructive discussion with their peers and contributing to an active learning environment.
In order to focus on core concepts and skill development, and for class discussions to move beyond terminology definitions and simple concepts, some content will routinely be presented to students up-front (i.e. pre-class).
Stage 2: “Explore”
Students spend two hours in interactive lectures. Long gone are the days of sitting in a lecture theatre and silently listening to the academic. Instead, students are taught to be active participants in these interactive sessions, following on from their preparation before their class.
Stage 3: “Apply”
It’s not enough for students to learn concepts, in order to ensure that students are aware of how their skills work in practice, students are a part of engaging workshops and hands-on laboratories, sessions that challenge students to apply their previously learnt skills in scenarios they may face in their future, whether it be a clinical, business or social environment.
Stage 4: “Reflect”
Students need to be their own drivers wherever they can. At the end of each week, students upload their skills development learnings from their workshop activities and use those findings to write their own personalised learning plan as part of their e-Portfolio. These activities based on the concepts of reflection and feedback then feed into their coaching sessions with their dedicated skills coaches.