2008 Woodie Awards
Students get "nutritious" learning in the real world
Brendan Block
Issue date: 9/21/07 Section: News
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No tests. No lectures. It seems like every college student's dream.
For those who take Nutrition this semester, like athletic training, nursing and sports management majors, this dream is a reality.
Before the advent of this fall semester, Dr. John Wheeler, professor of Education, was assigned to teach this class and realized that his nutrition knowledge was rusty.
He consulted his son Adam Wheeler, a Missouri Columbia Medical school graduate, to help.
In turn, the medical department of the University of Missouri-Columbia formulated 15 real world nutrition problems, with eight questions corresponding to each problem.
"The problem the medical schools have had with doctors is that they could memorize all the information but could not solve any problems," said Dr. Wheeler.
He further stresses that for most students, the amount of information they can retain through lectures is very small. For some, it is even hard to stay awake a full 50 minutes.
In the manner his class is constructed, the students can "own their own learning," said Wheeler.
The retention rates are higher when students experience their own learning versus remembering intricate memorized information.
Though problem based learning is well established in graduate study, the method is relatively new for undergraduates. Some undergraduates might have difficulty adjusting to a new type of learning.
"It is a huge paradigm shift to get non-traditional learning to students who are used to the traditional learning model," said Dr. Wheeler.
The class weighs on students enacting real world situations, which they work on as a small group to solve problems they meet in their field.
At the end of the course, students will be given a test to see if they grasped the book learning through the problem based method.
These results are anticipated to be published to see if students learn more by teaching themselves by making their own answers to nutrition problems.
The difficulties of this type of learning arise mainly in the evaluation process.
For those who take Nutrition this semester, like athletic training, nursing and sports management majors, this dream is a reality.
Before the advent of this fall semester, Dr. John Wheeler, professor of Education, was assigned to teach this class and realized that his nutrition knowledge was rusty.
He consulted his son Adam Wheeler, a Missouri Columbia Medical school graduate, to help.
In turn, the medical department of the University of Missouri-Columbia formulated 15 real world nutrition problems, with eight questions corresponding to each problem.
"The problem the medical schools have had with doctors is that they could memorize all the information but could not solve any problems," said Dr. Wheeler.
He further stresses that for most students, the amount of information they can retain through lectures is very small. For some, it is even hard to stay awake a full 50 minutes.
In the manner his class is constructed, the students can "own their own learning," said Wheeler.
The retention rates are higher when students experience their own learning versus remembering intricate memorized information.
Though problem based learning is well established in graduate study, the method is relatively new for undergraduates. Some undergraduates might have difficulty adjusting to a new type of learning.
"It is a huge paradigm shift to get non-traditional learning to students who are used to the traditional learning model," said Dr. Wheeler.
The class weighs on students enacting real world situations, which they work on as a small group to solve problems they meet in their field.
At the end of the course, students will be given a test to see if they grasped the book learning through the problem based method.
These results are anticipated to be published to see if students learn more by teaching themselves by making their own answers to nutrition problems.
The difficulties of this type of learning arise mainly in the evaluation process.
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