We recently had the pleasure of welcoming Dr. Michelle Hogue from the University of Lethbridge to our class. She came to present her work on alternative teaching styles in the classroom and her fight against the stereotype that aboriginal students cannot study science.
Dr. Hogue’s research has been based mostly out of her work with high school students from the Blackfoot Reserve in Southern Alberta. Her research found that changing from the classic lecture style of teaching to a more hands on and active approach has helped students achieve greater success in science, chemistry in particular.
Dr. Hogue was the recipient of The Pat Clifford Award for emerging research from the Canadian Education Association for her work with these students.
She has incorporated cultural story-telling and acting into style of teaching. For instance, the students will practice and perform a story based on their lesson. This change in the classroom setting has helped with overall understanding of material as well as pass rates.
Watch some of Dr. Hogue’s students performing their chemistry lesson here:
She explained to us that she has also taken this hands-on approach with her into her first year university chemistry class. She begins every class with the lab portion and follows it up with the material. Dr. Hogue has focused her research on aboriginal students but I truly believe this style of learning could help so many others, reminding me that although we come from different cultures, we can relate in many ways. In my personal experience, hands-on practice in my nursing education has furthered my understanding in many ways. When I encounter a patient with a particular ailment, it adds so much more to the knowledge I was taught in the classroom.
I was left inspired my Dr. Hogue’s passion for helping and advocating for her students. Throughout our time in this class I have time and time again been left with not a sense of understanding a culture so different from my own, but with a feeling of closeness to the culture of my neighbors.
Dr. Hogue’s idea of changing her style of teaching to meet the needs of her students is exactly the way we need to think as nurses. No matter what culture your patient, client, or student identifies with you should adapt to meet their needs. All too often we see health care professionals expecting our patients to fit the typical mold of the health care system.
Just as Dr. Hogue has provided culturally sensitive education to her students, we have a duty to provide culturally sensitive care to our patients. We can do this by remaining open minded, and remembering that we all have a different way of seeing and understanding the world.
Two-Eyed Seeing for Health 
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