"Give" Time to Think

“Students may say they don't have a question about a certain situation, but I often find they're just processing what's going on and may have questions later.”

- a Manitoba OT fieldwork educator

Whether it is responding to your question or commenting on an interaction that has just occurred, students need extra time to process information.  This might be because they are looking for that “one right answer” and/or that are sorting through and trying to organize all the information they have learned in school and on placement.   

In light of this, our tip for you is to... give time to think.

This may seem like common-sense. But time often feels like it is at a premimum when caseload demands refuse to slow down and does not leave space for much of anything else - including time to think. Here is a few suggestions on how to "give" your student time to think:

o    Give the student some questions to consider in advance if you plan to debrief later.  For example: “When we meet at the end of the day, I’d like you to share what you thought went well with this initial assessment and what you’d do differently next time.”

 

o   Wait at least 10 seconds for a response after you ask a question (you may want to add more time if English isn’t the student's first language). 

o   Appreciate that your student may need time away to form a meaningful answer as the pressure to immediately respond could affect their ability to think. I bet we all have found ourselves in client situations where we needed time on our own to think. The student could jot down the question and prepare their answer for a later time.

o   Valdiate that it is okay to give parts of their answer now and then later, follow-up with additional thoughts. This will support their processing of "what they know" versus "what they do not know"... and then, how will they plan to figure out the rest of their response!

o   Encourage your student to share their thoughts and processing with a peer if they are sharing a placement (i.e. a collaborative placement model).

So what do you do when you’ve allowed more time to think and the answer still isn’t “right”?

o    Let them know what is “right” about their answer.

o    Use probing questions to help guide them to modify their answer to be on the right track.

o    Share your reasoning on how you processed the information (i.e. your perspective of what happened) and then how you came to your clinical conclusions.

Of course, the irony is not lost on us - there is so much to do during placement and so little time! As always, the Fieldwork Team is here to support you to problem solve how might you be able to give time for your student to think. Please do not hestiate to connect.

Lisa

Revised by Julie, 2024