What type of training...

[TSandM]

Well, the one thing I'll say about that is that study subjects aren't aware that they are trying to achieve anything, and the "failures" are unpleasant experiences for the patients who have them, but they are not "failures" that affect their morale.

When I took the general surgery oral boards, I went into one small room after another. In each room, there were several examiners. One would ask a question, and I would answer it. If I answered correctly, the questions would get harder. Eventually, they would reach a question I couldn't answer, and then they would change the subject and start over. In every room, with every question, they continued until I failed.

At the end of the exam, I knew I had failed. After all, every subject ended with me unable to answer. In fact, I had done extremely well in many subjects, and I easily passed the boards. But my personal experience was one of failure.

To take bright, motivated, capable students, and stress them repeatedly until they fail, is a recipe for killing enthusiasm and worse, it's a recipe for inculcating self-doubt and paralysis into people who previously viewed themselves as capable. You can create obstacles and make them difficult, but you have to allow people some success, or you can damage them.

 

[nadwidny]

Well, the one thing I'll say about that is that study subjects aren't aware that they are trying to achieve anything, and the "failures" are unpleasant experiences for the patients who have them, but they are not "failures" that affect their morale.

When I took the general surgery oral boards, I went into one small room after another. In each room, there were several examiners. One would ask a question, and I would answer it. If I answered correctly, the questions would get harder. Eventually, they would reach a question I couldn't answer, and then they would change the subject and start over. In every room, with every question, they continued until I failed.

At the end of the exam, I knew I had failed. After all, every subject ended with me unable to answer. In fact, I had done extremely well in many subjects, and I easily passed the boards. But my personal experience was one of failure.

To take bright, motivated, capable students, and stress them repeatedly until they fail, is a recipe for killing enthusiasm and worse, it's a recipe for inculcating self-doubt and paralysis into people who previously viewed themselves as capable. You can create obstacles and make them difficult, but you have to allow people some success, or you can damage them.

Failing that Cave 2 course really bothers you, doesn't it?

 

[Trace Malinowski]

To take bright, motivated, capable students, and stress them repeatedly until they fail, is a recipe for killing enthusiasm and worse, it's a recipe for inculcating self-doubt and paralysis into people who previously viewed themselves as capable. You can create obstacles and make them difficult, but you have to allow people some success, or you can damage them.

"My responsibility is leadership, and the minute I get negative, that is going to have an influence on my team." - Don Shula


"Confidence is contagious; so is lack of confidence." - Vince Lombardi


"You are only as good as the coach thinks you are." - Brian Williams


"Besides pride, loyalty, discipline, heart, and mind, confidence is the key to all the locks. When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality." - Joe Paterno

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Failing that Cave 2 course really bothers you, doesn't it?

"Losing a game is heartbreaking. Losing your sense of excellence or worth is a tragedy." - Joe Paterno

 

[nadwidny]

"Losing a game is heartbreaking. Losing your sense of excellence or worth is a tragedy." - Joe Paterno

Never heard of him.

 

[RJP]

Never heard of him.

I wouldn't worry about it; he's never heard of you either.

:cool2:

 

[RJP]

To take bright, motivated, capable students, and stress them repeatedly until they fail, is a recipe for killing enthusiasm and worse, it's a recipe for inculcating self-doubt and paralysis into people who previously viewed themselves as capable. You can create obstacles and make them difficult, but you have to allow people some success, or you can damage them.

It's all in the set-up.

My instructor pushed me until I failed - so that he could find the "teachable moments."

But it was not stressful, and did not kill my enthusiasm. Nor did it create self-doubt... rather it created a level of self-awareness and self confidence that I would have never achieved if I had not been taken to the point of failure subsequently, and seen that I was in fact able to handle the situation.

I think the comparison to medical training is interesting, in that medicine is an area where most of the learning is by wrote memorization. (Which mnemonic did you use for the cranial nerves? I preferred the one about the Fin and the German on mount olympus.) To be pushed to the point where you're "out of inventory" on what you remember is quite different.

 

[nadwidny]

I wouldn't worry about it; he's never heard of you either.

:cool2:

A gaping hole in his life no doubt.

 

[Blackwood]

It's always kinda weird being a student and trying to gauge what your instructor is testing for/wants to see.

I've been loaded and stressed to the point that I felt I wasn't learning anything. I clearly remember being exasperated and thinking to myself "what the **** is the point of this?" Then I thought "maybe he wants to see how much it takes to get me to quit," and then I made the decision to keep going until HE quit.

I'm still not sure if that was the intended lesson, but I do believe it helped cultivate a strong 'survival mechanism'.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Classes are always an artificial environment where the name of the game often ends up being "guess what the instructor wants to see".

... Bob (Grateful Diver)