| As Emergency Medical Services education joins the ranks of professional health care careers, classroom instruction is an important concept to investigate as expert EMS clinicians transition into the role of academic classroom educators.; Therefore, this study explored how community college paramedic faculty reported teaching the curriculum content in their classrooms; and the extent to which they adhered to adult teaching-learning principles. Using a mixed methods design, quantitative data were collected by electronically distributing a survey to 113 paramedic faculty. Fifty-one faculty responded representing 24 states nationally. Qualitative data were collected through ten follow-up telephone interviews.; The conceptual framework utilized was Gary Conti's (1985) Collaborative Teaching-Learning model of adult education. Faculty indicated their use of instructional strategies that adhered to Learner-Centered teaching by responding to the Principles ofAdult Learning Scale (PALS) , a 44 item Likert scale survey. Research questions were based on findings that related to Conti's (1985) seven Factors: (1) Learner-Centered Activities; (2) Personalized Instruction; (3) Students' Prior Experience; (4) Assessing Student Needs; (5) Climate building; (6) Participation in the Learning Process; (7) Fostering Flexibility for Personal Development. A total score was also tallied which indicated each faculty's overall teaching style.; There were several conclusions in this study: (1) paramedic faculty mainly used teacher-centered instruction in their classrooms, with a few learner-centered strategies infused; (2) the complexity of the paramedic National Standard Curriculum caused faculty to primarily use teacher-centered instructional strategies. The needs of the curriculum often outweighed the learning needs of the students; (3) paramedic faculty primarily addressed students' learning needs by relating new paramedic content to students' past EMT experience. The reporting faculty viewed EMT experience and knowledge as an essential foundation for the paramedic curriculum to build upon.; This study suggested that additional research into the teaching strategies of experienced paramedic faculty, as well as the learning styles of paramedic students, would provide further information regarding effective classroom instructional methods. Additionally, this study suggested that professional development is needed in the area of learner-centered instruction; especially when specialized curricula, which address patient care standards and professional credentialing exams, exist. |
