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ABMP Instructors on the Front Lines Archive

This page gives a brief overview of previous IFL workshops, including selected webinars and handouts for those instructors who could not attend or who want a refresher.

Topic 7: Peer Learning—How to Bring Out the Best in Your Students

Peer learning is any activity, in or out of a classroom, where students learn from each other in formal or informal ways. Last year, in our Instructors on the Front Lines (IFL) Topic 6: "Creating Exceptional Learning Experiences," instructors explored learning domains, levels of learning, and instructional design for lectures, role-playing, and short activities. This year, you'll learn how to develop peer-learning activities that bring out the best in your students. Learn how to:

  • Use effective demonstration methods to set students up for success
  • Structure student massage exchange sessions to build both hands-on and communication skills
  • Use a variety of discussion models to reinforce key concepts and improve cognitive competence
  • Build student engagement and their motivation to take risks, explore techniques, and learn
  • Tap new classroom resources developed for you by ABMP to make your job easier
  • Enjoy teaching and your students
  • And more!

Topic 6: Creating Exceptional Learning Experiences

Learning experiences are events or activities in which learners experience something that results in a change in their thinking, understanding, skills, values, or behaviors. When planning and developing exceptional learning experiences, an instructor must consider a number of factors:

  • Instructional design appropriate for adult learners in vocational programs
  • Individual learners and the characteristics of the learning cohort
  • The type of content being taught (cognitive, psychomotor, affective, interpersonal)
  • Best practices for teaching and learning the particular type of content
  • The level of learning and the proper sequencing of learning experiences  
  • Best practices for learner engagement and motivation

Join Anne Williams, ABMP Director of Education, for a 3-part webinar series which recaps essential components of this workshop.

Topic 5: Building Communications Skills in Massage Students

Communication skills affect every aspect of a therapist's ability to initiate, manage, and maintain a healthy therapeutic relationship with clients, yet many massage students struggle with the basic interpersonal communication required to work effectively with peers and instructors. This workshop covered core concepts in communication, communication goal setting, habits that block communication and how to eliminate them, and how to use these key skills both in class and in a massage practice.

Topic 4: Building Creative and Critical Thinking Skills in Massage Students

Topic 4 of the Instructors on the Front Lines workshop series, held throughout 2012, shared activities that bring critical and creative thinking concepts alive in the classroom, and strategies for organizing class content to build learner engagement and autonomy.

Topic 3: From Handholding to Capacity Building

The Instructors on the Front Lines workshop in 2011 focused on building essential capacity in massage students. This workshop taught practical solutions for improving student motivation through instructional clarity and methods for teaching key life and learning skills like time management, memory improvement, and study skills. These webinars and handouts below provide highlights from the live IFL workshop for those instructors who could not attend or who want a refresher.

Topic 2: Building Emotional Intelligence in Massage Students

The Instructors on the Front Lines workshop in 2010 discussed practical methods for working with the generational differences in learners and building emotional intelligence in students. These webinars and handouts below provide highlights from the live IFL workshop for those instructors who could not attend or who want a refresher.

Topic 1: Comprehensive Orientations

In 2009, we debuted our IFL workshops. This first workshop series recognized that instructors are on the front lines—dealing with student issues and often struggling with students who are not prepared or proactive, and who fail to meet their academic and skill potential. One of the key topics discussed in the live 2009 IFL workshops was the need to move to a comprehensive orientation model. This webinar and handouts below provide highlights from the live IFL workshop for those instructors who could not attend or who want a refresher.