Of the many things that took me much longer than a 2, 3, 5, or 10 day course to achieve was the Program Evaluation minor in the Department of Human Ecology at Cornell.  This minor took me even more time than many of my academic endeavors because it was in a language that I did not understand - the language of educators.  It was based on QUALITATIVE research and I had only done QUANTITATIVE research.  My Advisor for Program Evaluation really had a stellar mind and challenged me probably more than my brain is really capable of comprehending now.  Thanks to her, I can appreciate the beauty of Suzanne Colson's research even though I think the comment that was attributed to her and I don't know that she ACTUALLY said -- "that low supply is merely an American phenomenon" is not worthy of the quality of her excellent work.  Her work, however was with less than 100 women in ONE setting.  This cannot be extrapolated to every breastfeeding mother on the planet, nor have I personally ever heard her say that it can. 

Among the other issues that became ABUNDANTLY clear to me from the body of work that my advisor had compiled for her many excellent courses in Program Evaluation is something that many educators know.  The "practice effect".  You can teach just about anyone to hold information in their heads long enough on all sorts of topics so that they can pass a test that they previously failed.  This is called the "practice effect".  It does not necessarily mean that they fully comprehended the topic, nor that they will retain the information that they committed to short term memory.  This is why it is better to have exams after a body of knowledge AND actual practice in the field are acquired.  

Beyond mere exams, many college level courses include laboratory work or projects or term papers that go well beyond sitting in a lecture hall and passively absorbing information.  Vocational schools have much more applied practice and I think rightly so.  Breastfeeding mothers deserve helpers who have practice and can think beyond a set of rules and apply what they know in ways that make sense to them.  You canNOT measure competence by a multiple choice test, nor can you really test competency without using "live situations".  I have to say that the course I took way back when I began my path to becoming an IBCLC involved 7 days broken into 3 days with a break 2 days with a break and another 2 days with a break.  They actually DID test competencies to a certain extent in that there were real live mothers and babies and we had to demonstrate our competency on those real live moms -- brave souls that they were. I was actually a volunteer for a later course and it was not really easy to have lots of women pawing at my breasts.  Even with all my academic training and a GOOD SOLID course, I would say my retention was not sufficient from the 7 days.  It really took many years of observation and practice to be even good enough to begin to deal with complicated and complex problems.  This is WHY I think supervised practice really is essential for ANYONE and ANY CREDENTIAL that deals with mothers and babies.


Sincerely, 
Susan E. Burger, MHS, PhD, IBCLC

             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome