How metaphoric role play and critical reflection approaches of creative pedagogy enable learning while creating conditions for flow?
Authors: Malik Samina , Jones Linda 
Published: May 2023

Introduction: Metaphors are thought inventions meant to experience diverse and innovative ways of understanding. These cognitive models may facilitate the learner as well as the facilitator to grasp the educational concepts by associating them to something already experienced. Metaphor is a journey of epistemology to understand a domain by relating it with a radically new domain. Critical reflection on an action is a transformational journey from “I” to “we” to “us,” by distortion of pre-conceived concepts when students perform on a social learning platform, by opening the Johari window and improving self-awareness. Methodology: First and Second year medical students were exposed to Metaphoric role-play scripts on Moodle, to dramatize some relevant Physiology concepts. Informed consent was obtained by involving class representatives after ethical approval by University College of Medicine and University of Dundee. Around 4-5 students were shortlisted by the facilitator by using purposive sampling. Those students were given tips related to their performance within their batches consisting of 25 students followed by presenting in front of the entire class for inclusivity. For assessment, both participants and observers were invited for anonymous critical reflection in writing to express freely after a delay of 3-4 weeks. Results: Qualitative responses were transcribed and themes were identified manually. Responses of performers included: “I learnt how to co-ordinate with my teammates and manage pressure,” “My role taught me how to cooperate with and appreciate others,” ”Our teachers are already very cooperative and helpful but this Role play was cherry on top as it helped a lot in understanding the concepts,” “It helped me a lot in appreciating others and ignoring minor mistakes or delays. It really encouraged me to come up on the stage and perform in front of senior most teachers and 150 students. It proved helpful in self-awareness. I recommend this learning technique.” The reflection by observers included: “It has become a part of my memory and life. I still feel that excitement, it made our concepts clear and proved to be one of the most effective method of learning. The script was wonderful. I am impressed that how physiological events were related with cultural and physical events,” “ I am also impressed by the talent of my classmates,” “I learned acting can stimulate academic learning.” The identified themes included conducive learning environment, instructor-student bonding, inter-player bonding, self-discovery, long-term memory, confidence-enhancement and edutainment. Conclusion: Metaphoric role play and critical reflection may be used as a tool to foster enjoyable learning by doing and by observation. This socio-academic team-work and inter-relationship of roles also opens the door to self-discovery/mutual-awareness. No funding is required as it is completely afforded by University College of Medicine and Dentistry, The University of Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.