Educator Spotlight: Lorna Hayward

Lorna Hayward, PT, EdD, MPH
Associate Professor, Bouvé College of Health Sciences
Department of Physical Therapy, Movement & Rehabilitation Sciences 

Can you describe your role at Northeastern?
I’ve been at Northeastern since 1996. I’m an Associate Faculty in the Physical Therapy department so I primarily work with physical therapy students in our Doctor of Physical Therapy program. I also teach a course in the Honors Program called Contemporary Issues in Healthcare with a group of interdisciplinary students.

I also conduct a service-learning trip with students where we go to Ecuador, which is currently in its 13th year. There, we provide pro bono physical therapy, which is a free service to children with disabilities at two different orphanages. It’s a capstone course (Physical Therapy Project I and II), that typically includes an associated research project.

Currently, I’m teaching a course called Psychosocial Aspects of Healthcare. It’s a course that examines the skills you need to be successful while interacting with people and understand the impact on health due to factors such as housing, food, and culture. As a profession, we are embracing amore holistic approach to health, it’s more than just moving parts and anatomy.

Has CATLR helped you in the development of these classes?
Yes! I love CATLR. A couple of years ago, Hilary Schuldt, Director of Project and Team Strategy at CATLR, helped us conduct a study in the Psychosocial Aspects of  Healthcare class on student pedagogical teams. We were looking for ways to course delivery by using small student groups to interface between the instructor and the students. The students in the pedagogical team would gather feedback from their peers on how things were going and then that feedback was relayed back to the course instructor. We were looking for a more collaborative approach to learning, so that was awesome.

In the Honors seminar I teach, Mary English, an Associate Director at CATLR, and Becca Berkey, Director of Service-Learning at the Center of Community Service, helped me integrate service-learning into the whole course. Within a single course students were in the field, reflecting on that learning, and integrating their learning into all of their assignments.

How else have you engaged with CATLR?
I was a Service-Learning Fellow for at least four years. CATLR always looks at teaching in a way that pushes you to think differently. Michael Sweet, Director of Design and Integration at CATLR, gave me these scratch-off cards. You give the students a quiz to complete by themselves, then they work in groups and use the scratch-off card to complete the quiz again so they get immediate feedback on their answers. It’s like a flipped classroom activity. Michael helped me learn how to do this and the students really enjoy the process.

What does it mean to be both an educator and a learner?
I learn from my students all the time. In particular, my daughter, who’s a junior here, and I are always talking about education.I will say to her, “You make me a better teacher,” and she says, “Mom, you make me a better student.” I think our students come to Northeastern having had with amazing experiences. The students that are matriculating are from everywhere and bring a diversity of perspectives which energizes me as an instructor.

It’s very important as an instructor to be open to what students bring to a classroom environment. I’m always learning because I’m trying to be better. I think the students here push you to be better. It’s like I can’t talk about international experiences if I haven’t participated. That actually was one of the triggers to move me to do a lot more international work just because I had students who were starting to study abroad. I can’t talk about a lived experience in the classroom if I haven’t experienced it.