20 Sep These questions are adapted from and rely upon material in Barthalomae

These questions are adapted from and rely upon material in Barthalomae, David, Anthony Petrosky, and Stacey Waite. Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. 11th ed. Bedford St. Martin’s, 2017. pp. 375-377.)

Gawande’s essay begins as a series of case examples. He starts with a case in which he compares the spread of anesthesia and antisepsis. Why do you think he begins with these? What does his introduction of these two case examples allow him to do before he continues with the longer cases involving childbirth and cholera? How would you describe the overall structure and organization of Gawande’s essay? How would you say that structure and organization contributes to his arguments about innovations?
Skim through the essay again with an eye to answering the question from his first paragraph: “Why do some innovations spread so swiftly and others so slowly?” Based on his examples and explanations of anesthesia, antisepsis, childbirth, and cholera, what information does he provide to answer this question? Use your own words in summarizing his ideas.
Review the case examples on childbirth and cholera to text his ideas in the beginning pages of his essay on the things that get in the way of innovations and change. What do you see in these two cases that he thinks of as patterns of “important but stalled ideas”? What else did you learn from these specific cases?
Gawande is a surgeon, a writer, and a teacher at a teaching hospital. One possible purpose of this essay is that Gawande expects us to come awy from a reading of it with lessons about best practices both for teaching and for learning. For example, in order for innovations to stick, people have to be taught and they have to learn. This much is true of all the case examples he presents. What would you say he’s arguing for as best teaching practices for change? What would you say he’s arguing for as the best conditions for learning? Conclude your answer here by commenting on a time you effectively taught someone else (it does not have to be teaching to change) and/or a time you effectively learned something. Be sure to include the practices and conditions that made this situation effective for you and/or others.