Higher Education Research in Scotland: Report of a Survey Undertaken by Universities Scotland Educational Development Sub-Committee

The aim of this study was to gain an insight into a range of higher educational research taking place across Scotland with a particular focus on the nature, expertise, support and dissemination of this research. For the purposes of this study, we used the term ‘research into higher education’ to refer to a range of higher educational research activity that included: research into higher education policies and practice, pedagogical research, research into learning and teaching taking place in higher education and research about transition from further education or school into higher education. The findings point to the underground nature of pedagogic research taking place in Scotland. Many researchers are based within disciplines and their pedagogic research is disseminated in a variety of settings that do not always make it easily accessible within generic higher education research discourse. Pedagogic research is also apparently undervalued, with many academic staff experiencing pressure to prioritise publishing within their main discipline over and above pedagogic research. In addition there appears to be a lack of capacity within Scottish institutions to maximise the profile of higher educational research in the forthcoming UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise

Clinical N-PAL preferentially benefits international students

The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which Near Peer Assisted Learning influences the final practical examination results of Year 3 medical students at the University of Malta. Twenty-five Year 4 students received 10 hours of training using standardized clinical histories and corresponding checklists. Fifty-three Year 3 students in a 1:2 tutor:learner ratio attended ten prepared sessions covering history taking and examination skills in each of the body systems. Results: EU participants had significantly higher mean scores than non-EU students (78 vs 66%, p = 0.02). EU and non-EU N-PAL participants had higher mean clinical examination scores than EU and non-EU non-participants (77.3 vs 70.5%, p=0.1; 66.3 vs 47.8%, p=0.07, respectively). The mean pre/post test score for doing a clinical examination increased by 29%. Discussion: Perhaps because peer assisted tutoring is perceived to be less formidable than clinician-led teaching, N-PAL participating students from non-EU countries scored almost one fifth higher than their non-participating peers in the final clinical skills examination. Perceived pre/post test scores improved dramatically in doing a clinical examination, indicating that participants felt that they benefited from attending these sessions. Conclusion: If used as an adjunct to formal teaching, Near Peer Assisted Learning is particularly beneficial to non-EU students studying within the EU, probably because it improves communication skills, instills self-confidence as well as helps students to practice practical skills in an informal setting. Take home messages: Near Peer Assisted Learning boosts the confidence of non-EU students allowing them to perform better in clinical exam situations. However, all participants reported the sessions as being very helpful in improving their history-taking and clinical examination skills.peer-reviewe

Same-level peer-assisted learning in medical clinical placements: a narrative systematic review

BACKGROUND: Peer-assisted learning (PAL) is increasingly used in medical education, and the benefits of this approach have been reported. Previous reviews have focused on the benefits of peer tutoring of junior students by senior students. Forms of PAL such as discussion groups and role-playing have been neglected, as have alternative teacher-learner configurations (e.g. same-level PAL) and the effects on other stakeholders, including clinician educators and patients. This review examines the benefits of same-level PAL for students, clinician educators and patients in pre-registration clinical medical education. METHODS: Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL and ERIC were searched in March 2014. A total of 1228 abstracts were retrieved for review; 64 full-text papers were assessed. Data were extracted from empirical studies describing a same-level PAL initiative in a clinical setting, focusing on effects beyond academic performance and student satisfaction. Qualitative thematic analysis was employed to identify types of PAL and to cluster the reported PAL effects. RESULTS: Forty-three studies were included in the review. PAL activities were categorised into role-play, discussion, teaching and assessment. Only 50% of studies reported information beyond self-report and satisfaction with the PAL intervention. Benefits for students (including development of communication and professional skills) and clinician educators (developing less-used facilitation skills) were reported. Direct patient outcomes were not identified. Caveats to the use of PAL emerged, and guidelines for the use of PAL were perceived as useful. CONCLUSION: Many student-related benefits of PAL were identified. PAL contributes to the development of crucial skills required for a doctor in the workplace. Vertical integration of learning and teaching skills across the curriculum and tools such as feedback checklists may be required for successful PAL in the clinical environment. Benefits for patients and educators were poorly characterised within the included studies. Future work should evaluate the use of PAL with regards to student, clinician educator and patient outcomes

Outlook Magazine, Spring 2017

https://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/outlook/1201/thumbnail.jp

Attitudes toward and experiences of gender issues among physician teachers: A survey study conducted at a university teaching hospital in Sweden

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Gender issues are important to address during medical education, however research about the implementation of gender in medical curricula reports that there are obstacles. The aim of this study was to explore physician teachers' attitudes to gender issues.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>As part of a questionnaire, physician teachers at Umeå University in Sweden were given open-ended questions about explanations for and asked to write examples why they found gender important or not. The 1 469 comments from the 243 respondents (78 women, 165 men) were analyzed by way of content analysis. The proportion of comments made by men and women in each category was compared.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found three themes in our analysis: Understandings of gender, problems connected with gender and approaches to gender. Gender was associated with differences between women and men regarding behaviour and disease, as well as with inequality of life conditions. Problems connected with gender included: delicate situations involving investigations of intimate body parts or sexual attraction, different expectations on male and female physicians and students, and difficulty fully understanding the experience of people of the opposite sex. The three approaches to gender that appeared in the comments were: 1) avoidance, implying that the importance of gender in professional relationships was recognized but minimized by comparing gender with aspects, such as personality and neutrality; 2) simplification, implying that gender related problems were easy to address, or already solved; and 3) awareness, implying that the respondent was interested in gender issues or had some insights in research about gender. Only a few individuals described gender as an area of competence and knowledge. There were comments from men and women in all categories, but there were differences in the relative weight for some categories. For example, recognizing gender inequities was more pronounced in the comments from women and avoidance more common in comments from men.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The surveyed physician teachers gave many examples of gender-related problems in medical work and education, but comments describing gender as an area of competence and knowledge were few. Approaches to gender characterized by avoidance and simplification suggest that faculty development programs on gender need to address and reflect on attitudes as well as knowledge.</p

Gender awareness among physicians – the effect of specialty and gender. A study of teachers at a Swedish medical school

BACKGROUND: An important goal for medical education today is professional development including gender equality and awareness of gender issues. Are medical teachers prepared for this task? We investigated gender awareness among physician teachers, expressed as their attitudes towards the role of gender in professional relationships, and how it varied with physician gender and specialty. We discuss how this might be related to the gender climate and sex segregation in different specialties. METHOD: Questionnaires were sent to all 468 specialists in the clinical departments and in family medicine, who were engaged in educating medical students at a Swedish university. They were asked to rate, on visual analogue scales, the importance of physician and patient gender in consultation, of preceptor and student gender in clinical tutoring and of physician gender in other professional encounters. Differences between family physicians, surgical, and non-surgical hospital doctors, and between women and men were estimated by chi-2 tests and multivariate logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: The response rate was 65 %. There were differences between specialty groups in all investigated areas mainly due to disparities among men. The odds for a male family physician to assess gender important were three times higher, and for a male non-surgical doctor two times higher when compared to a male surgical doctor. Female teachers assessed gender important to a higher degree than men. Among women there were no significant differences between specialty groups. CONCLUSIONS: There was an interaction between physician teachers' gender and specialty as to whether they identified gender as important in professional relationships. Male physicians, especially from the surgical group, assessed gender important to a significantly lower degree than female physicians. Physicians' degree of gender awareness may, as one of many factors, affect working climate and the distribution of women and men in different specialties. Therefore, to improve working climate and reduce segregation we suggest efforts to increase gender awareness among physicians, for example educational programs where continuous reflections about gender attitudes are encouraged

Problem-Based Learning in Physician Assistant Education at a University in Eastern South Carolina: Improving an Active Learning Pedagogy

The purpose of this applied study was to solve the problem of designing and delivering a problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum which enhances students’ critical thinking and prepares physician assistant (PA) students to pass a national certifying examination at a small university in eastern South Carolina. A multi-methods approach utilizing concepts from qualitative and quantitative research was used. The study was guided through a central research question: How can the problems of problem-based learning be improved in PA education at a university in eastern South Carolina? Deeper understanding is discovered through the sub-questions: (a) how would PA education faculty in an interview solve the problems of problem-based learning at a university in eastern South Carolina? (b) how would students in a survey solve the problems of problem-based learning at a university in eastern South Carolina? (c) how would data from student surveys and standardized multiple-choice question instruments provide information related to the problems of problem-based learning at a university in eastern South Carolina? Data collection included personal interviews with five PA faculty, 15 student surveys and documents. Data analysis included bracketing, horizonalization, and coding for themes as well as transformation of data into means and frequencies with triangulation as a parallel analysis of qualitative and quantitative data. The data was analyzed to develop themes which produced three solutions to the problem. The solutions identified were a more thorough alignment of curriculum content across the program, improved faculty facilitation of PBL coursework, and restructuring the peer interactions to include more small group activities, role-playing, and use of patient simulators. Keywords: problem-based learning, physician assistant education, student learning outcomes, critical thinkin

Exploring Academic Goal Commitment and Grit in College Education: A Transcendental Phenomenological Study of the Experiences of African American Male Graduates

The purpose of this qualitative transcendental phenomenological study was to explore how African American male graduates experience and understand academic goal commitment and grit regarding college education in a small Southeastern regional North Carolina district. Duckworth’s grit theory was the framework used to explore the learning problems students encounter based on the premise that everyone can use the constructs of passion, perseverance, sustained interest, and sustained effort toward achieving long-term goals. Data from 10 African American male graduates came from a questionnaire; one-on-one, open-ended interviews; and focus groups. The approach used for data analysis was reactive awareness toward bringing a range of meanings to life’s experiences or phenomena. Epoché, or bracketing, was used to block biases toward the essence of the graduates’ experiences with the phenomenon. Three Themes emerged from the data that include the belief Education Is Key, First-Generation College Graduates and Academic Support, all constructs of which the graduates within SERDC utilized toward their passion to persevere and achieve academic goal commitment and college success