A Formulation and Critical Evaluation of an Inter-Personal Communication Skills Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) in Pre-Registration Occupational Therapy Education

Abstract Occupational Therapy is a client centred, holistic allied health profession in which the quality of a supportive, empowering therapist-client relationship is seen as having a key and central role in effective therapy. A minimum of a 1000 hours of practice placement education (PPE) must be successfully completed in pre-registration programmes, which are charged with ensuring graduates are fit for practice and purpose. This Work Based Project focussed on how pre-registration education can best equip students for a first PPE in terms of sufficient inter-personal communication skills. Primary data collection was conducted between November 2008 and March 2010. The project firstly employed thematic content analysis of data elicited from two rounds of focus group surveys of practice placement educators (PPEds) to identify a baseline of inter-personal communication skills required prior to embarking on a first PPE. This data was used to formulate an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) checklist of inter-personal communication skills, which was then utilised as a formative assessment and in role play scenarios in taught sessions with one first year pre-registration occupational therapy cohort. This cohort was surveyed via a questionnaire and in addition five students were interviewed. Subsequently a group of third year students, who role played clients for the OSCE, participated in a facilitated discussion on their perceptions of the OSCE. The data on students’ perceptions and an analysis and comparison of staff and student ratings of performance in the formative OSCE, were utilised in a critical evaluation of the use of this OSCE as a teaching and assessment tool. The findings indicate a level of agreement on the content of the OSCE checklist, providing content validity to this particular assessment. PPEds, and first and third year students are positive about the use of an OSCE when it is used as a formative experience. Students recommend that if used as a summative assessment the OSCE is combined with a reflective piece. Objective structured clinical examinations have long been established in other health care professions such as medicine and nursing. This project has provided evidence indicating that an OSCE of inter-personal communication skills is a valid assessment tool for occupational therapy pre-registration students, and that it can also facilitate student reflection, self-awareness and learning. It has also identified profession specific inter-personal communication skills required for embarking on a first PPE

Knowledge Creation Processes in Foundation Degree Partnership Working

This thesis seeks to develop an understanding of knowledge creation processes in partnership working, conditions which foster these, and their impact on longer-term sustainability. The partnership, between a university in Greater Manchester and the Strategic Health Authority, was established in 2002 to train a new role of healthcare worker through the delivery a foundation degree in health and social care. At that time foundation degrees were new, and the 'Assistant Practitioner' role was being introduced to bridge the gap between staff at registered professional level and those at support worker level. The role is intended as generic and patient-centred in crossing traditional professional boundaries, and so presents challenges in creating, sharing and embedding knowledge, which accords well with the concept of knowledge management. The study explores Nonaka and Takeuchi's (1995) model of Knowledge Management, and Engestrom's (1997,2001) Activity Theory, in relation to how these constructs may provide insight into the knowledge processes in partnership working. 'Partnership' is a contested concept which is debated in the context of the policy drivers underpinning the development. The enquiry has employed a case study approach within an interpretive paradigm with data gathered through semi-structured interviews and a focus group. Thematic analysis of the interview data identifies and explores themes in knowledge creation and partnership working which raise questions of power dynamics. These questions are not fully addressed by the knowledge creation models, and so the relationship between power, knowledge and discourse is further considered through a Foucauldian discourse analysis approach to the focus group. The conclusions support the value of the knowledge creation models for developing insights into how partnership working supports innovation and may sustain it. The discourse analysis reveals the pervasiveness of power relationships, reflects on their impact on knowledge creation, and considers the consequences for longer-term sustainability of the partnership

A group of primary four students' perceptions on shadow education and how it contributes to their English language learning

This qualitative study was conducted to investigate a group of primary four students' perceptions on shadow education, examine how some elements of shadow education influence students' learning of the English subject, and explore pedagogical implications for English teachers. Fifty students were invited to complete a questionnaire and eight students were selected under purposive sampling to participate in two focus group interviews. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed for further analysis. The data were presented and evaluated with the use of a thematic framework. The findings revealed mixed perceptions on shadow education and the elements that contribute to students’ English learning between the two groups of students. While students who have been employing private tuition thought that private tuition can facilitate students’ English learning, students who have not attended any private tuition expressed completely different opinion. In general, students believed that the quality of private tutors is a significant factor influencing the effectiveness of private tutoring in enhancing their English learning. The findings provided significant insights for English teachers to reflect and improve their teaching pedagogies so as to provide better learning experiences to their students.published_or_final_versionEducationBachelorBachelor of Education in Language Educatio

‘I feel that this writing belongs to a different kind of text, but if this is gonna get me a better mark…’: High-achieving Students’ Encounters with Multi-disciplinary Writing

High-achieving students are not often the focus of studies in academic transition. In the UK, the driver has frequently been the widening participation and retention agendas, resulting in an emphasis on supporting the ‘non-traditional’ student. This exploratory case study based in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages at the <University> took academic writing as one aspect of transition and compared two transition points for undergraduate students of Modern Foreign Languages (MFL): from school or college into the first year and then into the year abroad as students adapt to expectations for dissertation writing. In a context where weekly tutorials arguably offer the ultimate space for development of student writing, the study unpacks students’ interpretations of institutional, disciplinary, tutor and genre-based expectations. The study drew on theories of academic literacies (Lea & Street 1998, Lillis & Scott 2007 and Russell et al 2009) by viewing writing as socially constructed and ‘literacy’ as dependent on disciplinary context. Findings revealed the significance of the multi-disciplinary nature of the MFL course to students’ ability to adapt to writing at university. It is suggested that a focus on the end product rather than the writing process might hinder the students’ ability to adapt to new expectations and make the most of their tutorial time

Teaching Staff and Student Perceptions of Staff Support for Student Mental Health: A University Case Study

© 2022 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Background: There are significant concerns for student mental health in higher education. New factors affect student mental health, and campus counselling services are overwhelmed. Struggling students turn to ideally placed familiar teaching staff for support. This qualitative study, conducted in an East of England university, aimed to explore student and staff perceptions of support offered by teaching staff to students grappling with their mental health. It is unique, combining both staff and student perceptions, many of which overlapped. Methods: A thematic analysis was conducted of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a small number of self-selecting staff/students. Findings (results): Staff felt inadequate in several aspects, and students agreed to give useful suggestions for their preferred support. Conclusions: It was cautiously established that staff training in mental health literacy (knowledge, skills, attributes, and understanding) was required. Specific training was recommended in pastoral care for personal tutors and for staff pedagogy on health professional programmes. Finally, teaching staff needed support when supporting students with poor mental health. Such training and support can be integrated into a preventative, university-wide, holistic policy for student mental health commensurate with the University Mental Health Charter. Embedding such supportive practice into the curriculum is preferable to add-on services and/or interventions.Peer reviewe

Diligent student, caring practitioner or expert scientist? How context and identity influence writing practices on a postgraduate health sciences programme

The expansion of the UK higher education sector over recent decades has led to greater diversity in terms of educational and linguistic backgrounds, resulting in a ‘deficit’ view of some students in terms of academic writing. However, this view has been challenged by work in New Literacy Studies which regards literacy as socially-situated practice. Research into Academic Literacies has taken an ethnographic view of writers’ identities and life experiences, focused predominantly on the undergraduate experience. However, somewhat less attention has been paid to Masters students, particularly those from professional or vocational backgrounds. This thesis presents a small-scale qualitative study exploring how students on a Health Sciences master’s programme at a post-1992 university in the South-East of England approached the writing of a critical scientific review article for a named journal as part of their module assessment. This study investigates factors in the participants’ context which influence their approach to writing a review article, leading to the following research questions: • How does context influence the student participants’ approach to the writing of a critical review article, particularly their expression of critical evaluation? • How do participants negotiate the tension between writing (in theory) for an academic journal whilst (in practice) producing an assessed piece of work for their lecturer? • What identity positions do participants construct for themselves in the interviews and in their writing? • What are the lecturers’ perspectives on the students’ execution of the review article assignment? An ethnographically oriented approach was employed, using observations, collection of documents, including the module handbook, Powerpoint presentations, and assignment drafts, and semi-structured interviews with students and Health Sciences lecturers. The conclusions explore the complexities of students’ identities, previous practitioner contexts, and how these influence the writing process. The conclusions raise critical questions about writing task ‘authenticity’, genre, and audience, ending with recommendations for practice

AC+erm Project. Transforming Information & Records Management through Research & Development? Proceedings of the 3rd Northumbria International Witness Seminar Conference

These proceedings capture the content of the third Witness Seminar hosted by Northumbria University’s School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences. It built on the success of our two previous witness seminars, in terms of its format and style, but was also different in some important ways. Firstly, it represented the final event of a 3-year Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded research project – Accelerating positive change in e-records management (AC+erm); secondly, the seminars took a series of questions, rather than articles, as their starting point; and thirdly, it was much shorter, lasting only half a day. Although it was the final AC+erm project event, and therefore show cased some of the project’s outputs, the sessions and discussions were deliberately designed to revolve around the broader context of research and development in records and information management

Jigsaws and Jugglers: Disposition, Discourse, and Decision-making in the Assessment of Student Nurse Practice

This research is concerned with the assessment of student nurses' practice, implementation of which has been considered problematic since the move of initial training into higher education. It examines clinical nurses' accounts of assessment, and rejects an approach based on identification of competencies as too rationalistic for a situated practice. Insights from, in particular, Foucault, Deleuze, and Derrida were used to analyse practitioners' alternative discourse of practice, and the processes of self-constitution and decision-making. Eighteen practitioners from different settings were interviewed in depth about how they determine acceptable performance. Three participants were interviewed twice to develop ideas arising from the first round of conversations. Practitioners' accounts challenged the conventional understanding of assessment, and the construction of practice implicit in current policy. The analysis suggests a more fluid, un-predetermined understanding, characterised by hesitation and uncertainty, though without losing a concern with safe practice. Several implications for policy and practice are presented. These require a shift of authority towards practitioners' situated judgements and away from predetermined outcomes, both in respect of programme planning and policy guidelines on the specification of standards. A new alliance is proposed to encourage a more authentic engagement with the process from both clinical and educational practitioners