Becoming and Being a Student: A Heideggerian Analysis of Physiotherapy Students’ Experiences

This three-year, longitudinal, narrative study sought to explore physiotherapy students’ stories of their undergraduate experiences to gain an insight into the process of being a student, with an interpretation of the philosophy of Heidegger as a possible horizon for understanding. The central aim was to listen to students’ stories told in their own words over a series of narrative interviews throughout their degree programme. The first author [CH] interviewed six students a minimum of five occasions and at each interview they were encouraged with a narrative prompt to tell the stories of their experiences as a series of episodes beginning and finishing wherever and however they felt was most appropriate. Framework analysis of the stories revealed that each individual’s experience of university life was multi-layered, and the use of Heideggerian philosophical tenets to inform our interpretation allowed a more insightful exploration of the students’ experiences; providing a greater understanding of what being a student meant for these particular students. This study underlines the importance of listening to students to understand their being so that we might understand individual needs and tailor support accordingly

PLATO: A Practice Education Tool to Support Learning and Professional Development

It is important that nursing students are adequately supported during their clinical practice placements in order to promote effective learning and reduce student attrition. Educators have an important role and this paper offers an interactive tool, ‘PLATO’, (The Practice Learning and Teaching Orientations Tool) to support them to meaningfully engage with learners in the practice setting. To enable such engagement, four personal orientations are presented, (role model, advocate, legitimiser and respecter) which enable educators to explore their role, across both local and wider contexts. PLATO recognises the multiple and varied influences on practice education and supports educators to develop their practice in a positive way

Using stories to understand clinical placement learning; a pilot study

This pilot study explored the value of story writing to understand the learning needs of undergraduate nursing students during their first clinical placement. Early findings suggest that story writing affords freedom to express ideas and feelings, and could be used as an additional method alongside the current placement evaluation questionnaire to understand students learning needs.

Narratives of being: a longitudinal study of physiotherapy students

This narrative study sought to explore Physiotherapy students’ stories of their undergraduate experiences to gain an insight into the process of becoming and being a student. It presents findings gathered from a three-year longitudinal study in which the central aim was to listen to students’ stories told in their own words over a series of narrative interviews throughout their degree programme. As such I have presented some of the personal and social circumstances that can influence students’ experiences during the process of becoming and being a Physiotherapy student. The seven students who volunteered to be included in the study were interviewed on at least five occasions and at each interview they were encouraged with a narrative prompt to tell the stories of their experiences as a series of ‘episodes’ beginning and finishing wherever and however they felt was most appropriate. Analysis of the stories revealed that whilst each individual’s experience of university life was multi-layered, for each student a specific orientation dominated their re-telling of 'being a student' across their interviews. Thus the stories are presented in relation to these orientations: peer support (two students); financial difficulties (two students); learner self-direction (two students); or personal difficulties (one student). In addition, I have considered the narratives in terms of Heidegger’s (1926/62) concepts of ‘being’ and ‘time’ to inform the analysis and interpretation of the data: to present a more insightful exploration of the students’ experiences. These temporal narratives offer an insight into what university life was like for those undergoing it, providing a greater understanding of what ‘being a student’ meant for these particular students. The study demonstrates that ‘becoming’ and ‘being’ a student are about students developing a sense of themselves and of belonging to an institution. Ultimately a higher education is necessarily a process of becoming and as such can be considered as a transformation of ‘being’ as students develop over time

Developing inter-cultural competencies without travelling: Internationalising the curriculum for healthcare students

Healthcare professionals work with increasingly diverse groups of colleagues and patients in their practice, and it is essential that they develop intercultural competence. International experiences in healthcare curricula can help in this development, but healthcare students on courses tend to have limited opportunities for travel. This paper presents data on the use of an online classroom to provide an environment in which physiotherapy students from two countries could work together to review video case studies to enhance their knowledge and understanding of selected patient conditions and compare different approaches to diagnosis and treatment. These activities were integrated into the usual curriculum in both countries. Evaluation of students’ experiences showed that they valued the opportunity to engage with their peers in another country and were readily able to identify professional and academic benefit from participation. They commented on the impact on their professional identity formation, the benefits of widening their community of practice, and of becoming more interculturally competen

Fitting in with the team: facilitative mentors in physiotherapy student placements’

Clinical placements are central to Physiotherapy students’ education, providing an environment in which students can apply learning they have been introduced to in academic settings. However placement learning has been identified as fraught with problems and resultant stress and there is limited evidence available on what exactly makes a good placement for Physiotherapy students. This paper reports on selected findings from a study exploring narratives of Physiotherapy students over three years, relating to their overall experiences of being a student. A narrative prompt provided an opportunity for the students to speak about ‘episodes’ of their learning experiences. A number of these ‘episodes’ related to the students’ experiences of clinical placements thus it was decided to extract these from the narratives and undertake a separate qualitative analysis of these placement experiences. The majority of the students reported positive experiences of placements overall, however, it was clear that some placement teams and mentors did not support students appropriately. A welcoming team and a mentor who facilitated learning from an individual student perspective were considered to be key to a good placement experience; whilst an unwelcoming team and a mentor who objectified the student resulted in bad placement experiences

An educational initiative to support the development of communities of practice in older people’s care home settings

Background: It is predicted that care home provision for older people will need to increase significantly over the next 30 years, requiring a skilled workforce that expands to meet this growing need. Innovative practice development strategies are required to support the existing workforce and provide incentives to help recruit new staff. Aim: This article aims to explore the use of the peer-assisted learning model to support the development of communities of practice in care home settings in an area of England. Method: Care home teams were invited to university-based workshops and their experiences of using peer-assisted learning were elicited through narrative telephone interviews undertaken with care home managers. Findings: Three overarching themes were identified relating to practice development: context, process and impact. Through peer-assisted learning, staff were empowered to share their expertise and knowledge with colleagues, resulting in enhanced communication, respect and person-centred resident care. Managers viewed peer-assisted learning as a sustainable, low-cost investment in staff development. Conclusion: This article contributes to practice development by presenting reflections on an innovative initiative to facilitate the use of peer-assisted learning in educational practices in the care home workforce. Combining the philosophies of community of practice and peer-assisted learning provides a model that can foster practice development in the care home setting. Further, this work can support the development of communities of practice that operate across care homes on a national/international basis

The influence of role models in undergraduate nurse education.

To explore the concept of role modelling in undergraduate nurse education and its effect on the personal and professional development of student nurses.Effective educative strategies are important for student nurses, who have to cope with learning in both clinical and university settings. Given the contemporary issues facing nurse education and practice in the United Kingdom (UK) it is timely and important to undertake pedagogical research into the concept of role modelling as an effective educative method.A descriptive narrative approach.Unstructured interviews were conducted with 14 current/recently discontinued students from Adult and Mental Health branches of nursing degree programmes in the North West region of England, United Kingdom (UK). Data were thematically analysed.Students valued exposure to positive role models in clinical and university settings and viewed them as beneficial to their learning. Exposure to negative role models occurred and this provided students with opportunities to consider the type of nurse they aspired to become. In some cases students exposure to perceived poor practice had an adverse effect on their learning and led to negative feelings about nursing work. Clinical staff might be perceived as more relevant role models than those in the university setting although there were still opportunities for academic staff to model professional behaviours.The study found that role modelling is an effective way to support learning and led to student satisfaction across both clinical and university settings. The findings support the use of role models in nurse education and further research about conscious positive modelling of practice is required.Exploring the use of role models is important when examining ways in which the quality of nurse education might be developed. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Using iPads to promote mark-making in children on the autism spectrum.

This paper explores the use of iPads in a nursery setting, particularly to promote mark-making. Mark-making is important to help children develop pen control and writing skills. With the increase in the use of technology to support learning in both mainstream and specialist schools, this paper is an important glimpse into the challenges and benefits of introducing iPads into early years settings. Although this is a case study, it provides useful information on some of the reservations and difficulties staff came across over the course of the study. The results of this case study are overall very positive and the authors suggest further research that would add to this area. This paper will be of interest to staff working in school settings and parents of children with autism

Exploring staff perceptions of first-generation students to enhance professional development of academic staff

Supporting students’ transition to higher education, is often described as essential to enhance their progression and learning experiences. Yet students from non-traditional backgrounds continue to report considerable difficulties in adapting to university life (Hamshire, Forsyth, & Player, 2018; Laubscher-Kelly, Paxton, & Majombozi, 2018). Whilst there is a considerable body of research on students’ learning experiences, the perspectives of staff working with those students are rarely recorded. This paper reports on a collaborative project between researchers in the UK and South Africa exploring staff perceptions of first generation students’ experiences. Twenty members of staff volunteered to be included in the study at each of the participating institutions, and were invited to reflect on their perceptions and experiences, using semi-structured interviews. All interviews were digitally recorded; transcribed verbatim and subsequently analysed using a thematic approach to identify staff perceptions. Despite the very different cultural contexts experienced by these students in the two institutions, the staff reported considerable similarities in the challenges they believed that students face in integrating into university life. This session will present findings from the project, with a focus on the role of academic professional development, We will also showcase some of the resources developed for professional development during the project as well as offering reflections on future developments and potential wider implications