Developing higher order thinking in medical education through reflective learning and research

Reflection in education is not a new concept for as Meiklejohn (1882) enthused, ‘learning is a social act.’ Dewey (1933), a key twentieth century instigator of the concept of reflection, expanded upon the ideas of earlier educators including Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Solomon, and Buddha (Houston, 1988). The preferred reflective model of Perioperative Critical Care pathway students at the University of Bedfordshire has been Reflection-for-Learning. This student-centred model of reflection was developed for their use to meet student identified needs

Faculty development: learning from the student whilst developing the higher order thinking skills of right-to-try adult learners within the higher education setting: a self-directed reflective process

Two members of the Operating Department Practice (ODP) lecturing team were surprised to receive poor National Student Survey results surrounding student assessment feedback despite positive remarks from the external examiners. A studentcentred intervention was sought that would encourage meaningful engagement with their assessment feedback by employing self-directed and reflective learning that would aid in the development of the higher-order thinking so vitally needed in the students’ pursuit of providing quality perioperative patient care. A learning activity involving positive reinforcement of the feedback through the use of the Reflectionfor-Learning model (Beckwith & Beckwith, 2008) was created. This intervention asks students to engage in this Reflection-for-Learning process and articulate their personal action plan based upon their assessment feedback. This method has led to improvements in learner engagement with the assessment feedback and a 100% overall satisfaction rating from the students in a subsequent National Student Survey. An unexpected development has been the movement toward a mutually supportive relationship between lecturers and students as students transform into empowered learners willing to shape their own learning experiences

Signature pedagogies and the HOTSHOT educator: a systematic literature review

Higher Education Institutions have made considerable investments both fiscally and in staff engagement with clinical simulation. Professional bodies such as the Royal College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the College of Operating Department Practice endorse the use of clinical simulation. Claims that clinical simulation stimulates Higher Order Thinking and therefore contributes to increased patient safety will be examined

An analysis of contemporary issues for leaders in healthcare education: achieving praxis and closing the theory practice divide

In his executive summary of the Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry, Frances (2013) insists that "a list should be drawn up of all the qualities generally considered necessary for a good and effective leader. This in turn could inform a list of competencies a leader would be expected to have" (Frances, 2013, p108). While Frances does not specify educational leaders in his report, they are fundamental in the development of the future workforce through role modelling of the much hailed '6 C's' and therefore impact the patient experience (AACN, 2012; Frances, 2013). In this paper I will address the dilemmas faced by educational leaders engaged in healthcare education. One such dilemma is academic drift or the valuing and greater uptake of academic practices at the expense of vocational qualifications and practices (Edwards and Miller, 2008 p36). Another dilemma is the move from vocational to academic training, and then forward to a degree threshold profession due to various political drivers, in professions such as operating department practice (ODP). Other dilemmas that will be addressed include the paradigm shift created by change management strategies that employ the vocationally trained clinical assessors to support students enrolled in degree level study (Hauxwell, 2010)

Reflection or critical thinking? : a pedagogical revolution in North American health care education

George Bernard Shaw's observation that the United States of America and Great Britain are "two nations divided by a common language" is as pertinent today as when it was made in1887. This juxtaposition has many other manifestations one of which is the delivery of health care education. It has been established in the United States of America that the preferred pedagogy is critical thinking, exponents of this educational module include Dr. Martin Luther King who suggested that, the function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically . . . The complete education gives one not only power of concentration but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate (King,1948). This is further supported by the Yale professor, William Sumner, who enthuses that education in the critical faculty is the only education of which it can be truly said that it makes good citizens (Sumner, 1943)

Does clinical simulation stimulate higher order thinking and the skills of higher order thinking in medical education?

Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) have invested in high fidelity clinical simulation centres incorporating all three areas of the perioperative pathway. It is suggested clinical simulation contributes to increased patient safety and is therefore encouraged in undergraduate operating department practice (ODP) courses (College of Operating Department Practice [CODP], 2011). A search of the literature, however, fails to uncover studies of the effectiveness of clinical simulation in the field of operating department practice. Studies from medicine and nursing exist, albeit from the perspective of the students’ experience and the lecturers’ delivering the simulation. The reapproved Diploma of Higher Education Operating Department Practice resulted in the introduction of clinical simulation in the first term whilst the classroom instruction remained unchanged. Therefore a comparison can be drawn between the cohort with classroom instruction only and the following cohort that received the blended theory and simulated learning

The nurse associate trainee deserves a HOTSHOT education: a reflective signature pedagogical approach

Concerns were raised at the 2017 National Trainee Nurse Associate Conference. The Associate Nurse Work‐based Learning Signature Pedagogy creates constructive alignment to the work based learning units of the nurse associate programme and aims to address these concerns. However, attempts to locate a pedagogic approach for high quality learning and skills development have proved unsuccessful. Further exploration of Bloom’s (1956) taxonomy and Anderson & Karthwohl’s (2001) adaption of Bloom’s taxonomy have failed to align with Biggs’ (1999) model of constructive alignment and have led to the creation of the Higher Order Thinking and the Skills of Higher Order Thinking (HOTSHOT) taxonomy which redefines Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). Additionally, a move away from Socratic dialogue to reflection enabled the evolution of the signature pedagogy framework into a reflective signature pedagogy framework. The Associate Nurse Work‐based Learning Signature Pedagogy offers a solution to the concerns raised, based upon robust pedagogical theory

Can distance learning become an affective mode of delivery?

The term blended learning is becoming more prevalent in the fields of Health and Social Sciences. Although it tends to be synonymous with e-learning; this should not be the case as blended learning involves an integrated delivery strategy. Rossett et al. (2003) suggest that this could include interaction with a supervisor; participation in an online class; breakfast with colleagues; competency descriptions; reading on the beach; reference to a manual; collegial relationships; and participation in seminars, workshops, and online communities. This paper will attempt to explore whether the integration of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) to a traditionally taught masters programme through the development of a blended learning strategy, can facilitate its evolution to distance learning