Developing self efficacy in research skills: becoming research-minded

The OSWE project’s aims to promote research capacity and develop outcome measures in social work education mirror the capacity and capability building ambitions articulated in the JUCSWEC research strategy (2006) and resonate with concerns about the limited research mindedness and competence of practitioners and social work students. This situation is not unique to the UK. A study from Canada (Unrau and Beck, 2004, p. 188) captures these concerns: While professional and academic expectations are that students integrate research into their practice frameworks…it is not at all clear to what degree students….are learning research skills. Furthermore, studies consistently show that social work students do not exercise research knowledge and skills in their early years of entering the profession. Further synergies between the project discussed within this chapter and the intent to build research capacity in social work were created by focusing on the development of self-efficacy in research skills of social work students at Bournemouth University. This concern for research capacity and capability enhancement, or ‘collaborative capacity building’ (Burgess and Carpenter, 2008, p. 909), was reflected in the local project through the active collaboration between an established and an emerging researcher. This chapter describes the use of research self-efficacy as a tool to evaluate and promote student learning, through self-assessment and lecturer-assessment. We suggest ways in which the approach can be used to plan, predict and assist future learning. The project rationale arose from the desire to increase and enhance research capacity and awareness in social work students. The underpinning premise is summarised by Holden: “when a social worker…has greater confidence regarding his or her research abilities he/she will feel more empowered as a social worker” (Holden et al., 1999, p. 465). This is because high self-efficacy ratings in research are consistently predictive of future confident and successful research behaviour in social workers in the USA (Holden et al., 1999). This confidence in being able to engage with research will enable practitioners to develop practice based on competent reading of research and contribute to the enhancement of the profession and its research base

A virtual practice community for student learning and staff development in health and social work inter-professional education. Mini-project evaluation report.

Interprofessional education (IPE) has been widely advocated and developed as a means to encourage effective collaboration in order to improve public sector services. An IPE curriculum was introduced at Bournemouth University from 2005 for all nursing branches, midwifery, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, operating department practice and social work students (n=600). Challenges of this ambitious and large scale project included facilitating meaningful interprofessional learning while balancing structural complexities of professional body requirements and the logistics of large student numbers and multi-site teaching. A web-based simulated community was created, known as Wessex Bay, as a learning resource to facilitate interprofessional learning around case scenarios. An evaluation of student and staff experiences of IPE over two years, focusing principally on the use of technology in the education process was implemented. Student and staff data were collected via e-surveys, focus groups and open-ended questionnaires with additional feedback from external reviewers specifically on Wessex Bay. Qualitative data were subjected to thematic analysis. Whilst the findings are not claimed to be representative, they provide a rich insight into student and staff experiences of technology enhanced learning in IPE. The richness and complexity of data has led to a number of project outcomes with wide-ranging implications for interprofessional education. This research has led to the identification of three major territories of praxis in which individuals, both students and tutors, are operating in IPE, namely professional differences and identity, curriculum design and learning and teaching strategies, and technology enhanced learning. For the purposes of this report, we will discuss the findings related to student and staff experiences of technology enhanced learning in IPE. The evaluation of the findings highlighted three issues; the level of student and staff knowledge and skill in using learning technologies impacted significantly on learning; there was a need to capitalise on the use of web-based learning resources by increasing interactivity within the scenarios; and finally student and staff experiences of the learning resources was enhanced by a positive learning culture to facilitate creative use of materials. All project aims and objectives were met, and whilst more focused staff and student development in using learning technology is required, a culture of working interprofessionally among students and academic staff has begun to develop, leading to the sharing of ideas about content and learning processes. Recommendations resulting from the project include the introduction of assessed development of student and staff learning technology skills; development of more interactive web-based learning embedded within the case scenarios; and streamlining of the scenarios to provide fewer, but more developed, cases

A Virtual Practice Community for Student Learning and Staff Development in Health and Social Work Inter-Professional Education; Changing Practice Through Collaboration

This Mini Project has been funded by the Health Sciences and Practice Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy Available on-line at HEA website: http://www.health.heacademy.ac.uk/publications/miniproject/scammell08.pd

The flipped classroom, disruptive pedagogies, enabling technologies and wicked problems: responding to 'the bomb in the basement'

The adoption of enabling technologies by universities provides unprecedented opportunities for flipping the classroom to achieve student-centred learning. While higher education policies focus on placing students at the heart of the education process, the propensity for student identities to shift from partners in learning to consumers of education provides challenges for negotiating the learning experience. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are grappling with the disruptive potential of technology-enabled solutions to enhance education provision in cost-effective ways without placing the student experience at risk. These challenges impact on both academics and their institutions demanding agility and resilience as crucial capabilities for universities endeavouring to keep up with the pace of change, role transitions, and pedagogical imperatives for student-centred learning. The paper explores strategies for effective change management which can minimise risk factors in adopting the disruptive pedagogies and enabling technologies associated with ‘flipping the classroom’ for transformative learning. It recognises the significance of individual, cultural and strategic shifts as prerequisites and processes for generating and sustaining change. The analysis is informed by the development of a collaborative lifeworld-led, transprofessional curriculum for health and social work disciplines, which harnesses technology to connect learners to humanising practices and evidence based approaches. Rich data from student questionnaires and staff focus groups is drawn on to highlight individual and organisational benefits and barriers, including student reactions to new and challenging ways of learning; cultural resistance recognised in staff scepticism and uncertainty; and organisational resistance, recognised in lack of timely and responsive provision of technical infrastructure and support. Intersections between research orientations, education strategies and technology affordances will be explored as triggers for transformation in a ‘triple helix’ model of change, through examining their capacity for initiating ‘optimum disruption’ to facilitate student-centred learning, role transitions, and organisational change. We share the findings of ‘our story’ of change to harness the positive utility of these triggers for transformation through deploying strategies for negotiating complexity, including the requirement for a shared vision, a robust team approach, the need for ongoing horizon scanning and application of soft skills (e.g. active listening, timely communication) necessary in order to build student confidence, academic partnerships, and facilitate organisational dexterity and resilience in the face of barriers to change

Optimising disruptive approaches: extending academic roles and identities in higher education

Responding to the changing landscape of higher education (HE) requires the development and implementation of flexible and imaginative approaches to continually inspire, engage and support academics and professional services staff in delivering high quality student-centred learning experiences. At Bournemouth University (BU), the cross-university Centre for Excellence in Learning (CEL) was created to promote, support and co-ordinate pedagogic initiatives and embed the explicit valuing of teaching and learning into all aspects of university life. It represents a collaborative, inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary model with multiple stakeholder voices. Operationalised through the secondment of academics two days a week, and taking a thematic approach, Theme Leaders 'bid' for the secondment, and drive forward an agreed agenda. The BU 'Fusion' corporate strategy promotes clear links between Pedagogy, Professional Practice and Research, complemented by the current CEL themes of: Employability; Innovation in Technology Enhanced Learning and Innovative Pedagogies; Assessment and Feedback. We believe that the sustainability and creativity required to deliver this agenda are promoted through the building of strong networks, the sharing of challenges and the collaborative development of solutions, however, as academics moving into the realms of learning development, our roles and identities are constantly being challenged, contested, and reframed by the responses of peers, students and our wider disciplinary roots. This paper offers a model for mapping and managing change and optimising these and other 'disruptive' practices within HE institutional settings, and considers the flexible and blended academic identities that facilitate this approach

The yin/yang of innovative technology enhanced assessment for promoting student learning

While mo re sophisticated and constructively aligned assessment is encouraged to promote higher level learning, it is easier to assess knowledge and comprehension than critical thinking and making judgements (Bryan & Clegg 2006). Managing the logistics and resource s required for assessing large numbers of students challenges the ethos of placing students at the heart of the learning process and helping them take responsibility for their own learning. The introduction of innovative technology enhanced assessment stra tegies contests our understanding of the purposes of assessment and affords opportunities for more integrated and personalised approa ches to learning and assessment across disciplines. This paper will examine the design, implementation and impacts of inno vative assessment strategies forming an integral part of a collaborative lifeworld - led transprofessional curriculum delivered to cohorts of 600 students in health and social work using technology to connect learners to wide - ranging, humanising perspectives on evidence for guiding practice. Innovative assessment technologies included group blogs, multiple choice electronic or computer assisted assessment (CAA), and an audience response system (ARS) affording combinations of assessment for learning and assess ment of learning. We will explore, through analys es of student assessment experie nces and student and staff evaluations, how these innovative assessment approaches contribute to effective and efficient blended education enabling students to enhance their practice through promoting and developing critical thinking and reflection for judgement - based practice (Polkinghorne 2004) . Secondly, we will debate the yin and yang of contrasting and connecting values associated with the controlled, systematic measurem ent and objectivity of multiple choice assessments, compared with the formative, iterative and subjective nature of reflective blog ging. We will consider relationships between teaching and learning strategies and experiences , breadth and depth of knowledge , passive and active approaches to learning, efficiency and effectiveness, individual and group , multiple choice and discursive assessment s , face - to - face and online, on - campus and off - campus learning and assessment experi e nces

Reflections on transforming assessment and feedback: complexity and collaboration

Medway Learning and Teaching festival is an annual event which has run since 2014. Because of the unique set-up of three universities; Kent, Greenwich and Canterbury Christ Church, on the Medway site, the festival organisation is shared by a small committee of representatives from each of the three universities. Below, Louise Frith, Learning Adviser and co-organiser of the three University festival, offers her insights on running a complex conference in an engaging and interactive format, with a wide range of speakers and participants, some digitally expert and others less so. “Our staff were initially a little hesitant about having an online Festival ; but these comments show how, with careful design, we were able to make it an engaging, inclusive and informative day.” Participant feedback: Extraordinary! Full commitment with the cause. Interesting and innovative. Planning for the festival always starts a year in advance, so back in September 2019 we planned our event with the usual considerations of conference theme, key note speaker, venues and refreshments. The theme chosen was ‘Creative and Inclusive Assessment and Feedback’ and we decided to invite Professor Debbie Holley because of her innovative work in these areas. By March 2020 a physical conference was looking unlikely, so we decided to go online. This decision was conveyed to our keynote speaker and potential contributors. Although an online festival was not what we had planned, all of the contributors embraced the new format and in some ways it presented new opportunities; for example, Debbie suggested that she invite a colleague, Anne Quinney, to co-present with her, making the session more interactive and enabling smoother online management of the keynote. We decided to use MS TEAMS as the presentation platform because it is the most familiar platform for all three institutions and it is free to use. Debbie and Anne now pick up the narrative, and share their reflection

The Mechanics of Digital Wellbeing in HE: Beyond Google Garage

Digital wellbeing is one of the fast-emerging ‘hot topics’ for HE, evident in its new prominence in the Jisc’ digital capabilities framework. JISC, the UK’s expert body for digital technology and resources in Higher Education, Further Education and research defines wellbeing as: “a term used to describe the impact of technologies and digital services on people’s mental, physical, social and emotional health.” How can digital competency frameworks offer a different approach to conceptualising student wellbeing? Mirrored by the EU digital capabilities framework, digital wellbeing is now starting to influence policy at national and pan-European level. An analysis of these two frameworks was carried out by Biggins, Holley and Zezulkova (2017); their work identified ways in which more nuanced approaches to policy implementation would pay dividends in terms of wellbeing outcomes for students. Notably, their work suggests that human learning, underpinned by technological tools, needs to be partnered by a focus on lifelong learning and continuous professional development. At institutional level, McDougall et al (2018) argue human-centred approaches prioritising staff and students’ immediate and lifelong wellbeing are key to success in developing policies for student wellbeing, rather than the mere use of digital tools. Digital wellbeing has taken on new dimensions and arguably greater importance in the adjustments being made to teaching and learning and to everyday life in response to Covid-19. Numerous opportunities now exist for connecting, for socialising, for protesting, and for studying using online platforms; yet underneath there are challenges of the digital world for young people. These unfold in a myriad of ways: trolling and online-bullying; increased peer pressure for an instagram ‘perfect’ life and body image; and access and isolation. Through our teaching and learning endeavours we know about inequalities in access to technology tools, and the health implications that studying on line can create, including the impact of social isolation on young people. We know there are increasing numbers of young people experiencing mental health challenges. An EU project has been set up to increase the capacity of lecturers and students to promote and practice digital wellbeing

Building a values-based community of practice in Nursing Sciences during the Covid-19 pandemic

Delivering a rigorous Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) accredited academic and professional curriculum is complex; the government call for final year student nurses to fast-track their degree completion and enter clinical practice six months early as a response to the pandemic added a further challenging dimension. Distinctive features of teaching and learning in this department of Nursing Science are a curriculum built on the theory of humanisation (Todres, Galvin and Holloway,2009) and values-based teaching and learning(Shulman, 2005; Crookes, Else and Lewis, 2020),informed by Wenger’s (1999) communities of practice. This underpinning philosophy informed the support mechanisms introduced to support this complex scenario of online study and rapid pandemic-related deployment into clinical practice