Jargon Terms

Inter-professional education (IPE), multi-professional education (MPE)

The inclusion of the word professional generally indicates that the learning outcomes are related to practice in the field and processes that develop the associated skills.  The phrases ‘collaborative learning for collaborative practice’ or ‘learning together to work together’ are often used.

Newsletter 3: June 2001

Inter- or multi-disciplinary  education

The use of the word disciplinary generally refers to learning outcomes that are mainly content oriented and learners are together for convenience since what is being learnt is common to the needs of a range of curricula.

Newsletter 3: June 2001

PBL

Problem-based Learning? Practice-based Learning? Placement-based Learning?
All are referred to as PBL. Even when it is clear which one is being referred to, do we all mean the same thing?

Problem Based Learning currently refers to a continuum of activities. At one end of the continuum there is a carefully constructed case study that a group of students has to address over an extended period. The whole curriculum centres around the problem which addresses the range of learning that is required to meet the learning outcomes. At the other end there is a rough and ready scenario constructed by the students or the tutor that is offered as a one off trigger to discussion that will consider solutions to the problem posed.  Howard Barrows one of the 'founding fathers' of PBL has commented that the wide dissemination of PBL has spawned so many mutations that the genus “problem based learning” now has an almost unclassifiable array of species. One approach is to distinguish between PBL (UPPERCASE) and pbl (lowercase).  Practitioners of PBL tend to adhere to the structures and procedures first systematized by Howard Barrows whereas lowercase pbl refers to an indefinite range of educational approaches that give problems a central place in the learning activity. PBL incorporates the ideas of a number of theoretical approaches that can broadly be considered constructivist. As such it should be understood as a general educational strategy rather than merely a teaching approach.

For more information on problem based learning see Mark Newman’s article on our website:
http://www.health.ltsn.ac.uk/Publications/PBL.htm

Practice or placement based learning refers to the professional setting in which learning occurs in contrast to the academic setting of the higher education institution. It refers to initial or pre-registration professional education rather than the continuing professional development or life long learning that takes place in the work place. Both come under the umbrella of Work-based Learning.

Newsletter 4: October 2001

WDC: Workforce Development Confederation

The NHS Workforce Development Confederations became a reality in April 2001. 24

Confederations replaced 43 Education and Training Consortia.  Confederations are made up of NHS member organisations, further and higher education and Independent Sector representatives, Local Authorities, and Post graduate Medical Deaneries within a defined locality.

Newsletter 5: January 2002

Experiential Learning

Placing the learners experience as a central resource for learning. Personal experience is explored, critically analysed and related to theory in order to inform future action and development of ideas and values. Not to be confused with experimental learning.

Newsletter 6: Summer 2002

Virtual Learning Environment

Support of online learning, including access to learning resources, assessment and guidance with online tutor support and peer group support.

Newsletter 6: Summer 2002

Reflective Practice is NOT just ‘thinking about what we do’

It is a formal method of thinking and writing which requires you to identify your actions, thoughts and feelings, either specifically or generally, and then subject these to objective analysis.

The first stage of the analysis is undertaken through the act of writing narratives. You then subject your narratives to an analysis that is supported with appropriate theory.

The purpose of this is to come to new personal understandings about the incident you are exploring and then develop new ways of acting, thinking and/or feeling in similar situations.  If used as a research method, it usually involves the support of a supervisor who takes the role of a ‘critical friend'. The individual is both the researcher and the researched.

It requires self-awareness and a willingness to be self-critical in order to challenge the appropriateness of personal beliefs and values. The ultimate outcome can be personal transformation.

Newsletter 7: Autumn 2002

Employability

Employability - a process of a student learning to engage reflectively with their development, valuing what they have to offer, and recognising their increasing self confidence, self-esteem, and ability to manage themselves. It is not just about getting a specific job as a graduate but focuses on how their range of skills and qualities enhance the potential for success in a range of lifelong employment, paid or unpaid, and including self-employment.

Dr Margaret Sills
Academic Director, Health Sciences and Practice Subject Centre

Newsletter 8: Spring 2003

VALUES-BASED PRACTICE

Evidence-Based Practice is a response to the growing complexity of the facts on which healthcare decisions are based, whereas Values-Based Practice (VBP) is a response to the growing complexity of the corresponding values. Values-Based Practice involves attending equally to all voices and starts from respect for differences of values. It is thus the theory and skills-base for clinical decision making where legitimately different, and hence potentially conflicting, values are in play.

The practice of VBP involves a shift from outcomes to process. In VBP, conflicts of values are resolved primarily by coming to a balanced view based on good communication and other skills. This process-based approach is quite different from ethics in which the outcome of a contested decision is prescribed by a rule based on ‘right’ values.

Communication skills are a particularly important part of the ‘good process’ approach to decision-making in VBP. Skills such as listening and understanding are central to awareness of the perspective of the patient or patient group involved in a particular decision (this is Principle 4 of the 10 Principles of Values-Based Practice *

Learning to make decisions with rather than for patients and clients requires different ways of knowing. Knowing ‘that’, the facts that can be established; knowing ‘how’, the process by which decisions are made on the basis of both fact and values, in different contexts; and ‘Personal’ knowledge that practitioners, and educators, are able to apply at a particular time in a specific situation so that they capably deal with that scenario before them.

Dr Margaret Sills
Academic Director, Health Sciences and Practice Subject Centre

Reference:

* (Fulford, K.W.M., Williamson, T. and Woodbridge, K. (2002) Values-Added Practice (a Values-Awareness Workshop), Mental Health Today, October, pps 25-27). The theory and practice of VBP is described in Fulford, K.W.M, (forthcoming) Ten Principles of Values- Based Medicine. In Radden. J (Ed) Companion to the Philosophy of Psychiatry, NY OUP

Newsletter 11: Spring 2004

Appreciative inquiry - Why does it work?

Appreciative inquiry represents a viable complement to conventional forms of problem-solving action-research. The question is framed from a positive perspective so that principles of success can be distilled and underpin future effectiveness. Facilitating factors balance barriers, responses are given in a way that enables understanding of not only what works well but also why it does and how it came to be like that. Good theory may be one of the best means we have for effecting change.

Despite all the barriers and problems why do most students succeed? As Ranald Macdonald commented, for example, this moves away from the deficit model of student retention and the dependency model of student support.

Further reading:

Ludema, J.D., Cooperrider, D.L & Barrett, F.J (2001) “Appreciative Inquiry: the power of the unconditional positive question” in Reason, P. & Bradbury, H (Eds) Handbook of Action Research: participative inquiry and practice. Sage

See http://www.appreciative-inquiry.org/AI-Life.htm (accessed 25.02.05)

Newsletter 14: Spring 2005

Critical Reflection/Reflective Practice

Critical reflection, reflective practice, reflexivity – the same or different?

There are probably as many answers to this question as there are people who have written about it. Perhaps the most reassuring point to make is that there is no definitive distinction on which everyone is agreed.

Mezirow, often quoted in writing on Critical Reflection, sees this as the highest form of reflection, a place where ‘transformative’ learning can occur. Critical reflection can take place within, or away from, a practice environment.

According to Mezirow’s 1990 formulation, reflective action, or practice, is distinguished from critical reflection in that it may include ‘thoughtful action’ which falls some way short of challenging assumptions and presuppositions. This theoretical position derives particularly from the work of Dewey and Habermas.

Reflective Practice could be seen as being more action-oriented, and practice-based, drawing on Kolb’s learning cycle and the work of Schön on the characteristics of professional practice: the ability to reflect both on and in-action.The distinction between this form of reflection and critical reflection is not entirely satisfactory, however, as within Schön’s writing is the concept of ‘double loop’ thinking, which includes the aspect of challenging assumptions as in Mezirow’s transformative learning above.

The term Reflexivity has also been used as an alternative term to the first two. It does, however, also have a distinctive meaning within qualitative research methodology where it is an important procedure for establishing the validity and trustworthiness of accounts and findings: a process of self-reflection on the part of the researcher where areas of potential bias and prejudices are acknowledged. We can undertake a similar process in learning and teaching as we reflect on the impact of our biases and predispositions on our students.

This is just one possible formulation of these terms. Perhaps we don’t need to try and tease them apart. The important thing is that we engage in the process underlying the words themselves and that we facilitate this engagement among and within our students.

Newsletter 15: Summer 2005

RLOs/GLOs

Abbreviations abound and RLOs arrived on the elearning scene, now joined by GLOs, and are measured in granularity; here's what we think these terms mean:

Reusable Learning Object (RLO): a discrete interactive multi media learning resource that enables one specific intended learning outcome / learning objective (e.g. ‘to discuss the appropriate boundaries of confidentiality’) to be achieved. It can be stored, accessed online and used /reused in course delivery at different levels and in different disciplines. Re-use is facilitated by the object itself being context neutral.

Generative Learning Object (GLO): evolving from the RLO comes a new generation of learning objects that enable tutors to easily adapt learning objects to learning needs. The technical infrastructure provides a re-useable framework so that new objects can be generated to suit a different disciplinary or interdisciplinary context.

In the data-bases containing these learning objects you may find catalogue reference to their granularity.This is a basic measure of their complexity.The higher the granularity, the more complex the object and the deeper the intended learning.

For further information and examples see www.rlo-cetl.ac.uk Here you will also find three new RLOs that are products of our recent elearning mini-project and focus on interprofessional learning. For example “Why do we need confidentiality?” at www.ucel.ac.uk/rlos/confidentiality/

Newsletter 16: Autumn 2005

Work-based and Practice-based Learning

Within the health sciences and practice community a great deal of learning takes place in the work setting, so these terms are probably very familiar ones to you. You may not be so aware of the definitions of each.

Fundamentally, work-based learning is where an individual employee engages in some form of formal learning generated from his or her workplace, and practice-based learning is where an individual student in higher education goes out into a work placement. In this sense, the work-based learner is learning whilst undertaking their normal job. This will normally be accredited in some way, possibly by an HEI. Foundation degrees were devised as a way of capturing and rewarding work-based learning at the Higher Education level.

Practice-based learning, on the other hand, is intended to provide crucial professional and practical experience for the student who would be working alongside the workforce in a supernumerary capacity within the work setting.

However, this distinction is not clear cut and you will no doubt find the terms being used in other ways, sometimes interchangeably. In addition, there is a plethora of other related terms in common usage which may mean the same, or similar, things: workplace learning, practice education, work-related learning and lifelong learning being just a few examples.

Newsletter 17: Spring 2006

Service Users and Carers

Service user and carer involvement in Health Professional Education is becoming more and more important as patient / person centred care pathways are established.  The voice of users and carers is both essential and valuable to the future of health care and particularly in interprofessional education that leads to better collaborative practice taking into account all voices.  This does not mean that all patients or carers are educators and are freely available but that some are moved to become part of a user or carer group that will offer training in order to maximise possible contributions to professional education, both in academic and practice settings.

There is currently some debate around terminology with some prefering ‘service eligible people’ or ‘citizen stakeholders’ or ‘people with lived experience’ to ‘service users and carers’.  The key is to use what the people concerned feel most comfortable with.

Newsletter 18: July 2006

Creative Commons:

Creative Commons provides choices of copyright licensing to copyright holders and helps them make their creative work available in the public domain, or to retain their copyright whilst licensing it free for certain uses on specific conditions.

Creative Commons licences apply to works that are protected by copyright i.e. books, scripts, websites, lesson plans, blogs and any other forms of writing; photographs and other visual images; films, video games and other visual materials; musical compositions, sound recordings and other audio works. The licences do not apply to things such as ideas, factual information or other things that cannot be protected by copyright.

Originally grounded in American law, International Creative Commons has now established national projects. Creative Commons UK published the first draft licence in February 2004. Since the United Kingdom is comprised of three legal jurisdictions, with differences between their laws, separate projects for England together with Wales and for Scotland came into being at the beginning of 2005.

Further Information:

Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org/

Creative Commons – UK: England & Wales: http://www.creativecommons.org.uk/

Creative Commons – Scotland: http://creativecommons.org/worldwide/scotland/

Newsletter 19: October 2006

Blended Learning

Blended learning is a fairly new term in education lingo, but the concept has been around for decades. Essentially, blended learning is defined as a method of educating at a distance that uses technology (high-tech, such as television and the Internet or low-tech, such as voice mail or conference calls) combined with more traditional education or training. (Smith 2004)

It is a combination of different modes of delivery, models of teaching, and styles of learning but most commonly describes the integration of e-learning tools and techniques with formal or informal face to face methods.

We commonly refer to the term 'blended' learning, but this can vary between simply making optional support materials available through an institutional VLE, to a more reflective approach where modules are redesigned to gain the maximum pedagogic benefits from both face-to-face and online learning, i.e. getting the 'blend' right.

Newsletter 20: February 2007

Open Space Technology

Open Space Technology (OST) was conceived almost twenty years ago by Harrison Owen (Maryland, USA: http://www.openspaceworld.org) In essence, OST is a creative way of running meetings and other events.

The most basic principle is that everyone who comes to an Open Space event must be passionate about the topic and willing to take some responsibility for creating things out of that passion.

Four other key principles are:

1. Whoever comes is the right people.
2. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have.
3. Whenever it starts is the right time.
4. When it is over it is over.

A final Open Space principle is The Law of Two Feet: "If you find yourself in a situation where you aren't learning or contributing, go somewhere else."

In OST events, participants create and manage their own agenda of parallel working sessions around a central theme. Notes of each session are kept and collated at the close of the meeting and circulated to all participants.

Further information and many interesting examples of how OST has been utilised can be found at: http://www.openspaceworld.org

Several members of the Subject Centre team have had some experience of facilitating Open Space at The School of Community Health, Napier University, where Andy Gibbs and colleagues hosted the fourteenth annual meeting of the Florence Nursing and Midwifery Network. (See Andy’s article in our July 2006 newsletter: http://www.health.heacademy.ac.uk/publications/newsletter/Newsletter18_20060704.pdf Our experience there was that OST can be challenging, creative and fun. It can produce more imaginative outcomes than traditional meetings and involve everyone in devising and taking responsibility for resulting actions.

Newsletter 21: May 2007

'Students' wellbeing'

There are many definitions and models of well-being. Well being can be subjective – defined by the individual, or objective, which is more like quality of life, or ‘human flourishing’. There are two basic perspectives: well-being as the absence of negative conditions (‘free from disease’) and wellbeing as the presence of positive attributes (‘happy, healthy and prosperous) (Fraillon 2004).  Discussion of student well-being tends to draw on the second ‘psychological’ perspective. But it’s complex: (Audin, Davy et al. 2003) used ‘student well-being’ as “an overall measure of student’s quality of life within the complex of interacting factors to which they are exposed’ and listed academic factors ((teaching quality, timetabling, workload, access to resources) and non-academic factors (accommodation, student support, finances). The four Kinds of Being "Well" (Galloway and Bell 2006);(Veenhoven 1998) summarise perhaps what we should be aiming for in teaching and learning.

References

Audin, K., J. Davy, et al. (2003). "University Quality of Life and Learning (UNIQoLL): an approach to student well-being, satisfaction and institutional change." Journal of Further and Higher Education 27(4): pp 365-382.

Fraillon, J. (2004). "Measuring Student Well-Being in the Context of Australian Schooling: Discussion Paper." Retrieved 17 August, 2007, from http://www.mceetya.edu.au/verve/_resources/Measuring_Student_Well-Being_in_the_Context_of_Australian_Schooling.pdf

Galloway, S. and D. Bell. (2006). "Quality of Life and Well-being: measuring the benefits of culture and sport: literature review and thinkpiece " Retrieved 17 August, 2007, from http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/01/13110743/0.

Veenhoven, R. (1998). "The utility of happiness." Social Indicators Research 20: pp333-354.

Newsletter 22: September 2007

Inclusivity

Higher Education providers have been engaging with agendas of widening participation, disability and equal opportunities for many years, often under separate headings but with increasingly similar aspirations: to make accessible the opportunities afforded through the experience of higher education to these diverse groups.

‘Inclusivity’ is a means by which these complementary and overlapping agendas can be incorporated in a coherent way within the policies and procedures of Higher Education Institutions. In general terms, it is an approach that aims to recognise and build on the knowledge, skills and experiences of ALL students regardless of ethnicity, gender disability or other potential barrier.

At the societal level, this move towards a more integrated approach to diversity is clearly reflected in the merger in October 2007 between the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) and the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) into the Equality and Human Rights Commission: www.equalityhumanrights.com

Recent legislation also hastens progress in this area, including the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 and the Disability Discrimination Act 2007; the thrust of this legislation being education providers now have a duty to make sure that all students have fair and equal access to the same subjects and that they are assessed in the same way.

The following principles are suggestions as to the sorts of issues that may be addressed in seeking to develop an ethic of ‘inclusivity’ (this is by no means an exhaustive list):

• Incorporating a diversity of experiences and planning contexts across gender, age, race/ethnicity, religion, culture, language, sexual preference, ability, region, socio-economic status
• Avoiding generalisations and stereotypes about the characteristics and qualities of different groups
• Being open to a diverse range of perspectives in viewing the world
• Creating the opportunity for many voices and perspectives to be heard

Newsletter 23: January 2008

Simulation

Simulation as a learning and teaching strategy is being used in many Higher Education

Institutions to develop the knowledge and skills base of health care students. It is an educational technique that allows interactive and, at times, immersive activity by recreating all or part of a clinical experience without exposing patients to the associated risks (Maran and Glavin 2003), producing a safe environment in which learners can successfully master the skills relevant to clinical practice. The educational processes that underpin simulator training include deliberate practice, reflection and feedback.

Simulation in education may take many forms including:

• Multimedia technologies
• Bench top models
• Full body human patient simulators (ranging from ‘Low-fidelity’ simulators that are limited in their interactivity with the user, to ‘High- fidelity’ simulators that can be programmed to simulate physiological conditions of various medical scenarios and responses to interventions (Hammond 2004, Maran and Galvin, 2003).
• Role playing
• Use of actors to replicate clinical situations
• Games

Bradley (2006) argues that simulation is not a new phenomenon in clinical learning but that it has been gradually establishing a role in health care education, albeit with limited research of sufficient quality to provide a robust evidence base.

References

Bradley P (2006) The history of simulation in medical education and possible future directions Medical Education 40: 254–262

Hammond J. (2004) Simulation in critical care and trauma education and training. Current Opinion in Critical Care 10: 325–9

Maran NJ, Glavin RJ. (2003) Low- to high-fidelity simulation – a continuum of medical education? Medical Education 37: 22–8.

Newsletter 24: May 2008

Internationalisation

Internationalisation is an issue for health care education in Higher Education (HE).  Workforce mobility and greater cultural diversity in the population requires the ability to communicate across cultures regardless of linguistic barriers and the ability to relate to other people in all their diversity.

The presence of international students will not necessarily develop the global perspectives of UK students. Familiarity with another culture or language neither automatically results in the ability to communicate across cultures nor in meeting the needs of international students in the UK. International exchanges and projects can contribute but students returning from studying overseas do not necessarily have a transformative experience or gain global perspectives on professional practice and insights into other cultures. The UNESCO definition for internationalisation is ‘ a multifaceted process of integrating an international and intercultural dimension into the curriculum, research and service functions.’  (Internationalization of Higher Education Practices and Priorities: 2003 IAU Survey Report)

Internationalisation in HE thus needs to focus on:

• curriculum development to prepare all graduates, regardless of country of origin, to be informed, responsible citizens able to work effectively in a global, multi-cultural context
• development of initiatives to enhance the learning experience of international students
• supporting the sector in engaging with the Bologna process (http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/educ/bologna/bologna_en.html)
• International collaboration

For further information:

• The Internalionalisation of UK Higher Education: a review of selected material' by Viv Caruana and Nicola Spurling (PDF 685KB)
• Issue 5 of the Academy Exchange magazine on Internationalisation, Winter 2006 (PDF 2.1MB)

Newsletter 25: September 2008

Pedagogy/Andragogy

Pedagogy generally refers to the principles and practice of teaching and facilitating learning.

The terms Pedagogy and Andragogy are also used to distinguish between kinds of teaching that emanate from the philosophy of education subscribed to (see Knowles 1990, Kaufman et al 2000).

Pedagogy then refers to the expert leading the educational endeavour and the process often being didactic in nature and transmitting content that is designated to be appropriate for the learner to absorb. Andragogy, on the other hand, describes a way of facilitating learning that uses the learner’s experience as essential to the process and expects the learner to be more actively engaged in their learning.

Terms such as ‘teacher centred’ and ‘learner or student centred’ can be used respectively. These ideals can be seen as poles of a continuum with various balances of teacher and learner centredness along the way. The context informs the decision about how teaching proceeds but there is now a general consensus that learners who are actively engaging in their learning gain a better understanding of applying principles to practice in the longer term.

References:

Knowles, M.S. 1990 The Adult Learner: a Neglected Species 4th edition, Houston: Gulf Publishing Company, Book Division.

Kaufman, D. et al, 2000 Teaching and Learning in Medical Education: How theory can inform practice, ASME

Newsletter 26: January 2009

OER : Open Educational Resources

Open educational resources are defined as 'teaching, learning and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use or re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials or techniques used to support access to knowledge'. (Definition used by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.)

There is a growing impetus in higher education to enable resources for and about learning and teaching to be openly and freely available for anyone to use and repurpose anywhere in the world. Meanwhile, there are different levels of access to resources and some will have restrictions, however, fewer rather than more restrictions are now widely considered appropriate.

By offering good quality resources freely, others can be attracted to study or work at the institution where there is evidence of such excellent resources, thus recruitment and income will be protected.

Newsletter 27: May 2009

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

ESD is an Academy priority with the ultimate aim of enabling students to acquire the skills and knowledge to live and work sustainably. According to The National Assembly for Wales, Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship is about:

• The local and global implications of everything we do and the actions that individuals and organisations can take in response to local and global issues.
• The links between society, economy and environment and between our own lives and those of people throughout the world
• The needs and rights of both present and future generations
• The relationship between power, resources and human rights

All UK policies are listed at: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/learning/sustainability

Concepts, skills, values and attitudes associated with ESD
Concepts: Interdependence; citizenship and stewardship; needs and rights; diversity;  sustainable change; quality of life; uncertainty and precaution; values and perceptions; conflict resolution.

Skills: Critical thinking, ability to argue effectively, ability to challenge injustice and inequalities; respect for people and things; co-operation and conflict resolution.

Values and attitudes: Sense of identity and self esteem; empathy; commitment to social justice and equity; value and respect for diversity; concern for the environment and commitment to sustainable development; belief that people can make a difference.

The above are central to health professions education and Grant (2009) cites Brown (2004) who calls “on people to leave their bounded intellectual silos and reach out towards a trans-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder consensus around Education for Sustainable Development”. Understanding of sustainable development may not be the same across professions but a good level of professionally relevant sustainability literacy should be developed to ensure that interprofessional working is facilitated (Gough and Scott, 2007).

If you would like to be added to the Academy’s ESD mailing list contact academyesd@mac.com

Dr Margaret Sills
Academic Director, HEA Centre for Health Sciences and Practice

References

Brown, V.A., Grootjans, J., Ritchie, J., Townsend, M. and Verrinder, G., 2004, Sustainability and Health. Supporting global ecological integrity in public health. London: Earthscan.

Grant M, 2009 Developing participative Education for Sustainable Development to enhance the links between sustainability literacy, sustainability competencies and employability. Final Report HEA funded project.

Gough, S. & Scott, W., 2007, Higher Education and Sustainable Development, Oxford: Routledge.

3rd International conference: 5 Years of HESD. Looking Back – Moving Forward 20 –22 November 2009, Penang, Malaysia http://www.esd-world-conference-2009.org/en/whats-new/news-detail/item/internationalconference-on-higher-education-and-esd.html

Newsletter 28: September 2009

Threshold concepts

A threshold concept is characterised by the need for a transformation of understanding and interpretation in order to see the ‘world’ differently. It underpins the nature of all or part of the discipline.

It may be ‘troublesome’ because it can seem counter-intuitive or absurd! Meyer and Land (2003) characterize a threshold concept as:

• Transformative – once acquired it shifts perception of the subject
• Irreversible – once learners have come to see the world in terms of the threshold concept they cannot return to their former, more primitive, view
• Integrative – acquisition of the threshold concept illuminates the underlying inter-relatedness of aspects of the subject
• Bounded – the threshold concept helps to demarcate subject boundaries
• Troublesome – a threshold concept may be far from ‘common sense’ understandings of the world and thus initially very difficult for learners to accept. In grasping a threshold concept the learner moves to a new perception of the world that may be in conflict with perceptions that previously seemed self-evidently true.

‘Threshold concepts’ are often difficult for learners to assimilate. Learning is risky since it challenges old ideas and the transformation in the way of seeing things may be unsettling. Gibbs (1992) differentiates deep and surface learning; internalising a threshold concept is clearly ‘deep learning'. If learners are involved in partly reframing themselves what are the implications for those of us who facilitate such learning? Threshold concepts are difficult to grasp and even more so unless we start from where the learners are.

Dr Margaret Sills
Academic Director, HEA Centre for Health Sciences and Practice

References:

Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge: See www.prodait.org/learning/threshold.php for a more detailed consideration (accessed 18 December 2009 ProDAIT: Professional Development for Academics Involved in Teaching)

Gibbs, G. (1992) Improving the Quality of Student Learning Plymouth UK: Technical and Educational Services Ltd

Meyer, J. and Land, R. (2003) Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines. Occasional Report 4. Edinburgh: Universities of Edinburgh, Coventry and Durham. Available at www.ed.ac.uk/etl/docs/ETLreport4.pdf.  (accessed 18 December 2009)

Newsletter 29: February 2010

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) or should it be the Scholarship of Learning and Teaching (SoLT)?

The central premise of teaching is to help students learn. In order to do this effectively the process needs to be informed by evidence. What counts as evidence can be contested since the discipline traditions do not always make perfect matches with the underpinning philosophy of education and its acceptance of evidence? This is particularly pertinent to the Health disciplines where RCTs (Double blind randomised controlled trials) come alongside  ethnography and action research, for example. Approaches to determining evidence need to be shared and adjusted to create new ways of knowing about learning and teaching for the health professions both in academic and in practice contexts. The inquiry is focused on the process of facilitating learning to engage with discipline-related concepts and practices, thus hence the initial question!

Those who take a scholarly approach to facilitating learning inquire into aspects of their practice that are especially important to both them and the educational process: How can I help students engage with the relevant discipline-related threshold concepts? How can I design the curriculum/placement opportunity to ensure that all students have an equitable opportunity to learn?

The Scholarship of Learning and Teaching can be realised through a combination of 4Rs:

• Reflection and Reflexivity: critically reflecting on the effectiveness of the process and how it might be developed as well as on the reciprocal impact of self in and on the situation.
• Research: having a good discipline grounding is necessary but not sufficient; the need for educational research is imperative in ensuring effective and efficient teaching that enhances the student learning experience.

• Review: the synergies between experience, reflection and research are reviewed and inform future teaching practice. External review by peers contributes to the authenticity and validity of how we make sense of our practice.

• Reaction: Growth and development in learning and teaching, both in practice and theory, depends on taking action and sharing findings; making SoLT public. Inherent in scholarship is the bringing together of theory and experience in order to act differently in the future.

Illinois State University sums up SoTL as “systematic reflection on teaching and learning made public.” http://www.sotl.ilstu.edu/ (accessed 19.05.2010)

Further ideas can be found at: http://www.tla.ed.ac.uk/centre/scholarship.htm

http://www.issotl.org/

Dr Margaret Sills
Academic Director, Health Sciences and Practice Subject Centre

Newsletter 30: June 2010

Student centred learning

In essence, student centred learning focuses on ensuring that the curriculum is appropriate in level, process and content for the particular students it is designed for. Each session has learning outcomes that the student will achieve during that session and the overall programme or course will have outcomes that are learner oriented. The learner has a degree of autonomy in learning which is balanced with the degree of authority exercised by the teacher. An autocratic teaching style is likely to lead to learners who are dependent and a laissez faire teaching style to apathy; neither of which are conducive to a good learning experience in HE. Learners who can take responsibility for their learning, who learn actively and deeply are supported by teachers who facilitate learning in a collaborative and catalytic style. As teachers we vary our styles to accommodate different subjects, students and settings but at the heart of everything is the student and their learning.

Dr Margaret Sills
Academic Director, Health Sciences and Practice Subject Centre

Newsletter 31: September 2010

Healthy University

“A Healthy University aspires to create a learning environment and organisational culture that
enhances the health, wellbeing and sustainability of its community and enables people to achieve their full potential.”

Principles of a Healthy University: Diversity and equity; participation and empowerment; internal and external partnership working; sustainability; holistic health and well-being; practice informed by evidence (and evidence informed by practice); learning and knowledge
exchange.

These principles underpin four main aims:

1. Create healthy and sustainable working, learning and living environments for students, staff and visitors
2. Increase the profile of health and sustainable development in teaching, research and knowledge exchange
3. Contribute to the health and sustainability of the wider community
4. Evaluate their work, building evidence of effectiveness and sharing learning.

The National Research and Development Project on Healthy Universities (Dooris and Doherty, Jan 2009) highlighted that higher education offers enormous potential to impact positively on the health and well-being of students, staff and the wider community through education, research, knowledge exchange and institutional practice. It also suggested that investment for health within the sector will further contribute to core agendas such as staff and student recruitment, experience and retention; and institutional and societal productivity and sustainability.
For further information, resources and toolkit see:
www.healthyuniversities.ac.uk