BackgroundTo support professional development of medical students faced with challenges of the clinical phase, collaborative reflection sessions (CRSs) are used to share and reflect on workplace... Show moreBackgroundTo support professional development of medical students faced with challenges of the clinical phase, collaborative reflection sessions (CRSs) are used to share and reflect on workplace experiences. Facilitation of CRSs seems essential to optimise learning and to provide important skills for lifelong learning as a professional. However, little is known about which workplace experiences students share in CRSs without advance guidance on specific topics, and how reflecting on these experiences contributes to students’ professional development. Therefore, we explored which workplace experiences students shared, what they learned from reflection on these experiences, and how they perceived the value of CRSs.MethodsWe conducted an exploratory study among medical students (N = 99) during their General Practice placement. Students were invited to openly share workplace experiences, without pre-imposed instruction. A thematic analysis was performed on shared experiences and student learning gains. Students’ perceptions of CRSs were analysed using descriptive statistics.ResultsAll 99 students volunteered to fill out the questionnaire. We found four themes relating to students’ shared experiences: interactions with patients, complex patient care, diagnostic or therapeutic considerations, and dealing with collegial issues. Regarding students’ learning gains, we found 6 themes: learning from others or learning from sharing with others, learning about learning, communication skills, self-regulation, determination of position within the healthcare team, and importance of good documentation. Students indicated that they learned from reflection on their own and peer’s workplace experiences. Students valued the CRSs as a safe environment in which to share workplace experiences and helpful for their professional development.ConclusionsIn the challenging General Practice placement, open-topic, guided CRSs provide a helpful and valued learning environment relevant to professional development and offer opportunities for vicarious learning among peers. CRSs may also be a valuable tool to incorporate into other placements. Show less
This dissertation focuses on teacher professional learning and collaboration in secondary schools. Collegial collaboration is a widely acknowledged learning environment for teachers, in both... Show moreThis dissertation focuses on teacher professional learning and collaboration in secondary schools. Collegial collaboration is a widely acknowledged learning environment for teachers, in both research and policy, and collaborative initiatives are purposefully organized in secondary schools. Yet, insights into the context-dependent nature of teacher collaboration and the relation between collaboration and learning are lacking. Four studies were conducted, including one literature study, one large-scale questionnaire study and two multiple case studies, both cross-sectional and longitudinal. Together, the studies provide insights into how teachers collaborate, what factors influence collaboration, and how collaboration supports teacher learning. The results of this dissertation point to one school factor that has a direct and long-term effect: The integration of learning and collaboration initiatives by actively promoting, coordinating, and facilitating them in school. This dissertation furthermore shows how the course and the learning potential of short-term collaboration initiatives depend on the existence of a collaborative school culture. Collective reflection on teaching and student learning, design of lessons, and experimentation promote teacher learning, but adequate support is essential. Lastly, this dissertation indicates that challenging each other in dialogues is promising, although teachers’ continuity in participation and shared leadership in the group seem decisive in promoting teacher learning. Show less
The number of transnational students is quite substantial in Oman. In the Gulf Region, it is common to recruit non-Anglophone expatriate staff to teach on these programmes while they rarely have... Show moreThe number of transnational students is quite substantial in Oman. In the Gulf Region, it is common to recruit non-Anglophone expatriate staff to teach on these programmes while they rarely have prior experience in a Western university. In Oman, expatriate academics form a considerable majority of the teaching staff in transnational education (TNE). This means that for practically all of them the environment in which they teach is academically, culturally and sometimes also linguistically new to them. The same holds for the students as the vast majority come from the local government schools where Arabic is the medium of instruction in both primary and secondary school, and the British academic system is new to them.This raises the questions of how a TNE teaching and learning environment can be created that is in line with the expectations of the British programmes so that students can succeed academically, and secondly, how academics who teach on these programmes can be supported in their professional practice towards creating such an environment. The study took a holistic approach by investigating this environment from the points of view of an observer, the teachers and the students, and considered how these different perspectives informed a long-term continuing professional development (CPD) programme. Show less
This study explored the readiness of teachers to learn about learning and teaching supportive modes of ICT use with the lens of the Unified Model of Task-specific Motivation (UMTM). According to... Show moreThis study explored the readiness of teachers to learn about learning and teaching supportive modes of ICT use with the lens of the Unified Model of Task-specific Motivation (UMTM). According to the UMTM readiness for action is driven by feelings of activities and thoughts about the value of consequences of activities, which both can be positive and negative, and which in turn are influenced by aspects of autonomy and competence, by social relatedness, and by subjective norm. The twofold goal of this study was to test the merits of the model in general and for ICT integration in education in particular. A sample of 282 teachers provided answers about different aspects of their motivation to learn about the two types of ICT use. There were some differences between these two types of learning activities, but for both, thoughts about the value of the consequences of the activities were more important than feelings about them. Furthermore, although sense of competence was relatively more important for leaning about learning supportive ICT use than for learning about teaching supportive ICT use, teachers’ sense of autonomy, a variable that is completely ignored in research on ICT integration, was in general far more important for learning about ICT use than sense of competence. Show less
Jin, X.; Li, T.; Meirink, J.A.; Want, A. van der; Admiraal, W.F. 2019
Novice–expert interaction plays an important role in teacher professional development for Chinese vocational education and training (VET). Both Chinese and international research shows that expert... Show moreNovice–expert interaction plays an important role in teacher professional development for Chinese vocational education and training (VET). Both Chinese and international research shows that expert-teachers’ support is associated with the improvement of novice-teachers’ teaching. However, insights into how exactly novice teachers learn with the help of expert teachers are lacking. The learning processes of four novice VET teachers were explored in the context of a professional development project. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews with novice teachers and recordings of novice–expert interactions. A learning model was constructed based on the interconnected model of professional growth. The results showed that novice teachers internalised comments from expert teachers by active reflection and practice. Moreover, this study suggests that teachers’ professional development is a complicated long-term process, and that during their development the support from expert teachers is an important external source for novice-teachers. Expert-teachers’ support not only provides feedback and suggestions for alternative teaching methods, but also encourages and maintains novice-teachers’ learning. The results are discussed in relation to the cultural (Chinese) and educational context (VET) Show less
Background: Current postgraduate medical training programmes fall short regarding residents' development of generic competencies (communication, collaboration, leadership, professionalism) and... Show moreBackground: Current postgraduate medical training programmes fall short regarding residents' development of generic competencies (communication, collaboration, leadership, professionalism) and reflective and deliberate practice. Paying attention to these non-technical skills in a structural manner during postgraduate training could result in a workforce better prepared for practice. A development oriented performance assessment (PA), which assists residents with assessment of performance and deliberately planned learning activities, could potentially contribute to filling this gap. This study aims to explore residents experiences with the PA.Methods: We conducted a qualitative interview study with 16 residents from four different medical specialties who participated in the PA, scheduled halfway postgraduate training. The PA was conducted by an external facilitator, a psychologist, and focused specifically on professional development and career planning. Residents were interviewed 6 months after the PA. Data were analysed using the framework method for qualitative analysis.Results: Residents found the PA to be of additional value for their training. The overarching merit was the opportunity to evaluate competencies not usually addressed in workplace-based assessments and progress conversations. In addition, the PA proved a valuable tool for assisting residents with reflecting upon their work and formulating their learning objectives and activities. Residents reported increased awareness of capacity, self-confidence and enhanced feelings of career ownership. An important factor contributing to these outcomes was the relationship of trust with the facilitator and programme director.Conclusion: The PA is a promising tool in fostering the development of generic competencies and reflective and deliberate practice. The participating residents, facilitator and programme directors were able to contribute to a safe learning environment away from the busy workplace. The facilitator plays an important role by providing credible and informative feedback. Commitment of the programme director is important for the implementation of developmental plans and learning activities. Show less
Background: For the purpose of continuous performance improvement, physicians are expected to reflect on their practice. While many reflection studies are theoretically oriented and often... Show moreBackground: For the purpose of continuous performance improvement, physicians are expected to reflect on their practice. While many reflection studies are theoretically oriented and often prescriptive in the sense that they conceptualize what reflection should look like, the current study starts with practicing physicians themselves and maps how these physicians conceptualize and experience reflection in daily professional practice. Methods: We conducted a qualitative study using in-depth interviews with 13 hospital-based physicians from various specialties and institutions. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and were analyzed iteratively, following the interpretative phenomenological analysis approach. Results: Data analysis resulted in the identification of three main topics: fuzziness, domain specificity and dialogical dynamics of reflection in professional practice. Reflection was conceptualized as a fuzzy process of contemplation and action, leading to change and hopefully improvement of personal performance and health care in general. Physicians’ experiences with reflection were different for the patient domain and the team domain. Whereas experiences in the patient domain were recalled first and discussed in relatively clear terms, those in the team domain came second and were discussed in more ambiguous terms. In order to achieve improvement in daily practice, honest and open dialogues were perceived as necessary. These dialogues were regarded as the result of an interplay between an internal and an external dialogue. The internal dialogue required sensitivity and courage of the individual; the external dialogue required psychological safety and encouragement of the environment. Within the team domain however, handling the external dialogue effectively was not self-evident, underlining the importance of psychological safety. Conclusions: This study draws attention to the interdependence between the individual and the collective contributions to reflective activity in professional practice. Apart from its importance to physicians’ individual medical performance, reflective activity is also important to the functioning of a team of physicians. To allow reflection to rise from an individual activity to a team activity, it is necessary to invest in a safe environment in which people are encouraged to think, act, and be engaged. Keywords: Reflection, Reflective practice, Continuing medical education, Professional development, Qualitative research methods Show less
In light of the argument that many teacher professional development (PD) initiatives are not adapted to meet what teachers say they want to learn, we were interested to learn about teachers... Show more In light of the argument that many teacher professional development (PD) initiatives are not adapted to meet what teachers say they want to learn, we were interested to learn about teachers’ self-directed learning. The studies in this thesis therefore aimed to address what, how and why teachers want to learn and how this relates to their years of teaching experience and their workplace context. For this purpose 31 teachers from two secondary schools were interviewed and a large-scale questionnaire study with 309 teachers was conducted. From the interview studies we could deduct teachers’ professional learning goals, their professional concerns, the relation between them, and teachers’ perceptions of their workplace as a learning environment. The questionnaire study produced data on teachers’ preferences for learning domains and learning activities and their reasons to learn. The results showed that teachers’ learning was mostly aimed at improving their teaching practice, but also at professional learning in a broader sense, and about issues currently encountered at the school. Learning about communication and classroom organization was a topic mentioned by early- and late-career teachers. Mid-career teachers had learning goals aimed at extra-curricular tasks and at new challenges besides the goals related to their teaching practice. Show less
For a successful implementation of an educational reform, teachers need to regard the proposal as being practical. I used a modular, success-oriented approach to make a context-based reform... Show moreFor a successful implementation of an educational reform, teachers need to regard the proposal as being practical. I used a modular, success-oriented approach to make a context-based reform practical for implemtentation in Duthc biology education. educational reform, modular, teachers, biology, success-oriented, implementation, professional development Show less
In this research project characteristics of effective instructional development were identified that are appealing to medical teachers and relevant for medical education. Furthermore, we wanted to... Show moreIn this research project characteristics of effective instructional development were identified that are appealing to medical teachers and relevant for medical education. Furthermore, we wanted to know if medical teachers__ learning improved if an instructional development program was adapted in such a way that it included more of these characteristics. In this project we conducted two studies. In the first study, described in Chapters 2 and 3, we focused on selecting characteristics of effective instructional development programs for the medical context. In this study teachers and teacher educators were asked to indicate which of 35 characteristics that had been derived from the literature on effective instructional development (Guskey, 2003; Steinert et al., 2006) were important to them. In the second study, on which we report in Chapters 4 and 5, we used the characteristics collected in the first study as a framework to analyze a successful instructional course called Train the Trainers. This provided insight into its effectiveness and impact. We constructed a new instructional development course, using the information from the framework, and studied the learning processes of the medical teachers who participated in this Plus Course Show less
