Developing and Implementing an Educational Research Agenda

1. Developing and Implementing an Educational Research Agenda Lessons Learned in Physical Therapy: Past, Present, Future Gail M. Jensen, PhD, PT, FAPTA Creighton University, Omaha, NE

2. Overview • Past: My individual journey • Working assumptions • Survival strategies • Research agendas • Present: Crossing boundaries • Practical strategies • Link theory with practice and practice with theory • Future: What could and should be…. • Commonplaces for Educational Research • Ideas for what could be…..

3. Past: Individual journey Road less traveled……

4. Past: Individual Journey • Working Assumptions • Education- teaching/learning is a central element of patient care as well as professional education • Doctoral work in education as an applied field is enhanced by disciplinary theory (eg, psychology, anthropology, sociology) • Read broadly – know the legacy and experience the humanities • Value historical, theoretical and conceptual work

5. Past: Individual Journey • Be patient, persistent, and productive • Do not give up on your profession (even if you are tempted…) • Network (inside and outside) -- Work your political system • Seek out colleagues for support • Infiltrate with new ideas • Make connections between theory and practice • Feed your soul • American Educational Research Association (Division I) • Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) (SoTL) • Assessment of student learning

6. Education Research AgendaAmerican Physical Therapy AssociationEducation Division, 2003 • Diverse and engaged participants • How do faculty and students contribute to learning and development process? • Participatory Cultures • What is the culture that leads to quality physical therapy education? • Interactive teaching and learning • What interactive teaching and learning processes are used to prepare graduates for practice?

7. Education Research AgendaAmerican Physical Therapy AssociationEducation Division, 2003 • Connected program requirements • How do PT programs create coherence across the curriculum and help students transition between classroom and practice? • Adequate resources • What are the resources needed to support faculty, students and PT program infrastructure?

8. AERA- Division I (Education in the Professions)Agenda for Professions Education Research- Core Areas (1980s) • Student selection/admissions to professional education • Student learning and development • Faculty development and evaluation • Competence assessment and professional accountability • Continuing professional education • Social influences on educational policy

9. American Association of Higher Education (AAHE, 2002) Research Agenda/Assessment • Learning about learning • Pedagogical strategies that support learning • Creating institutional environments that support learning • Student involvement in own learning • First year/Senior experience • Educating for global understanding

10. Present: Crossing Boundaries

11. Present: Crossing BoundariesPractical strategies • Collaborate within and outside of your profession • Work cross communities within your profession (eg, link arms with the positivists…they can be useful) • Bring educational research/inquiry into your daily environment • Broaden conception of research/scholarship • Work at organizational level (role and reward system; links to strategic planning; institutional assessment expectations)

12. Present: Crossing BoundariesLink theory and practice • Use middle range theory to frame or interpret your practical work • Follow the work of national initiatives/leaders (eg, Carnegie Foundation; AERA; work in other health professions) • Use national initiatives as tool on campus • Keep your focus on learning

13. Table of Learning (Shulman, 2002) Commitment Engagement identity motivation Judgment Understanding design knowledge Reflection Action critique performance

14. Model of Pedagogical Reasoning and Action(Shulman, 1987) COMPREHENSION (teacher knowledge of subject matter) TRANSFORMATION NEW COMPREHENSION (prepare, organize, select teaching materials; understand where students are coming from..) (learning from experience) REFLECTIVE EVALUATION INSTRUCTIONALPERFORMANCE (teacher-student evaluation) (teacher-student interaction; understand misconceptions)

15. Commonplaces of ProfessionsProfessing the Liberal Arts (Shulman 2004) Profession As Service Practice Work is done Theory for Practice Judgment under Uncertainty Technical/moral Community of Practice Public and communal Learning from experience

16. External Focus on competence Performance Reasoning (reflective) (abstract, sound, insightful) Active Learner in Lived context Structures of The person Contextual frames Development Self-reflection (integrative, ethical) (perceptive, insightful, adaptive) Internal Focus on meaning Mentkowski and colleagues, 2001

17. Levels of Reflection(Van Manen, 1977) Reflection……Meta-cognition What ought to be questions Critical Level What does this mean questions Interpretive Level How to questions Practical//technical Level Knowing about ….Knowing how

18. Future: What could or should be done…

19. Commonplaces for Educational Research (Shulman, 2004) • Research problems/issues/topics • Problems – theoretical or practical? • Processes (learning)or specific topic • Research setting • Laboratory (experimental) • Natural setting/practical • Research investigator • Background/training (lens)

20. Commonplaces for Educational Research (Shulman, 2004) • Research methods • Tradition of psychology – experimental and correlational • Other disciplines- naturalistic/ethnographic/cases • Research purpose • Theory, practice or policy • Generalizability • Across people • Across situations • Bridge building – What is this a case of?

21. Dreams……What could be…

22. Carnegie’s Preparation of Professions Program (PPP) • The PPP has identified three dimensions of or apprenticeships for professional education. • Intellectual training to learn the academic knowledge base and the capacity to think in ways important to the profession. • A skill-based apprenticeship of practice, including clinical judgment. • An apprenticeship to the ethical standards, ethical comportment, social roles, and responsibilities of the profession, through which the novice is introduced to the meaning of an integrated practice of all dimensions of the profession, grounded in the profession’s fundamental purposes.

23. Carnegie Study of Medicine • Selected Research questions: • Curriculum: How does the formal and informal curriculum support the professional development of knowledge, skills and professionalism? • Pedagogy: What teaching/learning methods facilitate learning of knowledge, skills and values in clinical education? • Learning: How do students/residents learn to think, perform and act like a physician? What are the common struggles and transitions that student/residents encounter in becoming physicians? • Assessment: How are the knowledge, skills and professionalism of students and residents assessed? • Context: How are current university and practice environments affecting teaching and learning for students and residents? What should medical education be doing entirely differently?

24. Signature Pedagogies in the Professions (Shulman, 2005) • To THINK • To PERFORM • To ACT with INTEGRITY • Important – make a difference as they form • Habits of mind • Habits of heart • Habits of hand

25. What about the rest of us???

26. Future: What could be… • Organizational/scholarly vehicles that facilitate --Interprofessional/interdisciplinary work • Consensus effort to connect educational research and practice • Build strong/collaborative linkages across non-physician health professions

27. Thank You!!

28. References • Curry L, Wergin J and assoc, (1993). Educating Professionals. San Francisco,CA: Jossey-Bass. • Green J, Camilli G, Elmore P (eds), (2006). Handbook of Complementary Methods in Education Research. AERA, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. • Mentkowski M and associates. (2000) Learning that Lasts. San Francisco,CA: Jossey-Bass. • Shulman L. (2004). Teaching as Community Property: Essays on Higher Education. San Franciso, CA: Jossey-Bass. • Shulman L. (2004). The Wisdom of Practice:Essays on Teaching, Learning and Learning to Teach. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass • Shulman L. (2005). Signature Pedagogies in the Professions. Daedalus. • Sullivan W. Work and Integrity.(2005). 2nd ed. San Francisco,CA: Jossey-Bass. • Journal of Physical Therapy Education: Special issue on the scholarship of teaching and learning. Haddad A, Jensen G (editors), Winter 2005, Vol 19 (3)