Developing and Implementing an Educational Research Agenda

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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

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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..

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Past Individual journey
Road less traveled
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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
  

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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

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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?

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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?

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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

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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

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Present Crossing Boundaries
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Present Crossing BoundariesPractical strategies

• Collaborate within and outside of your profession
• Work cross communities within your profession
  (eg, link arms with the positiviststhey 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)

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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

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Table of Learning (Shulman, 2002)
Commitment Engagement
identity
motivation
Judgment
Understanding
knowledge
design
Reflection Action
critique
performance
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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 misconcep
tions)
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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
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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
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Levels of Reflection(Van Manen, 1977)
ReflectionMeta-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
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Future What could or should be done
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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)

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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?

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DreamsWhat could be
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Carnegies 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 professions
  fundamental purposes.

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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?

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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

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What about the rest of us???
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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

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Thank You!!
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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 PracticeEssays
  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)