Category: Research

Peer review of teaching

Mar 2, 2012

in Assessment, Curriculum, Research, Teaching

assessment, evaluation, peer review, peer review of teaching practice

Introduction Peer review is a form of evaluation designed to provide feedback to teachers about their professional practice. The standard method of evaluating teaching is to ask students at the end of a module or course, for their feedback on the lecturers performance. While student feedback does have value, it also has limitations. For example,…
Jan Herrington’s model of Authentic learning

Jan 24, 2012

in Assessment, Learning, PhD, Research, Teaching

articulation, assessment, authentic activities, authentic assessment, authentic learning, authentic tasks, collaboration, Complexity, Jan Herrington, reflection, scaffolding

A few days ago I met with my supervisor to discuss my research plan for the year. She suggested I look into Jan Herrington’s work on authentic learning so I thought I’d make some notes here as I familiarize myself with it. To begin with, there are 9 elements of authentic learning (I believe that in…
Workshop on facilitation techniques using the Conversational Framework

Jan 20, 2012

in Learning, PhD, Physiotherapy, Research, Teaching

adaptive, clinical education, conversational framework, discursive, facilitation, interactive, laurillard, phd, reflection, reflective, research, rethinking university teaching

How do we get students to think more deeply about learning in an academic context? I’m giving a workshop later today. The idea is that we’ll get all of the facilitators who’ll be working on the module we’re designing (and which I’m evaluating for my PhD) and help them get a grip on the approach…
Using the Community of Inquiry in online learning environments

Jan 12, 2012

in Learning, PhD, Physiotherapy, Research, Social media, Teaching

cognitive presence, collaboration, communication, community of inquiry, discourse, experiential learning, groupwork, knowledge construction, kolb, online learning, peer evaluation, reflection, self-assessment, social networks, social presence, teaching presence, zone of proximal development

I’m in the process of putting together a workshop for the facilitators of one of our modules that we’re restructuring in order to use a blended learning approach. Here are the notes that I’ve been putting together on the Community of Inquiry (CoI) for the workshop. Bear in mind that these notes are my attempt…
From “designing teaching” to “evaluating learning”

Jan 10, 2012

in Learning, PhD, Physiotherapy, Research, Teaching

case-based learning, cbl, clinical practice, conversational framework, knowledge, laurillard, learning, phd, physiotherapy, research, rethinking university teaching, teaching, understanding

Later this month we’ll be implementing a blended approach to teaching and learning in one module in our physiotherapy department. This was to form the main part of my research project, looking at the use of technology enhanced teaching and learning in clinical education. The idea was that I’d look at the process of developing…
Developing research and scholarship in our department

Dec 6, 2011

in Physiotherapy, Research, Writing

faculty development, proposals, research, writing

I often speak to colleagues who seem surprised when I describe our departmental structure to develop capacity among our staff members. I thought I’d make a few notes here as an example of what I see as a system that works quite well(for us anyway). My university has an Institutional Operational Plan (IOP), which includes…
HELTASA conference, 2011 – day 3

Dec 2, 2011

in Conference, Education, Research, Technology

academic literacy, action research, courage, critical friendship, difficult dialogues, digital stories, digital storytelling, generosity, heltasa, heltasa11, heltasa2011, higher education learning and teaching association of south africa, jack whitehead, learner-centred, lec-torials, lived experiences, nelson mandela metropolitan university, port elizabeth, reflection, self-study, trust

Today was the last day of the HELTASA 2011 conference. It was a challenging and stimulating exchange of ideas that I really enjoyed. Thank you to everyone who was there and who I learned from. Crossing (some) traditional borders Prof Delia Marshall There needs to be wider social, historical, ethical and environmental dimensions of…
HELTASA conference, 2011 – day 2

Dec 1, 2011

in Conference, Education, Learning, Research, Technology

Cape Peninsula University of Technology, case-based learning, cbl, collaborative groupwork, community of inquiry, conceptual threshold crossing, conflict management, control, conversational framework, cput, discourse, disruption, disruptive technology, emotional resilience, epistemology, garrison, gilly salmon, groupwork, hard technology, heltasa, heltasa11, heltasa2011, higher education learning and teaching association of south africa, interpretive boundaries, laurillard, learning events, learning management system, liberalism, lms, nelson mandela metropolitan university, online learning, online presence, Ontology, pbl, piet naude, port elizabeth, postgraduate supervision, power, problem based learning, public good, scientism, small group learning, social presence, soft technology, student wellbeing, teaching presence, transformative change, troublesome encounters, utilitarianism

Explaining, naming and crossing border in Southern African higher education Prof Piet Naude This was one of the most challenging presentations I’ve ever listened to. I didn’t agree with a lot of what Prof Naude said, but he made me question my own beliefs and biases. Ontology: language is the house of reality (language…
Developing case studies for holistic clinical education

Nov 23, 2011

in Assessment, Curriculum, Education, PhD, Physiotherapy, Research, Teaching, Technology, Workshop

case-based learning, cbl, curricular alignment, curriculum, curriculum development, delphi study, document analysis, phd, research, survey, systematic review

This is quite a long post. Basically I’ve been trying to situate my current research into a larger curriculum development project and this post is just a reflection of my progress so far. It’s probably going to have big gaps and be unclear in sections. I’m OK with that. Earlier this week our department had…
Results of my Delphi first round

Nov 21, 2011

in PhD, Physiotherapy, Research

anxiety, attitudes, attributes, awareness, confidence, delphi method, delphi study, emotion, fear, hidden culture, knowledge, personal, phd, professional, research, skills, values

I’ve recently finished the analysis of the first round of the Delphi study that I’m conducting as part of my PhD. The aim of the study is to determine the personal and professional attributes that determine patient outcomes, as well as the challenges faced in clinical education. These results will serve to inform the development…
Graphically representing a curriculum

Nov 14, 2011

in Assessment, Curriculum, Physiotherapy, Research, Teaching, Technology

cmaps, cmaptools, concept mapping, curriculum, curriculum as platform, curriculum development, curriculum mapping, delphi study, document analysis, graphical representation, phd, platforms, research, uml, unified modeling language

I’ve been a bit quiet on the blog lately, owing to the fact that I’ve been putting a lot of time into the next phase of my PhD. This post is in part an attempt to summarise and try to make sense of what’s going on there, as well as to assuage my feeling of…
TEDxStellenbosch: designing spaces

Nov 3, 2011

in Curriculum, Education, Learning, PhD, Physiotherapy, Research, Teaching, Technology

blended learning, city spaces, cityafrica, learning, learning spaces, phd, research, stafford massie, steve vosloo, teaching, tedxstellenbosch

A few months ago I attended TEDxStellenbosch at Spier wine farm near Stellenbosch. It was one of the better TEDx events I’ve been to during past few years and I enjoyed it immensely. During the day I re-tweeted comments from other participants, mainly as a record of speakers and the comments that resonated with me.…
“Reading” less and thinking more

Oct 4, 2011

in PhD, Research

flipboard, long format, reading, research, rss feeds, writing

“It may seem counter-intuitive that at a time when we know more than we have ever known, we think about it less.” I spend an enormous amount of time reading, a lot of it online using RSS feeds. I used to think that I was pretty good at filtering the content to find what was…
Complexity theory: learning in unfamiliar contexts

Sep 27, 2011

in Education, Learning, PhD, Research, Teaching, Technology

complex cases, Complexity, complexity theory, context, practice knowledge, professional practice, unfamiliar scenarios

The following are notes I took while reading Fraser, SW & Greenhalgh, T. (2001). Coping with complexity: educating for capability. During the past 6 months or so I’ve found myself thinking more and more that the way we teach health professionals (at least, in my experience) has had too much of a focus on technical…
Problem based learning: transitioning to an online / hybrid learning environment

Sep 15, 2011

in Assessment, Assignments, Curriculum, Learning, Research, Students, Teaching, Workshop

assessment of pbl, blended learning, content, critical thinking, face to face, hybrid, karl popper, meena iyer, missouri university, online, pbl, problem based learning, problem solving, scaffolding

A few weeks ago I attended a short presentation by Prof. Meena Iyer from Missouri University. Prof. Iyer spoke about how she moved her PBL module from using a traditional, mainly face-to-face approach, to an online / hybrid approach. Here are my notes. —————————- “All life is problem solving” – Karl Popper How do we…
Blended learning in clinical education (AMEE presentation)

Aug 30, 2011

in Conference, Education, PhD, Physiotherapy, Research

AMEE, AMEE11, blended learning, clinical education, phd, presentation, prezi, research, systematic review

This is the presentation that I gave at the AMEE conference earlier today. It’s the results of a systematic literature review I did as part of my PhD, where I looked at the use of blended learning in clinical education. The abstract doesn’t give much information owing to the fact that I had to be…
Applying theoretical concepts to clinical practice

Aug 9, 2011

in Assessment, Assignments, Learning, Physiotherapy, Research, Students, Teaching

assessment, assignment, classrooms, clinical learning, clinical teaching, concept mapping, drafting, knowledge, lectures, movement science

I just finished giving feedback to my students on the concept mapping assignment they’re busy with. It’s the first time I’ve used concept mapping in an assignment and in addition to the students’ learning, I’m also trying to see if it helps me figure out what they really understand about applying the theory we cover…
Mendeley and Dropbox

Jul 8, 2011

in Research, Technology

articles, dropbox, mendeley, papers, research

A little while ago I finally hit the 500 MB free storage limit of Mendeley, which isn’t surprising considering how I go about collecting research papers. Whenever I come across an article that looks like it might be mildly interesting / vaguely related to my work I copy it into a folder that…
SAAHE conference, 2011 – day 3

Jul 2, 2011

in Assessment, Conference, Education, Learning, Research, Students, Teaching

adult learning theories, assessment, community of practice, cop, david taylor, jack boulet, learning theories, phelophepa, reflection, simulated patients, simulation, standardised patients, train of hope, wenger

Today was the last day of the SAAHE conference. Coming as it did immediately after a week of the SAFRI programme, I can’t say I’m not glad it’s over. It’s been an amazing experience though, mostly as a result of the wonderful health educators I’ve been fortunate enough to meet. Here are the last of…
Social networks and clinical education: presentation at SAAHE

Jul 1, 2011

in Assignments, Conference, Education, Physiotherapy, Research, Social media

clinical dilemmas, clinical education, clinical learning, practice knowledge, presentation, reflective practice, saahe 2011, social media

My presentation at the SAAHE conference is a more in-depth look at the same project that I presented at the conference in 2010. The key points I wanted to make were that: Students struggle to develop practice knowledge because it is hidden from them i.e. they can’t “see” our thinking process as we reason our…