Category: Research

SAAHE conference, 2011 – day 1

Jun 30, 2011

in Assessment, Assignments, Conference, Education, Ethics, Health, Research, Teaching

concept mapping, ebm, ebp, evidence based practice, future of health science education, reflection, reflective journaling, saahe 2011, student perceptions, teaching and learning

Introduction by Dr. Lionel Green-Thompson A country whose health is fragile The future of health science education: 2020 vision by Prof. Athol Kent “After an introduction like that I can’t wait to hear myself speak” It’s not the strongest or fittest who survive but the ones who are most adaptable to change Who will our…
SAFRI 2011 (session 2) – day 4

Jun 29, 2011

in Assessment, Curriculum, Education, Research, Teaching

angoff method, assessment, clinical assessment, faimer, mini-cex, objective structured clinical exam, osce, reliability, safri, standard setting, validity

Reliability and validity Validity Important for assessment, not only for research It’s the scores that are valid and reliable, not the instrument Sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of the parts e.g. when a student gets all the check marks but doesn’t perform competently overall e.g. the examiner can tick each competency being…
SAFRI 2011 (session 2) – day 2

Jun 27, 2011

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

assessment, curriculum development, curriculum planning, faimer, feedback, learning, safri

“Teach” a group of colleagues about “Assessment”. Here are some notes I took in preparation for a 5 minute teaching session What is assessment? “Defines for students what is important, what counts, how they will spend their times and how they will see themselves as learners. If you want to change student learning, then change…
SAFRI 2011 (session 2) – day 1

Jun 27, 2011

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

clinical reasoning, dual processing theory, faimer, saahe 2011, safri

A few days ago we began the second SAFRI* session of 2011, which will lead into the SAAHE conference** later in the week. Every day I take notes and will try to put them up as we go along bearing in mind that a lot of what we do is workshop-based. The notes are a…
Reflective blogging in an Evidence-based practice module

Jun 20, 2011

in Conference, Physiotherapy, Research, Social media

blogging, ebp, evidence based practice, kolb’s learning cycle, physiotherapy, publication, reflective learning, research, wcpt, world congress of physical therapy

During 2010 a colleague and I studied the use of blogging to facilitate reflection among postgraduate physiotherapy students as it related to the process of learning evidence-based practice. We’re in the last stages of writing the article and have developed a poster that will be presented at the World Congress of Physical Therapy in Amsterdam…
Conducting research in higher education: a workshop

Jun 17, 2011

in PhD, Research

higher education, reflection, research, research question, sue clegg

I recently attended a workshop by Professor Sue Clegg from Leeds Metropolitan University. The aim of the workshop was to provide support for staff who are conducting research in higher education. The workshop considered appropriate paradigms and methodologies, discussed strategies for data collection, data analysis, and interpretation. Lots of literature bemoaning the fact that research…
Why open licensing benefits everyone

Jun 7, 2011

in Assignments, Education, Open access, Physiotherapy, Research, Social media, Technology

collaboration, open access, openphysio, physiopedia, publication, sharing

In 2009 I started an online physiotherapy encyclopaedia called OpenPhysio. It was a space for me to run a few assignments with my 4th year students at the time, as well as a bit of an experiment to see what would happen i.e. would physiotherapists and physiotherapy students automatically create and edit an online physiotherapy…
Great Prezi on writing for publication

Jun 3, 2011

in Research

articles, presentation, prezi, research, writing

I’ve been doing a lot of writing this year, trying to catch for lost time at the end of last year, with the result that I’ve been thinking about writing a lot. At times, it had become more like getting through a list of tasks than the expression of meaningful ideas, which is why I…
Expected to research, but paid to publish

Jun 1, 2011

in PhD, Publication, Research, Scholarship

academia, publication

What’s more important, producing many low quality publications, or only a few high quality ones? I’m sure most people would agree that it’s the latter, and yet I’m expected to put out 3 publications in every 2 year cycle. That doesn’t give me much time to plan a very rigorous study (or studies), implement it,…
Basic presentation skills for postgraduates

May 26, 2011

in Conference, Research, Students

postgraduate, presentations, research, students

A few weeks ago I gave a presentation to our postgraduate students who were preparing to submit their Masters proposals. One of our requirements in the department is that any student wanting to submit a proposal must present to the the department for critical feedback. We want our proposals to be as strong as possible…
The use of innovative technology in clinical education

May 24, 2011

in PhD, Physiotherapy, Research, Social media, Students, Technology

clinical education, innovation, learning, presentation, prezi, teaching, technology

A few days ago I gave a presentation to our faculty on the use of innovative technologies in teaching practice with specific reference to clinical education. I’ve been using Prezi a bit because I wanted to explore alternative ways of doing presentations. Here it is: Innovative technology in clinical education on Prezi Note: the…
Learning through rejection

May 18, 2011

in Research

journal, publication, rejection, research, writing

About a month ago I submitted an article to an international journal that I thought might be appropriate. Unfortunately I didn’t pay enough attention to the scope of the journal, which ultimately is why the paper was rejected. Having your work rejected is always disappointing but not always a bad thing. The letter I received…
Publication and citation

May 13, 2011

in PhD, Research

citation, google scholar, impact factor, promotion, publication, research

Yesterday I had a conversation with a senior colleague where we briefly discussed the increasing importance of formal publication as it relates to promotion at our institution. Since I’m doing my PhD through publication, I’m also working on how to fit my needs as a student into the university’s need for academics to publish. There’s…
SAFRI residential session

Mar 11, 2011

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

africa, ethics, medical education, palliative care physician, physiotherapy, research, saahe, safri, Worcester

I’ve recently finished the second residential session of SAFRI, a programme for the development of research in medical education in Africa. I spent a big part of 2010 working on my SAFRI project (link to project notes), which I’ll be presenting at this years SAAHE conference in Potchefstroom. One of the main assignments for this session…
Using social networks to develop reflective discourse in the context of clinical education

Mar 10, 2011

in Assignments, Conference, Education, Ethics, Health, PhD, Physiotherapy, Research, Social media, Technology

clinical reasoning, ethical reasoning, facebook, health professional education, healthcare professional students, medical education, online discussions, poster, reflection, reflective discussion, research, saahe, safri, social network, social networks, teacher

My SAFRI project for 2010 looked at the use of a social network as a platform to develop clinical and ethical reasoning skills through reflective discussion between undergraduate physiotherapy students. Part of the assignment was to prepare a poster for presentation at the SAAHE conference in Potchefstroom later this year, which I’ve included below. I…
Extreme writing

Jan 21, 2011

in Research, Technology

article, author, collaborative tools, Google, Google Docs, planner, publication, real time, sprint, study designer, Team, team member, twitter, writing

In February 2010 I came across this blog post discussing the possibility of writing a draft literature review in a short period of time i.e. 1 hour, which I found intriguing. I left a comment on the post saying I was keen to try, and also bounced the idea around on Twitter a bit, but…
CHAT workshop for Emerging ICT in HE research

Jan 20, 2011

in Learning, PhD, Research, Teaching

activity systems, activity theory, Change laboratory, chat, cognitive change, cultural historical activity theory, external activity systems, General, genetic law, Implement, Internalisation, joanne hardman, learning, leontiev, Lev Vygotsky, model, research, Russia, Stalin, teacher, teaching, vygotsky

Last week I attended a short workshop on Cultural Historical Activity Theory (given by Joanne Hardman) as part of an NRF-funded research project on the use of emerging ICTs in Higher Education. Here are my notes from the session (this was all very new to me and I probably got a few things wrong. Feel…
Facebook, friends and students

Jan 13, 2011

in Ethics, Research, Students, Teaching

behaviour, facebook, for us all, friends, learning, private social network, saahe, social, social networking project, social networking research project, students, teaching

This is post is the first of what I hope will be several reflections on the softening boundaries between my social and professional lives, and how they influence each other. When I started teaching in the department about 3 years ago, I decided that I wouldn’t accept friend requests on Facebook from any of our…
Research plan for 2011

Jan 7, 2011

in Conference, PhD, Research

AMEE, Congress South African Association, Delphi, ece, goals, heltasa, Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association, International Association, phd, ple, research, saahe, south africa

I’ve just been asked by one of my supervisors for my research goals for 2011. This will include my own work, as well as planning how our undergraduate and Masters students’ work might feed into some of the bigger projects. The first goal I have for 2011 is to submit 2 articles based on my first…
Reflections on blended learning in clinical education

Sep 22, 2010

in Learning, PhD, Physiotherapy, Research, Technology

blended learning, clinical education, Michael Rowe, phd, physiotherapy, research, sasp, south african society of physiotherapy

A few weeks ago I was invited by one of the local groups of the South African Society of Physiotherapy to present the initial results of my PhD research into the use of blended learning in clinical education. Afterwards, I was surprised by the support I received from the clinicians, and at the resistance (or…