Transcript Enhancing education for practice development through

Enhancing the student
learning experience
through Assessed
Enquiry Based Learning
Ruth Pearce
Evaluation of previous cohorts
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Attrition at 15% (above benchmark)
‘little personal relevance’
‘already doing the job’
Onerous assessment
Challenges
• Student cohort ‘expert’ practitioners from a range of
clinical backgrounds
‘My expectations were it would be a traditional course with more
depth at a different academic level and I would be reminded of
being a student nurse and I expected to be made to feel stupid.
We were always threatened with a discontinuation of our training
and I expected that kind of culture.
• Questionable motivation for undertaking programme
‘Well it sounds awful but I had no expectations of it when started
because we’d been sent on it, in a manner of speaking, because we
had to show we were educated to Masters level so we thought about
what would we not mind doing and I suppose teaching was the obvious
one, so we had a really low expectation of it.’
• Their priority was to develop technical teaching skills
Enquiry Based Learning
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Student centred – onus is on the learner within the team
Collaborative
Allows theory to be explored within student context
Integration of knowledge and practice
Deep approach to learning as students make their own
connections between ideas.
• Open nature of an enquiry ensures there is scope for
more realistic and relevant learning and peer interactions
foster engagement.
• Allows the development of a wide range of abilities:
knowledge-creation, team-working, presentation,
information literacy, ICT, problem-solving, creativity and
project management.
(Kahn and O’Rourke, 2004)
Context
• PGCert – Teacher in Health and Social
Care
• Delivered as part of Masters in Advanced
Social and Healthcare provision
How does EBL work?
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Engage team and set ground rules
Launch ‘enquiry’
Ideas explode out from enquiry
Students explore the literature to formulate speculative
general principles in relation to the enquiry.
Hypotheses are generated about what actions are
needed to lead to an improvement in their practice.
Students set own agenda for learning: ownership of
timetable
Bring information back and articulate to team own
understanding
Review, evaluate and modify understanding through
subsequent sessions.
Draw enquiry to a close and address enquiry.
Supporting EBL
• Facilitator role:
– Anxieties around process
– Deconstruction of existing experiences
– Reconstruction
• Wiki activity:
– Engages students with web-based learning
– Enables externalisation of the EBL process
Study
Aims
– To provide an outstanding student experience
– To engage with active learning through the
EBL process
– To encourage collaboration, teamwork and
the development of transferable skills
Method
– Semi-structured interviews
– Thematic analysis
Findings (1)
• All students identified:
– significant change to their practice as a
result of learning from the programme.
– immediate application to practice.
– collective learning responsibility ensured
the students actively engaged with
learning
Findings (2)
• All students indicated that their confidence
had developed through:
– teamwork
– presenting an argument
– challenging each other’s perspectives.
• Students spoke of EBL as a
transformational learning experience.
Change in practice
• ‘It’s been brilliant to come into something that
you didn’t think you were going to learn and end
up changing everything you do has been
amazing. To look at things from different
perspectives and realise you’re not too old to
change.’
• ‘It has really helped me to achieve much more
than anticipated. I think it has caused an
automatic internal change because it has totally
changed my perspective.’
Immediate application
• ‘The fact here we’ve been recognised as
expert practitioners and our knowledge
has been respected has made all the
difference, we can apply what we learn
directly to our practice.’
Collective Learning
• ‘With EBL you take a greater responsibility
for your own learning and that of your
colleagues, it’s very much about the team
and not just letting yourself down if you
don’t perform, your letting the team down
– it mirrors reflective practice really’
Confidence and development (1)
• ‘To have developed the confidence to
change and look at what we were doing
…it’s difficult when given a certain
environment in which to teach and you’re
aware you’re not doing the class justice
but to then have the knowledge and
awareness of the effect of the environment
and how this can be changed.’
• ‘This experience has been completely
different with a group that has worked
together, gelled and we’ve learnt a lot from
each other.’
Confidence and development (2)
• ‘It has given me the confidence to challenge
practice and truly think differently and at Masters
level.’
• ‘I just found myself thinking differently, I found
my teaching was different as my previous
experience has been typical teaching/learning
and EBL has helped me appreciate the true
value of learning. I think it has increased my
confidence as a teacher and learner.’
• ‘We are champions for practice education having
had a positive learning experience and the
confidence that brings.’
Transformational learning
experience (1)
• ‘The EBL process in itself is what has
changed everything, not just my teaching
and learning but the world as a whole.’
• ‘Learning is about growth and we all have
our own stories of transformation from this
course.’
Transformational learning
experience (2)
• ‘It’s not unique but it’s one of those prized
occasions where the process has been as
rich as the end result. I think the fact that it
happens in education when we are
actually looking at trying to attain that,
does create its uniqueness and exploits
the very powerful nature of a group.’
Examples of practice development
• Change to infection control mandatory training
from PowerPoint presentation to small group,
practical sessions with staff led activities.
• Change to GNVQ training from all day lectures
with poor attendance to a one hour lead lecture
supported by individual or small group tutorials
and small group work.
• Change to self harm and suicide risk
assessment sessions to medical staff in A&E
from PowerPoint presentations to scenario
based activities.
The success of EBL in the PGCert
• ‘I think that what struck me most about the EBL
was that you can see the simplicity of it is it’s
defining point because it can be used in any
course but the I think the mastery that has been
demonstrated was using it in a course about
education, not only were you allowing us to use
EBL but you were allowing us to experience it in
a course about teaching and learning. I think
that way we were able to see more than just the
one side and experience real student centred
learning.’
Success indicators
• 62% of the students have new jobs leading
education in their field of practice.
• ‘I didn’t expect it to be fun either, I thought it
would be a tick box exercise but learning should
be fun and this has been.’
• ‘I was expecting it to be stressful, I wasn’t
expecting fun or for it to be enjoyable or to make
friends and it’s been really good, we’ve definitely
learnt so much’
References
• Kahn, P. & O’Rourke, K. (2004) Guide to
curriculum design. Higher Education
Academy
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/de
tail/id359_guide_to_curriculum_design_ebl
accessed 16.05.08