Coventry University: E-Journals
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Pedagogical Design Promoting Writing Productivity on the Doctoral Level – a Case Study from Finland
Get PDFPublication productivity constitutes a key measure of institutional and researcher performance, determining success in university rankings and academic career development. To promote such productivity, Aalto University launched the Writing Doctoral Research course for engineers. To build a domain-specific course for doctoral candidates, their needs were examined quantitatively (n=325) and qualitatively (n=74). The aim was to identify pedagogy for raising the quality of publications and expediting doctoral degree completion. These investigations showed that 1) in the absence of sufficient supervision, engineers require more support in writing-related mental processes, 2) the mechanics of writing needs to promote argumentativity, 3) researchers lack precision when describing their research aims, 4) articulation of causality in data commentary requires more accuracy, and 5) instruments must be provided for writer self-correction.Instead of taking the lexicogrammar approach, the course was designed in a way that aligned with the principles of enculturation, assisting researchers in scientific positioning and socialization into their fields. Such an approach emphasizes reporting and structural conventions in engineering and the field-specific academic style.
What Postgraduates Appreciate in Online Tutor Feedback on Academic Writing
Get PDFImproving postgraduate student writing in English is an ongoing concern in the increasingly internationalised UK Higher Education context. Although the importance of feedback for developing academic writing skills is well-established (Hyland and Hyland 2006), there is still much debate about the components of effective feedback. In response to the call for research investigating teachers’ real-world practices in giving feedback in specific contexts (Lee 2014 and 2012), this article presents an initiative to develop students’ abilities to tackle written postgraduate writing (essays and dissertations) through collaborative on-line academic writing courses. The Grounded Theory-inspired study explores student perceptions of the effectiveness of online formative feedback on postgraduate academic writing in order to identify best practices which can contribute to developing skills in providing feedback. The study analyses tutor feedback on student texts and student responses to feedback. We applied categories which emerged from this data and concluded that the students we investigated had responded most positively when a combination of confidence-developing feedback practices were employed. These included both principled corrective language feedback and positive, personalised feedback on academic conventions and practices. This collaboration between academic writing and content specialists continues to provide further opportunities for embedding practices that encourage the development of academic writing skills on one year postgraduate programmes at the University of Edinburgh.
A Genre–based Study of Case Response Writing on an MBA Programme
Get PDFCase-based assignments represent a common form of assessment on academic business programmes (Easton 1982 and Mauffette-Leenders, Erskine and Leenders 1997), with students required to generate amongst other responses, business case reports, case critiques and case analyses (Nathan 2013). Only limited research is available to support academic writing tutors in understanding such case response texts with published studies focusing solely on business case reports (Freedman and Adam 1994, Forman and Rymer 1999a, 1999b and Nathan 2013). In order to aid writing tutors in supporting academic business students, this paper presents a small corpus study of 36 case response non-report texts (ca. 40000 words), generated on a UK MBA programme. These texts represent categories designated case critique, case advisory and case comparison texts, and were written in three business specialisms, Marketing, Human Resource Management, and Finance, respectively. Rhetorical analysis identified variable rhetorical structure dependent on text category, although orientation, analytical and conclusion components were present at high frequency in all text categories. Substantial variability in citation frequencies, modal verb, business lexis, and first person pronoun deployment was also identified between text categories. Awareness of both similarities and differences in case-based writing responses should serve as a useful aid in informing academic writing pedagogy
Students’ Perceptions of their First Practice Placement in Early Childhood Care and Education
Get PDFIt is widely accepted in higher education that practice placements facilitate students’ professional development by providing a beneficial learning environment, the chance to experience the ‘world of work’ and to develop the skills of a competent practitioner. However, the transition from college to practice placement, adjusting to new learning environments and managing workload demands can be challenging for students. This paper explores some of these issues. It investigates students’ perceptions regarding their first practice placement on an Early Childhood Care and Education programme in a third-level college in the Republic of Ireland. The study examines students’ views on specific aspects of placement, including preparation, management of the assessment portfolio and reflective journal, experience of supervision and opportunities for acquiring new skills and competencies.A self-administered, non-experimental survey, comprising closed and open questions, was utilised to allow the gathering of specific statistical information (quantitative) as well as students’ views and opinions (qualitative) of placement experiences. The findings indicate that the first practice placement was, in general, a positive experience, whereby students enjoyed opportunities to work with children and link theory to practice. However, it was found that there were difficulties in a) writing regular journal entries and reflective writing, b) completing child observations and c) implementing a planned intervention. A substantial number struggled with portfolio workloads together with other placement duties
Clinical Placements: The Perspectives of UK Physiotherapy Students on How Prepared they were by their University for their First Clinical Placements: an example of one HEI
Get PDFBackground. Clinical placements are an integral component of physiotherapy education as they give physiotherapy students the opportunity to apply their academic knowledge and skills and at the same time universities aim to provide an education that responds to the demands of practice settings.Objective. This study aims to investigate the perceptions of second year physiotherapy students on a range of aspects regarding their university’s education as a preparation for their first clinical placement.Method. Second-year physiotherapy students were invited to participate in a survey before and after engaging in their first clinical placement. Domains covered by the survey were: knowledge and skills, professionalism, communication, inter-professional awareness, and stress, coping and support.Results. The findings revealed that although the students felt prepared with regard to their anatomy, physiology, manual handling and treatment strategies they felt unprepared in patient record keeping, clinical reasoning, goal setting and communicating with families and carers.Conclusion. Universities can do much to ease their students’ path into the clinical setting and create a seamless transition from academic life to the world of practice. Possible ways in which this could be achieved are discussed
The Challenge and Opportunity for MOOCs for Teaching Writing
Get PDFMassive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been touted as alternative approaches to face-to-face teaching and the design of learning spaces. MOOCs allow teachers to rearrange traditional classroom activities and use technologies sometimes in new and different ways to provide new ways of teaching. Recently, they have been implemented for the teaching of writing to provide greater access to these courses. I examine the possibilities and challenges of using these technologically-enhanced spaces for teaching composition. I first discuss the differences in the designs of MOOCs and how these approaches were applied to teaching writing. Based on my own participation in composition MOOCs as well as a variety of other MOOCs since 2008, I introduce three composition MOOCs, which although designed as L1 courses, involved thousands of participants with varying backgrounds from all over the world. I discuss how these MOOCs responded to challenges and how the participants could negotiate their own learning, such as by choosing which assignments they wanted to complete or determining how much peer review they wanted. I conclude that these courses demonstrate how MOOCs have created new learning spaces that can influence face-to-face approaches to teaching writing
Practice-based Learning Across and Between the Health professions: A Conceptual Exploration of Definitions and Diversity and their Impact on Interprofessional Education
Get PDFPractice-based learning (PrBL) occurs in all health professional training but there are intra- and interprofessional differences depending on context, location and professional identity. In this position paper I will explore the definition, context and elements of PrBL across the health professions, and their implications for interprofessional education (IPE). IPE is a particular focus because of its increasing prominence globally in response to the changing nature of health care delivery as the population ages, the incidence of long term and chronic conditions increases and health and social care delivery is undertaken increasingly in multidisciplinary teams. PrBL aims to facilitate the transfer of theory into the workplace through situated and experiential learning. But it is not solely about preparing for practice after qualification; rather it is about learning in and about practice through authentic experience and becoming part of a community of practice. Best PrBL requires the alignment of explicit learning outcomes with clinically situated and supervised learning activities, and then with valid and reliable assessment. There are still questions about the optimal length and timing of rotations/attachments, and the nature of work-based assessment. The majority of an individual student’s PrBL is uniprofessional but there is a global trend towards increasing and enhancing the provision of interprofessional PrBL, despite the logistical and resource implications. This paper is an overview of current trends in PrBL and raises questions about future research and developments.‘In everyday organizational life, work, learning, innovation, communication, negotiation, conflict over goals, their interpretation, and history, are co-present in practice. They are part of human existence’ (Gherardi 2000, p214).In this position paper I explore the aims, nature and delivery of practice-based learning (PrBL) in order to introduce the scope of the journal and consider areas for further exploration
Using problem-based learning during student placements to embed theory in practice
Get PDFPractice placements, a prominent part of the education of health and social care professionals, are strongly validated by theories of adult learning. Being situated in authentic workplaces in contact with people in need, motivation to learn is strong. However, it is not always easy for students to realise the knowledge that practitioners are using in the setting, as it becomes tacit. Problem-based learning (PBL) is a form of student-centred university teaching deliberately structured to support development of students' theoretical understanding, critical thinking, professional reasoning and team skills. PBL is recognised world-wide for its applicability to health and social science curricula, but to date its potential as a method to activate theoretical learning during placements has not been realised.The aim of this masterclass is to inspire and encourage placement educators and students to use PBL as an effective, enjoyable way to structure knowledge development during placement. The outcomes of this paper include appreciation of the rationale and stages of the PBL cycle in a practice environment, and sufficient understanding about how PBL can be used to embed theory in practice to give it a try. Case studies and supervision sessions need to be adjusted a little to explicitly include a self-directed learning stage to develop students' knowledge, illustrated here through a case example. Students identify their own learning needs to guide their independent learning, maximising use of placement time. PBL in practice settings is a flexible approach, applicable to one-to-one situations, with pairs, groups (including inter-professional), and within work-based learning for staff development
Interprofessional Learning during an International Fieldwork Placement
Get PDFThe need for competent interprofessional health care professionals is well recognised. Various educational activities have been developed to facilitate the development of interprofessional competence. In this paper we describe an interprofessional, fieldwork experience conducted in a developing country, and the learning gained by the first cohort of students who completed the five week immersion. Eight final year students from Medicine, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy and Speech Pathology were interviewed pre- and post-placement by an independent researcher. The transcribed interviews were analysed thematically. Findings indicated that over the placement students gained an appreciation of the skills of the other disciplines and were able to move beyond a textbook definition of what a certain profession did to acquire a real understanding of interprofessional practice. However, students reported that this understanding was predicated on their first clarifying the extent to which they were working in a transdisciplinary or interdisciplinary team, and becoming more confident in their own disciplinary contribution without reliance on formal documentation or standardised assessments. Using daily team discussions, self-reflections and discussions with clinical educators, the students learned to prioritise their busy caseload, share resources and skills, and facilitate team members to achieve therapeutic goals. The interprofessional learning took place in an intercultural context where the students learned to work with children with severe disabilities, with staff with different classroom approaches, and with interpreters, while adjusting emotionally to the level of unmet need of many of the children. Based on the students' experiences, immersion in an intercultural fieldwork experience is a useful way to facilitate interprofessional learning
Evaluating Telesupervision as a Support for Clinical Learning: an Action Research Project
Get PDFTelesupervision is a process whereby distant supervision is provided using electronic information and communication technologies. This study aimed to investigate whether telesupervision can be used as an effective method of supervision to complement traditional face-to-face clinical supervision in physiotherapy, speech pathology and occupational therapy education.Three action research cycles were undertaken between July 2010 and December 2012 in Queensland, Australia. A shared supervisory model was employed whereby telesupervision was used as an adjunct to face-to-face supervision in a variety of clinical contexts. Phase 1 was undertaken as a metropolitan pilot while Phase 2 was conducted in a regional city and Phase 3 in a geographically isolated rural town. Participants included 30 students from entry-level programmes in Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Speech Pathology and five remote clinical educators (CE), and five on-site CEs. Evaluation consisted of clinical educator and researcher observations, a student satisfaction survey and a student learning survey. In later phases, data were collected from individual semi-structured interviews with students, remote and on-site CEs.Results demonstrate that student learning is not compromised when telesupervision is used to complement face-to-face supervision. Further, when used with small educator to student ratios (1:4), students were satisfied with the process. Many of the benefits of the telesupervision experience appeared to be due to the shared supervisory model. Limitations were low bandwidth and unreliable connectivity that interrupted learning; however, cyclical problem solving by educators and students improved the telesupervision learning experience