Medical teachers' identity learning during major curriculum renewal: A landscapes of practice perspective.

PURPOSE: To explore how medical teachers navigate their professional identities when required to implement critical pedagogy during an undergraduate curriculum renewal initiative. METHODS: A qualitative exploratory study was conducted, using focus groups and individual interviews with twenty-six purposively selected undergraduate medical teachers at a South African university. Data were transcribed, coded, and thematically analysed. Concepts of Landscapes of Practice Theory and Teacher Identity Learning provided an interpretive framework. RESULTS: Findings show that medical teachers' perceived capacity to implement critical pedagogy was influenced by identities that were constructed within the boundaries of a traditional biomedical curriculum. Three themes were identified, highlighting the inherent liminality of traversing a changing educational landscape: engaging in new practices: moving into the boundary space; attempting alignment: navigating identity in the boundary space; imagining the future: embracing identity in the boundary space. CONCLUSION: Globally directed curriculum renewal imperatives may challenge the established pedagogical practices and professional identities of medical teachers. There is a need for institutional spaces that foster collaboration, dialogue, and reflection with a view to supporting the ongoing identity learning and development of knowledgeability of medical teachers responsible for curriculum transformation.

Exploring the use of a digital anatomy learning platform in a second-year medical student cohort.

Digital anatomy learning platforms hold potential academic benefits, yet there is currently no universally accepted pedagogical framework guiding their utilization. This study applied the lens of Laurillard's conversational framework to explore second-year medical students' experiences with a digital anatomy learning platform at a South African university. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was employed. Phase 1 used whole population (N = 280) sampling to survey students' usage of, and access to, the digital anatomy learning platform. The survey response rate was 29%, with 47% of respondents reporting usage of the platform. Internet and device limitations were minimal, with 74% and 87% respectively reporting no hindrance. While 39% found Primal Pictures easy to use and helpful to their learning, a disconnect emerged between perceived value and actual usage, with only 5% of participants exhibiting high usage. Phase 2 used purposive sampling (n = 13) based on students' usage of digital anatomy learning platforms. Two focus groups and two individual interviews explored students' use of the learning platform. Qualitative data were both deductively and inductively analyzed. Two themes were identified: types of learning and influencers of learning. Findings from the deductive analysis indicated that students engaged mainly in acquisition-based learning. Inductive analysis showed students encountered various factors that influenced their learning behavior. Affective domain development emerged as a key factor in students' engagement with their anatomy studies and the digital learning platform, suggesting a potential gap in the conversational framework. Digital anatomy learning platforms may strengthen approaches to learning anatomy if implemented systematically, together with pre-training.

Understandings and practices: Towards socially responsive curricula for the health professions.

Global health inequities have created an urgency for health professions education to transition towards responsive and contextually relevant curricula. Such transformation and renewal processes hold significant implications for those educators responsible for implementing the curriculum. Currently little is known about how health professions educators across disciplines understand a responsive curriculum and how this understanding might influence their practice. We looked at curricula that aim to deliver future health care professionals who are not only clinically competent but also critically conscious of the contexts in which they serve and the health care systems within which they practice. We conducted a qualitative study across six institutions in South Africa, using focus group discussions and in-depth individual interviews to explore (i) how do health professions educators understand the principles that underpin their health professions education curriculum; and (ii) how do these understandings of health professions educators shape their teaching practices? The transcripts were analysed thematically following multiple iterations of critical engagement to identify patterns of meaning across the entire dataset. The results reflected a range of understandings related to knowing, doing, and being and becoming; and a range of teaching practices that are explicit, intentionally designed, take learning to the community, embrace a holistic approach, encourage safe dialogic encounters, and foster reflective practice through a complex manner of interacting. This study contributes to the literature on health professions education as a force for social justice. It highlights the implications of transformative curriculum renewal and offers insights on how health professions educators embrace notions of social responsiveness and health equity to engage with these underlying principles within their teaching.

Planned or emergent? An evaluation of a Master's in Health Professions Education programme.

BACKGROUND: Programme developers have the responsibility of ongoing programme renewal and evaluation to ensure that curricula remain responsive to rapidly changing educational and healthcare contexts. In reporting on programmes, significant emphasis is often placed on content and outcomes of Master's in Health Professions Education (MHPE) programmes. However, less emphasis has been placed on meaningful evaluation of all aspects of these programmes, particularly from a student perspective including what worked and what needs to be enhanced, as well as any emergent or unplanned factors. As the number of established MHPE programmes increases, so does the need for evaluation models that consider programme complexity. In this article we consider a MHPE programme against a model that provided scope for going beyond 'did it work?' Our intention was to determine whether the renewed MPhil in HPE programme was implemented as planned, and to which extent it achieved the planned outcomes. METHODS: This programme evaluation was conducted in an interpretive paradigm. We collected qualitative data at two points. Firstly, at the start of students' first-year with voluntary participation in focus groups and secondly, a year later with voluntary participation in individual interviews. Two members of the research team performed the initial thematic analysis of both the focus group interviews and the individual interviews. Thereafter, the full author team worked collaboratively discussing the themes until we reached consensus, looking specifically to identify any "emergent" factors. RESULTS: We identified three themes in the student data related to the process of implementing the new programme and the outcomes from it, including those aspects that could be regarded as emergent or unplanned: balancing work, personal lives and studies; managing the hybrid learning approach; and the scholarly journey. CONCLUSIONS: While many of the outcomes of the renewed programme were met, not all manifested as had been planned. The experience of the programme differed from one student to the next such that at the end of the two years they were at different points in their scholarly journeys. We realised that although we sought to be pedagogically sound in the process of curriculum renewal, we did not take into account the complex matrix of influences that sit outside the formal curriculum. Future renewal activities should intentionally and sensitively consider those factors, both planned and emergent, that influence a student's journey towards becoming a scholarly teacher and teaching scholar.

Evaluation of an undergraduate psychiatric clinical rotation: Exploring student perceptions.

BACKGROUND: Globally, the appropriate transformation of medical training is critical to ensure the graduation of competent physicians who can address the growing health needs. AIM: To explore medical students' perceptions of their learning experience during the undergraduate psychiatry late clinical rotation (PLCR) at Stellenbosch University (SU) and to use the findings to make possible recommendations regarding curriculum renewal. SETTING: In recognition of this, the Department of Psychiatry at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of SU is reviewing its current teaching and learning practices. METHODS: Data were collected from two focus groups. RESULTS: Three main themes emerged: 'learning in the clinical context', 'gaining knowledge' and 'generational needs'. Whilst several suggestions were made for potential improvement, the participants still endorsed that the PLCR does provide them with a good learning experience in psychiatry. CONCLUSIONS: Considering that these perceptions are from a group of millennials, the insights arising from the 'generational needs' theme were especially valuable. To bridge the generational gap and develop a curriculum that will not only meet the standards expected by educators but also achieve acceptance from learners, future research with a specific focus on clinical teachers' perceptions is needed.