When: 7th July, 1-2:30pm

Where: Ridley Building 2, Seminar room 1.59

This seminar will be presented by Dr Alexandra Cope, NIHR ACL in Medical Education at University of Leeds.  It will explore the operating theatre as a teaching and learning environment examining both some of the affordances as well as some of the difficulties posed by using a high stakes workplace environment as a venue for learning.

Empirical data from interviews and video ethnography in the workplace will be presented to illustrate some of the content and process of teaching and learning. One of the key findings of the research was that post-graduate trainees in surgery must learn to ‘interpret visual and haptic cues’ in other words – learn to ‘make sense’ of what they are seeing or feeling. This holds relevance for many clinical disciplines in which learners need to discern and make sense of ‘signs’.

Whilst the focus of the seminar will be upon post-graduate learners, examples of undergraduate participation will also be used to illustrate key findings. Ethics, methodology and practicalities of data collection in the clinical workplace will be explored, including the use of case-study method and grounded theory. The key findings from the empirical work will be related to educational theory and it is hoped will stimulate useful discussion around teaching and learning in clinical environments.

To reserve a place please contact sarah.harvey@ncl.ac.uk.