Psychology Enterprise Challenge

Posted on 13 December, 2016 by Susanne

Stage 1 Psychology students recently took part in an Enterprise Challenge, the initiative aimed to develop psychological literacy and enterprising skills. The event was supported by Rise Up from the Careers Service and One Voice, a nationwide charity who support communication aid users and their friends and families. Students were tasked with creating practical solutions to the challenges faced by individuals (and their families) supported by One Voice. Students worked in their mentor groups to develop their ideas and were encouraged to think about their knowledge of developmental and social psychology to inform their ideas. They then filmed their pitches many of which focussed on the link between an individual’s voice, their expression of self. Feedback from the event showed that the majority of students felt they had enhanced their experience of applying psychology in real world contexts. In addition the students felt they had developed their team work and problem solving skills. Charity representatives judging the pitches commented on how well all the students had engaged with the topic and really thought about what would be useful. The winning pitch, an idea called ‘Your Voice’ allowed users to tailor the voice produced by their communication to help reflect the individual’s personality. It was commended for offering something really unique that would be appropriate and adaptable across the lifespan.

Amy Fielden , Patrick Rosenkranz, School of Psychology

Charlotte Warin, Careers Service

Developing Interactive Learning in Dental Anatomy

Posted on 8 December, 2016 by Susanne

I am delighted to have two ERDP funds this year as an essential step for developing interactive learning in dental anatomy at Newcastle University.

The first ERDP fund was to do a study visit to some Dental Schools in London in order to gather information about the methodology for developing software application to enhance the learning of tooth morphology for dental students. I went to Queen Mary University of London and Kings College London- Guy’s Hospital, met with staff who teach and assess the tooth morphology course for UG dental students, shared experience, talked about the challenges and saw their online resources. It was a very useful visit to explore the existing resources at another University as a preparation for developing this software. Currently, I am going to explore the possibility of using the new 3D imaging facility, in the Anatomy and Clinical Skills Centre at Newcastle University.

The second ERDP fund was to do a study visit to the Dental School in Madrid, aiming to develop teaching tooth carving to enhance the learning of tooth morphology for dental students. I have developed a professional networking by meeting staff in Madrid, got the opportunity to share experience and have a dialogue around the challenges and I have observed and taken part in carving sessions. I enjoyed drawing and carving teeth, and believe that this is an effective approach to make our students active learners and enhance their 2D and 3D understanding of tooth morphology. A pilot tooth carving workshop has been approved to be conducted next month (voluntary workshop for all BDS & BSc Undergraduate students) & the outcome will be evaluated.

Many thanks for the ERDP funds which help me to scope the feasibility for my projects.

Bana Abdulmohsen, School of Dental Sciences

Identifying ways to enhance the active involvement of real-time patients in undergraduate medical education

Posted on 8 December, 2016 by Susanne

Patient contact has a long tradition of benefit in medical education (1, 2).

However, while the ‘patient’s voice’ is increasingly emphasized in educational strategies, most involvement has been on ‘patient educators’ who have more formal educational roles. Students also benefit from contact with patients who have diverse health needs in the ‘real-world’ context, but less is known about how these ‘real-time’ patients feel about being involved in medical training or what steps could be taken to support ‘real-time’ patients to have an active part in the learning encounter.
This research was funded by the FMS Educational Research Development and Practice unit with the aim of identifying ways to enhance active participation of ‘real-time’ patients in medical students’ training.

We carried out a questionnaire survey of over 500 patients and held focus groups with patients from four GP surgeries across the North East. A focus group with medical students is planned.

Most patients (though not all) were willing for medical students to be part of their consultation. This tended to depend on the patients’ age, and sensitivity of the clinical problem.

Factors such as the doctors’ attitude, nature of the clinical problem, students’ gender and past experience may affect how patients view their active involvement in the learning process. Patients wanted more information about medical education, opportunity to give feedback to the students, and to be given feedback themselves about the impact of their involvement.

The research was presented at the Society for Academic Primary Care, and at the Future of Medical Education conference, organised by Health Education England.
In addition, these findings will be discussed with patient educators and clinical teachers at a workshop (PPI Seed Corn funding) to help generate recommendations for teaching practice changes that may help embed the ‘real-time’ patient in medical students’ training.

Doyin Alao, School of Medical Education (Adedoyin.alao@nhs.net)

Project team: Bryan Burford, Hugh Alberti, Susan Hrisos, David Kennedy, Elsa Randles, Gillian Vance, School of Medical Education

References

Towle A, Bainbridge L, Godolphin W, et al. Active patient involvement in the education of health professionals. Medical Education, 2010; 44: 64-74.
Lucas B, Pearson D. Patient perceptions of their role in undergraduate medical education within a primary care teaching practice. Education for Primary Care, 2012; 23: 277-85.

Posted on 7 December, 2016 by Susanne

In September 2015, the School of Psychology opened up a new MSc in Forensic Psychology which offers comprehensive training for Stage 1 of the British Psychological Society-recognised qualification in forensic psychology

The course accreditation panel met in November and thanks to the stellar performance of everyone involved in delivering the MSc, the feedback was excellent.

The panel recognised and valued the following key strengths of the programme:

extremely high quality student experience
the practice based approach
the reflective practice element
administrative diligence and support
academic leadership.

I appreciate that accreditation is a lot of work for everyone involved but it is a vital part of what we do and ensures our programmes are fit for purpose. Well done and thank you.

Gwyneth Doherty-Sneddon, HoS, School of Psychology

EBMA Assessment in Medical Education Conference

Posted on 7 December, 2016 by Susanne

In October I attended the first annual conference that the European Board of Medical Assessors (EBMA) has opened up to the wider academic community. The conference was hosted by the University of Exeter and was very well attended by delegates from Europe and beyond, who have expertise in assessment in medical education.
I have a particular interest in standard setting of examinations and was pleased to present a poster titled “Comparison of Cohen and Angoff methods of standard setting: is Angoff worth it?”. I presented my research comparing pass marks set using Angoff and Cohen methods when applied to historical MBBS examinations data. The conclusion that Angoff and Cohen methods produce comparable pass marks generated interesting discussions with delegates from other Universities in the UK who are also interested in an alternative to the Angoff method. This experience has been invaluable and has opened up the possibility of collaborations to examine standard setting methods on large combined data sets.

In addition, Newcastle University was well represented at the conference. Professor Brian Lunn also presented data on standard setting (“Predictive abilities of standard setters using the Angoff method”) as well as student feedback (“Candidate use of a feedback site and how that relates to examination performance”). Dr David Kennedy presented data on professionalism monitoring (“Lessons from assessing Professionalism through monitoring Professional attitudes and behaviours”) which generated a lot of interest from other institutions looking to incorporate assessment of professionalism into their programmes.

The conference spanned 2 days and included an excellent range of keynote speakers, workshops and oral and poster presentation sessions. With lots of sessions and some running in parallel, the conference was hugely diverse and covered all aspects of assessment in medical education. I would highly recommend this conference to anyone with a particular interest in assessment and standard setting. I would be happy to discuss further details of the conference with colleagues and the full programme can also be found at: http://medicine.exeter.ac.uk/assessmentmeded/

Dr Laura Woodhouse, School of Medical Education

ERDP grant: Students on Student Induction – A Cross-Disciplinary Case Study

Posted on 6 December, 2016 by Susanne

The members of this research team, Alina Schartner Luisa Wakeling Lindsey Ferrie Clare Guilding and I came together as part of an institution-wide initiative aimed at fostering cross-discipline collaboration in educational research (EquATE).

We all work in different areas and different disciplines within the university, teaching on vocational undergraduate degrees within the medical faculty (dentistry, medicine), where the majority are UK students with a limited number of international places, non-vocational biomedical science degrees, who have a large, ever growing proportion of international students (10-25%), to postgraduate teaching in the social science and humanities, where the majority of students registered are ‘international’. We have a diverse array of responsibilities within our schools, with roles encompassing management, teaching and support at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level, but we are all involved in student induction processes. The project we have carried out, was supported by an educational development grant from ERDP, FMS, which enabled the employment of a student research assistant (Grace Peterson, PG student, HaSS).

Student induction and transition into the university lifecycle is a complex topic for HE practitioners. The bourgeoning body of research in this area is characterised by multiple perspectives on which format is most appropriate. Theoretical models are conflicting; on whether induction should focus on distinct areas such as academic, social, cultural or psychological transition into HE, or indeed if it should cover them all. It is proposed that although most models have an ethos of support, few are student-led and many lack student engagement because the relevance and timeliness of the induction approach may not yet be clear to the students. In a time of increased student diversity the need to involve students more centrally in the design and purpose of induction events is more critical than ever.

In response, our project aimed to evaluate current induction processes at Newcastle University, across subject areas and levels of study, through an investigation of students’ opinions about current provision. A secondary aim was to identify implications for practice from a student perspective. Our enquiry was driven by two overarching questions: Do current induction processes meet student needs? What can different disciplines learn from each other and how might this shape future practice?

The preliminary findings from the present study indicate that students’ experiences of university induction are, by and large, positive. Current induction provision was experienced by most students as valuable and helped alleviate anxieties. Induction week not only seemed to provide crucial academic and practical information, but also provided opportunities for forming social ties early on.

As the landscape of HE changes and the diversity of students widens, the focus of our induction processes has to evolve to allow a low-cost, time effective mechanism that engages this diverse group of students fully with a higher education environment. It is therefore imperative that our university engages students early through initiatives that create a sense of belonging and provide opportunities for students to establish peer networks and form social ties.

We are currently writing up the findings for publication.

Ruth Valentine, School of Dental Sciences

Director update: Autumn 2016

Posted on 29 September, 2016 by Susanne

Welcome to the first ERDP newsletter of the new academic year. As you receive this our new cohorts of students are already with us and the academic year is well underway. This newsletter is both looking back and looking forwards. So, we have a number of reports from meetings that we have attended over the summer telling our colleagues from outside Newcastle about the interesting and innovative work going on in Newcastle. The newsletter also contains details of our programme of events throughout the year. In addition to our regular Journal Club and seminar programmes we add two new series of events this year. Jane Stewart is running both of these. Her series “What do I mean when I say” is designed to stimulate debate about contested issues in learning and teaching. Two of these sessions have taken place so far, both have been well-attended and both have given rise to some lively discussion. Her lunchtime workshops are designed to support you in your teaching. Our seminar programme this year will start with two speakers from outside the Faculty. In November Pauline Kneale PVC(T) in Plymouth will be visiting and talking to us about pedagogic research. In December the new Head of School in ECLS, Caroline Walker-Gleaves will talk to us about her recent work on pedagogic caring within HE. Both seminars will stimulate and challenge our thinking so do come along. I still have dates free for seminars later in the year so if there is anybody you would like us to invite then please let me k now. Organisation of the Journal Club has now been taken over by Luisa Wakeling and the programme for the year has now been arranged. Our events programmes are consistently well-attended so to those who have been regular attendees welcome back and if you have not been able to attend many, or any, of our events do come and join us.
Our ERDP small grants programme continues this year and we are announcing the submission dates for the full year so that people can are better to plan should they have a project that they would like us to support. Remember too that support can be requested for short Study Visits to other institutions. We are keen to encourage applications for this purpose. If you have an idea for a Study Visit but would like to discuss it first then please get in touch. Our small grants programme has been running for 18months so our Learning and Teaching forum in November will focus on our projects. We will be contacting previous grant awardees to invite them to speak at this event but if you have preliminary outcomes that you would like to disseminate then do contact either myself or Sarah Harvey.
I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at our events during the course of the year and to sharing ideas about learning and teaching. If you have articles for the next issue due in December just send them through to fms.educational.research@newcastle.ac.uk.

Prof Steve McHanwell, Director, FMS Unit for ERDP

Summer meeting of the Anatomical Society (AS) and the British Association of Clinical Anatomists (BACA): The Anatomy of Learning

Posted on 27 September, 2016 by Susanne

The Anatomical Society, as have many professional bodies in recent years, has developed an active education focus that runs alongside its scientific activities to promote teaching of the discipline and support the increasing number of its members who are taking a major role in teaching. The Education Committee of the Anatomical Society has been in existence for more than fifteen years and has been playing an ever more active role in Society affairs. An important part of the activities of the Education Committee has been the organising of education events at all Society meetings together with periodic meetings solely focussed on education. The Society meeting in Brighton, held jointly with BACA, had a predominantly education focus with Symposia on the anatomy of learning, ultrasound in anatomy education, near peer teaching, digital learning and an education symposium organised by BACA. Alongside this were scientific sessions on topographical anatomy and a symposium on structural and functional changes occurring in the brain during learning.

Newcastle well represented

The summer meeting of the AS and BACA was held at Brighton and Sussex Medical School between the 19th-21st July 2016. Newcastle was well represented. Debra Patten and Steve McHanwell presented the results of some of their recent work on spatial learning of anatomy in dental students while Iain Keenan presented more findings from his work on improvements in anatomy knowledge using a novel cyclical artistic learning process. Iain, who has also been recently elected to serve on the Council of the Anatomical Society, also ran a workshop with colleagues from Southampton and Brighton and Sussex Medical Schools on use of social media in teaching.

The importance of ultrasound as a teaching tool

Other highlights of the meeting included an excellent overview by Richard Drake (lead author of Gray’s Anatomy for Students) on ultrasound as a teaching tool in anatomy. In his talk Richard described to the meeting how important this new technique was becoming and how vital it was that students were introduced to the methodology at an early stage not least because of the new perspectives it can give in anatomy. These points were then reinforced by the other speakers in the symposium. Near peer teaching is also attracting a great deal of interest and its potential for developing anatomy teaching was the subject of another workshop.

150 years of the Journal of Anatomy

At this meeting the Society also celebrated the 150th Anniversary of the first publication of the Journal of Anatomy, the first Journal of the Society. This issue (volume 229 No. 1) contains two fascinating articles by Gillian Morris-Kay from Oxford and a former editor of the journal on its history and from Susan Standing Editor in Chief of Gray’s Anatomy, on a history of the development of topographical anatomy. Both are strongly recommended.

Further details of the meeting and the full programme can be viewed at:

http://www.anatsocmeeting.co.uk/uploads/Brighton Abstracts 2016.pdf

Steve McHanwell, School of Medical Education

BERA: presenting the best independent and critical educational research

Posted on 27 September, 2016 by Susanne

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of attending the BERA (British Educational Research Association) Annual Conference in Leeds. I was fortunate enough to have a presentation accepted: “Digital Capabilities and Expectations of Prospective Students: Preparing Higher Education for Learning and Teaching of the Future”, and received a teacher bursary award from BERA to attend.

Several Newcastle University ECLS colleagues attended as did FMS’s Jo Matthan who presented “Developing the learning and teaching of practical clinical skills using video playback technology to enhance the student experience and incorporate self-assessment into the feedback process”.

It was a three-day conference including three keynote presentations: “Education in Conflict: Redefining the Contours of Change”, “Education for ‘Political Generosity’: The role of schools in supporting young people’s understanding of politically complex societies” and “Teacherbot: Interventions in Automated Teaching”. Reflecting on these speakers and reading through the abstracts, it became clear the role of the school, teachers and education as an agent of social change is paramount.

It is always interesting to attend non-medical/clinical conferences. Delegates came from all over Europe and from secondary/primary schools FE and F/E. BERA’s vision is to promote the development of a world-class education system based on high quality educational research. It seeks to counter-balance the politicisation of education by carefully presenting the findings of the best independent and critical research, through its projects and publications. This was clear by the varied presentations, posters and special interest group meetings. Lots of sponsors and exhibitors were present and with over 1000 delegates, it was a stimulating and active environment.

I have the abstract book and links to the keynote speakers if anybody is interested. Next year, the conference will be in Sussex. If any FMS staff are interested in evaluating the effectiveness of current policies and practices, and also generating fresh thinking and bringing a humanising influence to bear on proposals for reform, it is a fantastic opportunity to look at education at a slightly different angle than traditional medical/clinical education.

Dr Laura Delgaty, School of Medical Education

Being Paul Hubbard

Posted on 27 September, 2016 by Susanne

What route has your career taken to get you where you are today?

My career pathway started on a fairly standard scientific academic route; completing a BSc in Neuroscience at Sheffield University and a PhD in Glial cell biology in spinal cord injury from King’s College, London, followed by a short period as a post-doc at Birmingham University researching dementia. I discovered an interest in teaching fairly early on in my career, demonstrating for practicals and giving small group tutorials at King’s and then Birmingham. I further developed my teaching at Birmingham completing an accredited teaching qualification that allowed me to gain, what was then, associate membership of the HEA. After finishing my post-doc I moved into education more permanently, gaining a lecturer post in biology at Loughborough college. I consider this period almost as an apprenticeship in education. Teaching GCSE’s, A-levels, BTEC, Foundation and Access to HE courses I gained a lot of experience in education and learning theories. I also started working as an associate lecturer for the Open University during this time, a position that has given me vast experience of online and distance teaching techniques. It was during my time at Loughborough that I gained my second teaching qualification – Professional Graduate Diploma in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector (PGDTLLS). After four years at Loughborough College….and one OFSTED visit….I thought it was about time for a change and wondered about a return to HE. I saw the job advert for my current role in the medical school at Newcastle advertised over Christmas 2012, quickly put an application together (having noticed the advert the day before application deadline) and got an interview in February 2013. Luckily I got the role and started in June 2013 once the college academic year had finished.
What do you find most challenging about working in HE learning and teaching?

For me I think it is the number of students. Working in the FE sector teaching groups of between 15-25 on a daily basis allowed me to get to know and understand the students and thus tailor my teaching to more adequately meet the needs of those students. Every student is an individual that learns in their own unique way. In HE students are more anonymous because of the large numbers and it is difficult to teach in a way that is broad enough to meet all of their learning needs. This is why teaching students the skills to learn themselves is probably more important than teaching the content itself.

What’s the best thing you’ve been involved in since you started working with Newcastle University?

The best thing I’ve been involved in so far is probably the most unexpected thing that has happened to me at Newcastle to date. Towards the end of 2015 I received an offer to go to our NUMed campus in January 2016 to set-up the Foundation Certificate in Biological and Biomedical Science. My past experience of working in FE and teaching at foundation level was catching up with me!

Heading out there at such short notice was tricky, seeing I’d just made an offer to buy a house! As it happened I just managed to complete the purchase and move in a week before locking everything up and moving out again and heading off to Malaysia for what became a five month placement. It was great to have the freedom to plan and prepare a new curriculum for a new course in a new country, meeting new and different staff and students along the way. I enjoyed the challenge of living in a different culture, but also the opportunity it gave me both academically and personally. As well as having the chance to travel to and explore different parts of south-east Asia we did manage to get the foundation programme up and running, building a great team of teaching staff for the opening cohort of 45 students from across Malaysia.

What’s the wisest piece of advice you’ve received from a mentor or colleague?

Keep a note/journal of everything I have done/achieved in my current role. It’s amazing how many things you forget you have done and having a record makes it a lot easier to prepare for PDR meetings or promotion applications.

What’s your top educational research interest

Being a neuroscientist, neuroeducation is of particular interest. This relatively new and interesting field of applying neuroscientific knowledge to develop new, evidence based, teaching and learning tools could have a great impact on the way we approach teaching in the future. Utilising knowledge and understanding of the way the brain learns could be particularly useful in developing ideas and methods to aid student’s own study skills techniques.

If you could have dinner with 3 famous people from history who would they be?

Charles Darwin – I’m a Darwinist so it would be interesting to discuss the development of the theory of evolution, and the voyage of the Beagle.

Caratacus – (Chief of the Catuvellauni, a pre-roman British tribe, who fought the Roman invaders for many years before being captured and paraded in Rome). I like my history and the Roman invasion of Britain is particularly fascinating. They say history is written by the victors so it would be great to hear the story of the Roman invasion from the other side.

Brian Clough – As a Nottingham Forest football supporter there can be no other option!

Dr Paul Hubbard, School of Medical Education