scholarly journals Can semiotics be used to drive paradigm changes in medical education?

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-516
Author(s):  
John Tredinnick-Rowe

This essay sets out to explain how educational semiotics as a discipline can be used to reform medical education and assessment. This is in response to an ongoing paradigm shift in medical education and assessment that seeks to integrate more qualitative, ethical and professional aspects of medicine into curricula, and develop ways to assess them. This paper suggests that a method to drive this paradigm change might be found in the Peircean idea of suprasubjectivity. This semiotic concept is rooted in the scholastic philosophy of John of St Thomas, but has been reintroduced to modern semiotics through the works of John Deely, Alin Olteanu and, most notably, Charles Sanders Peirce. I approach this task as both a medical educator and a semiotician. In this paper, I provide background information about medical education, paradigm shifts, and the concept of suprasubjectivity in relation to modern educational semiotic literature. I conclude by giving examples of what a suprasubjective approach to medical education and assessment might look like. I do this by drawing an equivalence between the notion of threshold concepts and suprasubjectivity, demonstrating the similarities between their positions. Fundamentally, medical education suffers from tensions of teaching trainee doctors the correct balance of biological science and situational ethics/ judgement. In the transcendence of mind-dependent and mind-independent being the scholastic philosophy of John of St Thomas may be exactly the solution medicine needs to overcome this dichotomy.

2006 ◽  
Vol 973 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vassili Karanassios

ABSTRACTFor the last several years, we have been developing and characterizing “mobile” micro- and nano-instruments for use on-site (e.g., in the field). Although such portable, battery-operated instruments are much smaller that their laboratory-scale counterparts, sometimes they provide comparable performance and they often offer improved capabilities. As such, they are expected to cause a paradigm shift in classical chemical analysis by allowing practioners to “bring the lab (or part of it) to the sample”. Two classes of examples will be used as the means with which to illustrate the power of micro- and nano-instruments. One class involves a “patient” as the sample and an ingestible capsule-size spectrometer used for cancer diagnosis of the gastro intestinal tack as (part of) “the lab”. The other involves the “environment” as the sample and a portable, battery-operated, miniaturized instrument that utilizes a PalmPilot™ with a wireless interface for data acquisition and signal processing as (part of) “the lab”. To discuss how to electrically power such miniaturized instruments, mobile energy issues will be addressed. Particular emphasis will be paid to current or anticipated future applications and to the paradigm shifts that may prove essential in powering the next generation of miniaturized instruments.


2009 ◽  
Vol 66 (8) ◽  
pp. 1652-1661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Sinclair

Abstract Sinclair, M. 2009. Herring and ICES: a historical sketch of a few ideas and their linkages. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 1652–1661. This introduction to the Symposium on “Linking Herring” sketches the development of some ideas generated from herring research within an ICES context. The work of Committee A (1902–1908), under the leadership of Johan Hjort, led to a paradigm shift from “migration thinking” to “population thinking” as the interpretation of fluctuations in herring landings. From the 1920s to the 1950s, the focus on forecasting services for the herring fisheries, although ultimately unsuccessful, had the unintended consequence of generating ideas on recruitment overfishing and the match–mismatch hypothesis. The collapse of the East Anglian fishery led, in 1956, to considerable debate on its causes, but no consensus was reached. Three consecutive symposia dealing with herring (1961, 1968, and 1970) reveal a changing perspective on the role of fishing on recruitment dynamics, culminating in Cushing’s 1975 book (“Marine Ecology and Fisheries”, referred to here as the “Grand Synthesis”), which defined the concept of recruitment overfishing and established the future agenda for fisheries oceanography. The 1978 ICES “Symposium on the Assessment and Management of Pelagic Fish Stocks” is interpreted as the “Aberdeen Consensus” (i.e. without effective management, recruitment overfishing is to be expected). In conclusion, herring research within ICES has led to many ideas and two major paradigm shifts.


2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (61) ◽  
pp. 261-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gislei Mocelin Polli ◽  
Brigido Vizeu Camargo

Environmental issues are given prominence in the media and scientific circles. From the 60’s until early 2010 there were changes in the way people related to the environment, with a paradigm shift occurring regarding the environment. This study sought to identify the representational content disseminated by the press media on the environment in different periods. A qualitative survey was therefore conducted of documents, and data were obtained through texts published in a magazine with national circulation. The data were analyzed using the ALCESTE program with a Lexicographic Analysis. It was identified that the press media reflects the paradigm shifts, and publications dating from the late 60’s are compatible with the old paradigm, evolving over time, and are now compatible with the new environmental paradigm. The results indicate that currently the environment needs care in all its aspects and lack of care creates global impacts.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (01) ◽  
pp. 026-030 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pooja Sharma ◽  
Nadeem Tanveer ◽  
Aditi Goyal

Abstract INTRODUCTION: During the past decade, there has been a paradigm shift in medical education from the problem-based learning to competency-based training. This has forced a rethink on the way we evaluate the residents and finally give them the right to handle patients independently. This study makes the first attempt towards designing competency-based training program for pathology residents by formulating the entrustable professional activities (EPAs) for the 1st year pathology residents. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire comprising 18 potential EPAs in histopathology and 12 potential EPAs in cytology were circulated among the residents of Pathology Department. The respondents were asked to grade the EPAs on a scale of 0–4 based on how important they considered that activity as EPA. The cumulative score of each EPA was divided by the number of respondents to arrive at the average score. The EPAs with an average score of 3 or more qualified to be shortlisted as consensus EPAs. RESULTS: Five activities each of histopathology and cytopathology had an average score of 3 or above and were shortlisted as EPAs for the 1st year pathology postgraduates. Each of these was also mapped to their respective competencies. CONCLUSION: There is an urgent need to restructure the postgraduate pathology curriculum in line with competency-based training. This study is the first step in this direction.


MedEdPublish ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia Randall ◽  
Robert Brooks ◽  
Agnes Montgomery ◽  
Lauren McNally

Author(s):  
Dan Lim

Many people in higher education wonder where the rapid changes in information technology are going to take them. Many more fear that the ongoing information technology explosion may eventually leave them behind. Due to entrenched mindsets and bureaucracy in higher education, fostering a technology cultural change requires paradigm shifts in all areas of administration, teaching, and research. A fundamental paradigm shift must happen in four areas before a technology cultural change can be set on a forward path. This chapter focuses on four essential components of a paradigm shift in technology and higher education at the University of Minnesota Crookston (UMC). This case describes how a paradigm shift model can help to promote a long-term technology cultural change in a higher education institution. The model consists of technology commitment, technology philosophy, investment priority, and development focus. It has been used at UMC to bring about a reengineering of the entire institution to support a ubiquitous laptop environment throughout the curriculum and campus. The model has helped UMC achieve an overwhelming success in utilizing laptop computing and other technology to enhance learning.


2010 ◽  
Vol 92 (3) ◽  
pp. 92-96
Author(s):  
M Bradburn ◽  
S Kendall ◽  
A Young ◽  
L Sher

In 2003, UK legislation established a new regulatory body to develop a single, unifying framework for postgraduate medical and dental education and training: the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB). This new independent statutory organisation came into being on 30 September 2005 and set about a systematic examination of existing practice, as well as asking all 57 recognised specialties to submit formal curricula to them for approval. This review of practice translated into a policy document entitled Generic standards for training (April 2006), later updated in July 2008. In December 2008 the Joint Committee on Surgical Training (JCST) published a surgical version of this, the JCST Standards for Surgical Training.


Life ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Vic Norris

A paradigm shift in one field can trigger paradigm shifts in other fields. This is illustrated by the paradigm shifts that have occurred in bacterial physiology following the discoveries that bacteria are not unstructured, that the bacterial cell cycle is not controlled by the dynamics of peptidoglycan, and that the growth rates of bacteria in the same steady-state population are not at all the same. These paradigm shifts are having an effect on longstanding hypotheses about the regulation of the bacterial cell cycle, which appear increasingly to be inadequate. I argue that, just as one earthquake can trigger others, an imminent paradigm shift in the regulation of the bacterial cell cycle will have repercussions or “paradigm quakes” on hypotheses about the origins of life and about the regulation of the eukaryotic cell cycle.


Folia Medica ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris E. Sakakushev ◽  
Blagoi I. Marinov ◽  
Penka P. Stefanova ◽  
Stefan St. Kostianev ◽  
Evangelos K. Georgiou

AbstractMedical simulation is a rapidly expanding area within medical education due to advances in technology, significant reduction in training hours and increased procedural complexity. Simulation training aims to enhance patient safety through improved technical competency and eliminating human factors in a risk free environment. It is particularly applicable to a practical, procedure-orientated specialties.Simulation can be useful for novice trainees, experienced clinicians (e.g. for revalidation) and team building. It has become a cornerstone in the delivery of medical education, being a paradigm shift in how doctors are educated and trained. Simulation must take a proactive position in the development of metric-based simulation curriculum, adoption of proficiency benchmarking definitions, and should not depend on the simulation platforms used.Conversely, ingraining of poor practice may occur in the absence of adequate supervision, and equipment malfunction during the simulation can break the immersion and disrupt any learning that has occurred. Despite the presence of high technology, there is a substantial learning curve for both learners and facilitators.The technology of simulation continues to advance, offering devices capable of improved fidelity in virtual reality simulation, more sophisticated procedural practice and advanced patient simulators. Simulation-based training has also brought about paradigm shifts in the medical and surgical education arenas and ensured that the scope and impact of simulation will continue to broaden.


Author(s):  
X Jiang ◽  
P.J Scott ◽  
D.J Whitehouse ◽  
L Blunt

This is the second part of the paper ‘Paradigm shifts in surface metrology’. In part I, the three historical paradigm shifts in surface metrology were brought together, and the subsequent evolution resulting from the shifts discussed. The historical philosophy highlighted the fact that the paradigm shifts must be robust and flexible, meaning that surface metrology must allow for full control of surface manufacture and provide an understanding of the surface functional performance. Part II presents the current paradigm shift as a ‘stepping stone’, building on the above historical context. Aspects of surface geometry will also have to cater for surfaces derived from disruptive application, i.e. structured and freeform surfaces are identified candidates. The current shift is presented in three aspects: from profile to areal characterization; from stochastic to structured surfaces; and from simple geometries to complex freeform geometries, all spanning the millimetre to sub-nanometre scales. In this paradigm shift, the scale of surface texture is beginning to approach some of the geometrical features in micro/nano electro-mechanical systems devices and is becoming one of the most important functionality indicators. Part II will contextualize the current shifts in the discipline of surface metrology, and cement surface metrology in place in the ultra precision and nanotechnology age.


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