scholarly journals Work-integrated Learning and Skill Development in a Master of Public Health Program: Graduate Perspectives

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 9-26
Author(s):  
Sue Durham ◽  
◽  
Helen Jordan ◽  
Lucio Naccarella ◽  
Melissa Russell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Skill Development ◽  
Employability Skills ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Integrated Learning ◽  
Master Of Public Health ◽  
Work Integrated Learning ◽  
Learning And Collaboration

It is increasingly understood that work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities are critical in providing graduating students with employability skills which allow them to gain employment and effectively operate in work environments. This is particularly relevant within degrees such as public health that cut across very diverse fields of practice. Little research has previously investigated student perceptions post-graduation of skill development within public health degrees. This investigation aimed to identify the range of skills gained within a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree which graduates felt assisted them to obtain employment, and to determine the teaching and learning approaches that contributed to the development of these skills. Graduates responding to a questionnaire self-reported that they had good levels of both technical and employability skills especially in the domains: Informed Decision Making, Professional Practice and Standards, Lifelong Learning and Collaboration. Students agreed that there were frequent opportunities for applied learning and enablers to employment within their degree. However, graduates indicated that the employability domain: Commencement Readiness and confidence at point of graduation, could be strengthened. The implications of this research for the development of non-placement WIL experiences, capstone subjects, the overall curriculum and broader university student experience are discussed.

scholarly journals Training Public Health Professionals to Tackle Women, Children, and Families Health Issues: A “Skill-Based Qualitative Learning Approach”

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Obeng
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Arduous Task ◽  
The One ◽  
Future Work

Purpose: There are several teaching and learning approaches but finding the one that is appropriate for a particular field or training program is an arduous task. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the “Skill Based Qualitative Learning Approach” (SBQLA) in training health professionals.Description: The SBQLA is a pedagogical approach via which learners are trained in developing qualitative questionnaires and interview skills to learn from experts in the Public Health (PH) field. This teaching approach arms students with interview skills that help them identify and address PH roadblocks and get them authentic information from experts. It also equips them with techniques on how to do formalized presentations and come up with projects and interventions that help mitigate and eliminate drivers of health problems among women, children and families.Assessment: Learners' field experiences are shared in a professional presentation style in a class to help trainees benefit from each other's information and to get formalized feedback on their presentation. Assessment in this learning approach is based on a synthesis and an analysis of data collected from professionals.Conclusion: Findings from this learning approach enables experts to shed light on true stories shared by real and authentic individuals whose faces can be associated with their shared experiences. This learning approach makes it possible for trainees to also initiate projects that help them tackle existing and emerging public health issues in their future work.

scholarly journals The Missing Professional Perspective: Medical, Veterinary, and Dual Degree Public Health Student Perceptions of One Health

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohini Roopnarine ◽  
Ellen Boeren ◽  
Julie-Anne Regan
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
One Health ◽  
Role Theory ◽  
Emerging Diseases ◽  
Policy Formation ◽  
Master Of Public Health ◽  
Professional Perspective ◽  
Dual Degree

Introduction: One Health (OH) is an important concept to design appropriate public health responses to emerging diseases such as COVID-19. How trainee health professionals understand this concept is important to its implementation. In this study, we explored how medical (MD), veterinary (DVM), and dual degree MD and DVM Master of Public Health (MPH) students define OH and its relevance to practice.Methods: Students participated in a survey that included the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS), and two questions requiring them to define and explain the relevance of OH. The transcripts of the OH responses underwent thematic analysis. Role theory was used to explain the variation in how students from these different programmes viewed the concept.Results: The responses of the MD and DVM students in contrast to the dual degree MPH students reflected gaps in their understanding of the concept that pertained to the specific health impacts of global warming; antimicrobial resistance, food security; social, cultural and environmental determinants of zoonoses occurrence, and health policy formation.Discussion: Mitigation of the global risks to public health require a collaborative approach by health professionals. Our findings suggest that MD and DVM students are unaware of many factors that impact patient health outside of their own discipline. The inclusion of dual degree students revealed novel insights that undertaking an MPH may have enabled them to be more aware about the interdisciplinary relevance of OH to their professional practice. We recommend that structured incorporation of OH should inform future medical and veterinary curricula.

scholarly journals An Institutional Framework for Scaffolding Work-Integrated Learning Across a Degree

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 80-94
Author(s):  
Bonnie Dean ◽  
◽  
Venkata Yanamandram ◽  
Michelle J. Eady ◽  
Tracey Moroney ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dominant Mode ◽  
Institutional Framework ◽  
Employability Skills ◽  
Degree Programs ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Integrated Learning ◽  
Pedagogical Strategy ◽  
Degree Structure ◽  
Conceptual Paper ◽  
Work Integrated Learning

Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) is an important pedagogical strategy for developing employability skills by immersing students in real-world understandings, applications and practices. Increasingly, universities are focusing on how WIL can be scaffolded across a degree, to involve students in a variety of WIL activities in order to apply disciplinary knowledge and skills. While placement models appear to be the dominant mode of WIL that are easily recognised within a degree structure, non-placement forms of WIL while emerging, remain less visible. This conceptual paper presents an institutional framework that accounts for a range of placement and non-placement WIL activities, to make WIL practices overt across a degree. It introduces the Work-Integrated Learning Curriculum Classification (WILCC) Framework that supports a university-wide approach for developing, mapping and reporting WIL. The WILCC Framework promotes the visibility of WIL across the institution, offers a common language for WIL across disciplines, and provides a tool to scaffold WIL experiences throughout degree programs.

scholarly journals Editorial: Advancing Non-placement Work-integrated Learning Across the Degree

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 2-8
Author(s):  
Bonnie Dean ◽  
◽  
Michelle J. Eady ◽  
Venkata Yanamandram ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Integrated Learning ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Professional Networks ◽  
Transferable Skills ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Workplace Preparation ◽  
Work Integrated Learning ◽  
The Impact

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is on the rise as many universities adopt strategic targets for student workplace preparation as an element of their tertiary studies. Through WIL, students gain real world experiences, transferable skills and build professional networks. WIL is often understood as a placement activity, whereby students spend extended periods of time in industry, typically at the end or near end of their degree. These placements are designed to encapsulate the theoretical learning of a degree through the opportunity to apply knowledge and practise skills in a physical workplace. While there is much evidence in the higher education teaching and learning scholarship that attests to the benefits of placement-based WIL for all stakeholders, innovation in WIL that integrates work practices with learning is also occurring without time on placement or within a workplace. In recent years, WIL activity has extended beyond limited conceptions as describing only placements, to include a range of simulated, virtual, authentic and industry-based activities. The uptake of non-placement learning activities presents as opportunity to investigate the benefits, utility and innovation of this growing pedagogy to contribute meaningful insights to higher education scholarship and practice. This special issue is being published during the trials of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) emergency. This global pandemic has shattered economies, touching every domain of life, including completely disrupting higher education. The call for papers for this special issue was conceived and advertised well before the universal lock down. There was evidence to suggest universities were exploring and experimenting with new ways of engaging with industry partners and that these models were offering extraordinary benefits to student learning and application of knowledge. The COVID-19 situation escalated these experiments, determining virtual WIL and projects or activities leveraged through technological platforms, as the fortuitous survivors. There is no doubt that WIL pedagogies and programs have been hit hard, however, this hardship for some has been described as cause for a learning revolution. For WIL research, this could be the impetus for questioning dominant modes of WIL and extending our understandings and knowledge of the impact of alternative WIL models.

scholarly journals MANAGING INFORMATION FOR WORK-INTEGRATED LEARNING AT HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Mousaion ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 13-28
Author(s):  
Roelien Brink ◽  
Martie Mearns ◽  
Tanya Du Plessis
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Information Management ◽  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Integrated Learning ◽  
Phenomenological Research Design ◽  
Work Integrated Learning

Higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Africa require teaching and learning to include work-integrated learning (WIL) within specific learning offerings. The different learning options provided by various faculties have unique and diverse procedures which justify different WIL approaches at HEIs. A lack of structure regarding the information management (IM) for WIL across departments results in different processes being followed, which can impact negatively on the optimal utilisation of WIL. Frameworks for IM for WIL, however, have been developed at international HEIs. Using a qualitative approach and phenomenological research design and working with these frameworks as well as the Theory of Motivated Information Management, the researchers collected data using semi-structured individual interviews and group discussions from the University of Cincinnati (UC) and the Northwestern University (NWU) in Illinois, United States (US). This article presents the findings of an IM framework from these two US universities. After research was conducted at a South African university, a conceptual framework was developed for the IM for WIL based on the framework from the international universities that may be implemented at HEIs in South Africa. With time this framework could betested in a number of settings that could lead to the development of a model for IM for WIL in the South African context. The article, however, reports on the findings of the two international universities only and the conceptual framework requires further testing and validation before it can be published.

scholarly journals Competency development needs of the Australian public health nutrition workforce

2003 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. 839-847 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Workforce Development ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Public Health Nutrition ◽  
Competency Development ◽  
Questionnaire Response ◽  
Cross Sectional

AbstractObjectives:To assess factors affecting competency development of the Australian public health nutrition workforce and investigate competency development intentions, barriers and self-reported training needs.Design:Cross-sectional study using self-administered mail- or email-delivered questionnaire.Setting and subjects:Two hundred and forty practitioners working in designated community and public health nutrition positions in the Australian health system.Results:An 87% questionnaire response rate was achieved. The profile of the sample included female practitioners (95%) within the age range of 26–45 years (67%), from dietetic backgrounds (75%) and employed in state health departments as community dietitians/nutritionists (52%) or public health nutritionists (32%). Only 14% had completed higher degree qualifications but most (80%) reported an intention to do so in the future. Entry-level dietetic education was considered by most respondents (57%) to be inadequate preparation for public health nutrition practice but considered it had utility as a precursor for public health nutrition competency development because of its strong grounding in nutrition knowledge, basic research skills and problem-solving. On-the-job learning was the most prominent competency development influence reported by this workforce. Flexibility in teaching and learning approaches is needed to facilitate workforce participation in further competency development. The main competency development needs focused on analytical and policy process competencies; however, there was a general need expressed for competency development across many competency areas.Conclusions:These data provide intelligence to inform public health nutrition workforce development, particularly that relating to continued professional development amongst the existing workforce.

scholarly journals Development of a Pandemic Awareness STEM Outreach Curriculum: Utilizing a Computational Thinking Taxonomy Framework

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Pamela O. Gilchrist ◽  
Alonzo B. Alexander ◽  
Adrian J. Green ◽  
Frieda E. Sanders ◽  
Ashley Q. Hooker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Informal Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Data Science ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Outreach Program ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Problem Solving Skills

Computational thinking is an essential skill in the modern global workforce. The current public health crisis has highlighted the need for students and educators to have a deeper understanding of epidemiology. While existing STEM curricula has addressed these topics in the past, current events present an opportunity for new curricula that can be designed to present epidemiology, the science of public health, as a modern topic for students that embeds the problem-solving and mathematics skills of computational thinking practices authentically. Using the Computational Thinking Taxonomy within the informal education setting of a STEM outreach program, a curriculum was developed to introduce middle school students to epidemiological concepts while developing their problem-solving skills, a subset of their computational thinking and mathematical thinking practices, in a contextually rich environment. The informal education setting at a Research I Institution provides avenues to connect diverse learners to visually engaging computational thinking and data science curricula to understand emerging teaching and learning approaches. This paper documents the theory and design approach used by researchers and practitioners to create a Pandemic Awareness STEM Curriculum and future implications for teaching and learning computational thinking practices through engaging with data science.

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