Orientation of medical trainees to a new clinical environment (the ready-steady-go model): a constructivist grounded theory study

Background High-quality orientation of trainees entering a new clinical workplace is essential to support education and patient safety. However, few consultants receive extensive formal training to support new trainees and must create their own ways of integrating newcomers into their clinical team and work environment. We aim to conceptualise the strategies consultants use in the early stages of working with new trainees that will be useful for future faculty development in this area. Methods We used constructivist grounded theory (CGT) methodology by interviewing fifteen consultants in three medical specialties, to explore how trainees are integrated into a new clinical environment. We used CGT principles and procedures (iteration, constant comparison, and theoretical sampling) to analyse and construct a conceptual interpretation of the empirical data. Results Consultants’ central concern when introduced to a new cohort of trainees was that they had the required knowledge and skills (ready), were adapted and integrated into the new workplace and clinical team (steady), and safely participating in practice (go). Consultants used two broad strategies: formal orientation and informal orientation. Both these approaches had the common goal of intensifying interaction between consultants and trainees to get trainees to a position where they were ready, adapted, integrated, and participating safely and efficiently in practice. Several disruptors were identified by participants that delayed and sometimes completely inhibited the orientation process. Conclusions The model of orientation constructed through this research could be a valuable tool to support faculty development initiatives, the reflective learning practice of clinical supervisors, and curriculum design. The disruptors were identified as valid priorities for improving trainee orientation in postgraduate medical education. Future research should involve a longitudinal approach to explore trainee engagement with orientation upon entering a new clinical workplace.

A Practical Exploration of Cybersecurity Faculty Development With Microteaching

The growth and development of cybersecurity jobs and careers have created a need for new skilled faculty that can effectively teach the appropriate content to students at all levels. Often instructors are hired based on their academic credentials and professional experience without the use of assessment and faculty development methods to discover if these instructors can teach effectively or even improve the way they teach. Effective instructors have the ability constructively adjust teaching approaches when students are excelling or struggling based on skillful observation and constant assessment. If a student learns something with great ease, perhaps that approach would be of benefit to others. Part of what helps novices develop expertise here is their explicit attempt to understand how and why something works for students. The implementation and use of microteaching can provide a quality improvement approach to help cybersecurity instructors on all levels improve their ability to teach effectively.

Sustainable Learning Through Curriculum Integration and Responsive Teaching

One of the principal challenges the education system faces presently is the discrepancy between what is learnt in class and the reality outside class. Due to the constant changes and rapid transformation in the world today, most students are undoubtedly training for jobs that may not exist when they finally graduate. How can educators prepare students for such a diverse and dynamic world? What does it take to produce highly innovative graduates that creatively apply outside-the-box solutions (locally rooted and globally scalable) to the world's most pressing issues? This chapter recommends an approach to education that focuses on learning as a process that creates both lifelong and life-wide learners as opposed to rote learners whose success is dependent on their ability to regurgitate content. The chapter demonstrates how Davis College and Akilah promotes sustainable learning through integration and responsive teaching and how the faculty development process plays a key role in this.

Motivation to “Keep Pushin’”: Insights into Faculty Development Facilitating Inclusive Pedagogy

This study focuses on the lived experiences of nine university faculty who were attempting to implement inclusive teaching practices following university-sponsored faculty development. While the participants were each successful in their respective implementations, they all expressed anxiety at the beginning of the semester as well as at the end when they reflected upon the changes they made. This occurred despite deeply held motivations to change their teaching and make a difference for their students. The participants encountered barriers that centered on feelings related to self-confidence, student perception, and peer approval. Findings include descriptions of these anxieties and the supports that meaningfully helped them push through difficulties and sustain their journeys toward inclusive pedagogy.

Perception of Dental Faculty on Face-to-Face and Virtual Programs of Faculty Development; A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: To compare the perception of dental faculty regarding face-to-face and virtual faculty development programs (FDPs) in dental institutes of Karachi. Study design and Setting: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at multiple dental colleges of Karachi.(January to April 2020). Methodology: The study was carried out among 161 faculty members teaching in private dental institutes, using a modified, validated questionnaire with convenient sampling. Data was analyzed on SPSS version 21. Results: The mean age of study participants was 32.31±8.09 years, and teaching experience was 5.01 ± 6.34 years. Majority of the participants had not received any faculty development training (p-value of 0.001). Most of the faculty reported no established faculty development program available either face-to-face or virtually in their respective institute. Majority (28.8 %) of participants perceived that the main barrier for FDPs was the lack of administrative support. However, the facultydesired to enhance their teaching skills, recommending that faculty development programs be made compulsory for all faculty members. The majority of participants (35.43 +ve mean rank) were in favour of face-to-face sessions (p=0.001) but were reluctant towards virtual sessions. Most (49.2 %) of the faculty perceived the foremost benefit of attending FDPs to be improvement in teaching skills and MCQs /EMQs writing. Conclusion: Dental faculty were more inclined towards face-to-face sessions than virtually conducted sessions however, their perception of the utility of FDPs were found to be limited . Moreover, it was that some of the barriers to attend FDPs was faculty determinants like deficient time and dearth of commitment

The Educators’ Datafied Present and Future: Complexity as an Approach to Developing Educators' Data Literacies

In the higher education context, an increasing concern on the technical or instrumental approach permeates attention to academics’ data literacies and faculty development. The need for data literacy to deal specifically with the rise of learning analytics in higher education has been raised by some authors, though in spite of some focus on the need to develop academics’ data literacy to embrace fair practices, this literature is often also rooted in a technical or data-driven perspective. In this paper, the authors summarize an empirical study based on 137 articles using the terms “data literacy,” “teachers,” and “faculty development,” spanning from 2014 and 2019. The findings point out that out of the total, 78 papers reviewed took an instrumental, data science-focused perspective on data literacy, were the technical abilities like extracting data and interpreting or reporting appropriately (authors, in press). Data safety and effective data management perspectives accounted for another 35 of the 137 articles. Only seven took up data literacy from a critical perspective, while only five looked at the pedagogical practice. These preliminary findings require awareness and discussion on the light of appropriate faculty development approaches and activities. We introduce some recommendations aimed at understanding data as a complex emerging phenomenon in our societies, which requires building the literacies to face their negative effects like data surveillance and algorithmic biases, but also, to uncover its emancipatory power.