Increasing interest is directed towards strategic educational development, where a longitudinal and organizational approach to education is taken (Gibbs 2013). At the Unit for Medical Education, Karolinska Institutet, a strategic approach to enhance faculty development was taken when starting a new master’s programme in medical education in 2009. A core of the strategic approach was to apply a model of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, SoTL, developed at the centre (Bolander Laksov et al 2010). The SoTL model forms the basis for the first year in the programme and promotes an inquiring approach to local practice from micro level(pedagogical encounters, courses) to macro level (educational leadership, organizational learning). This means that during the programme the participants study educational problems in their own practice, explore existing knowledge within the area of medical education, investigate and develop their practice, document the development process, get feedback from peers and make the results public to others. The participants come from different professions, like physicians, nurses, physiotherapists and represent different nationalities. The programme is international, runs halftime mostly online and is planned to stimulate participants to engage in learning processes of students, academics, professionals and patients. The start of the programme has been described in Bolander Laksov et al (2014).
Aim and methods
This paper examines the outcomes of the master’s programme in terms of learning, professional development and dissemination. Students from the first two cohorts (n=25) were approached with an open-ended questionnaire regarding their perceptions of what they learned and how they had made use of their learning from the programme in the organization where they work. 18 students were included in the study. How students had contributed with scholarly work in terms of presentations, publications, submissions toconferences were mapped. The data was analysed through qualitative content analysis (Graneheim and Lundman, 2004).
The results showed that all students in the study changed their educational practice in some way and they mentioned the scholarly approach as a benefit to their work. The possibility to examine their own practice, relate to theory and compare to other contexts was mentioned as important to the development of knowledge and confidence for change. They used what they have learned in their daily work in different ways and five (n= 25) had got a new position related to education. The mapping of scholarly work, including all student who have finished the first year showed that many (n=18) have or are in the process of developing their project from the first year, seven articles have been published/submitted based on the developmental work in the programme and 21 poster/oral presentations have been conducted.
These results indicate that the master’s programme can be important in the development of educational practice. This study is the first step aiming to understand the impact of a master’s program, based on the idea of promoting SoTL, as a strategic approach enhancing educational and faculty development.
Bolander Laksov, K., McGrath, C., Silén, C. (2010) CME - guide 6 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning- the road to an academic perspective on teaching.
Bolander Laksov, K., Silén. C., Engqvist Boman.L.(2014) Implementation of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning through an On-line Master’s Program.I Sullivan, K., Czigler,P., Sullivan Hellgren, J.(red) Professional Distance Education Degree Programs and Practices.IGL Global: Hershey, USA
Gibbs, G.(2013) Reflections on the changing nature of educational development International. Journal for Academic Development, vol.18, No1, pp 4-14
Graneheim, U.H. and Lundman, B. (2004), “Qualitative content analysis in nursing research: concepts, procedures and measures toachieve trustworthiness”. Nurse Education Today, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp.105-12
2014.
ICED, Educational Development in a Changing World, Stockholm , Sweden, 16-18 June 2014