Inneke Berghmans

Contributions to Innovative Learning and Teaching? Effective Research-Based Pedagogy--A Response to TLRP's Principles from a European Perspective

Starting from the contribution on the ‘ten principles of effective pedagogy’ by James and Pollard, we critically reflect on some of the principles and assess whether these principles can be grounded in the wider European research literature that has accumulated internationally. We conclude that these principles can be supported and expressed in the following statements. First, prior knowledge and experience is a springboard for future learning. Secondly, taking students’ perceptions into account is crucial when providing activities and structures of intellectual, social and emotional support for learning. Thirdly, autonomous motivation and appropriate workload are essential as driving forces for engagement. Fourthly, engagement is a driving force in establishing a lifelong learning habit. Fifthly, student-centred teaching methods should provide direct instructional guidance to safeguard engagement. Sixthly, striving towards cooperative learning environments and team learning requires psychological safety and group interdependence to establish mutually shared cognition in groups. Seventhly, informal learning and learning climate influence retention of learning by professionals; professionals seems to develop ‘learning patterns’, and students should be prepared with this in mind. And finally, those who support the learning of others should learn continuously, supported themselves through practice-based inquiry. These statements are underpinned with recent research in this contribution.

A facilitative versus directive approach in training clinical skills? Investigating students’ clinical performance and perceptions

Over the years, many medical school curricula have started implementing diverse student-centred teaching and learning methodologies. Previous studies, however, have indicated that students prefer more traditional and directive methodologies instead, raising questions on which training approach should be advocated. This study contrasts the effects of a student-centred (i.e. facilitative) training approach on students’ clinical skills learning with students’ perceptions. More specifically, a quasi-experimental study was set up in which students experienced either a directive or facilitative training approach. Data were collected by means of an OSCE on the one hand, and a questionnaire on students’ perceptions of the training sessions, and two open-ended questions about students’ likes and dislikes on the other hand. While no general differences were found in terms of clinical knowledge and understanding, and actual clinical performance, an interaction between students’ course-specific prior knowledge and the training approach was found. Especially students with low levels of knowledge benefited more from the facilitative training approach in terms of clinical knowledge, while highly knowledgeable students experienced a negative effect of this training approach. Moreover, students’ perceptions revealed that facilitative-trained students reported more deep-level learning, while the directive training approach turned out to score higher in terms of quality and perceived effects.