Tünde Varga-Atkins

Developing professionalism through the use of wikis: A study with first-year undergraduate medical students

Aim: Learning about professionalism occurs through collaboration, with peer groups being important sources of support for students [Sandars J, Homer M, Pell G, Croker T. 2008. Web 2.0 and social software: The medical student way of e-learning. Med Teach 14:1–5. Accessed 2008 February 14]. This study aimed to discover whether the use of wikis (collaborative websites) could enhance medical students’ development of professionalism. Methods: An online wiki was made available to four problem-based learning (PBL) groups, involving 32 students. Data collection comprised a small-scale student survey and four focus groups eliciting their views about wiki use, triangulated with facilitator interviews and wiki usage statistics. Results: Several factors affected individual student and group engagement with wikis, such as positive group dynamics. Students shared web links, helping clarify PBL discussions and increase their confidence. Conclusions: Two main benefits of using wikis for the development of professionalism with medical students were revealed. First, wikis acted as a shared knowledge base for hard-to-find resources on professionalism. Second, it was precisely when students reflected on the difference between interacting in wikis and their online social spaces, or when they considered whether or not to post a resource that their sense of professionalism emerged.

Information skills of undergraduate business students – a comparison of UK and international students

Summarises the results of a study aimed at measuring the information skills of UK and international students pursuing an undergraduate course in business studies. Investigates the hypothesis that international students studying in the UK might be disadvantaged as a consequence of their different educational backgrounds. The recent higher education curriculum shift towards a more learning‐centred approach and an emphasis on independent learning means that information skills are now far more fundamental to a student’s survival and success. No significant difference between the information skills of UK and international students was found. Only about one‐quarter of students performed well on the test, while three‐quarters had inadequate information skills. The majority of students feel negative or neutral towards library and information skills – with international students having a more positive attitude than home students. One of the main sources of negative attitudes cited was the inability to find information without help.

From drawings to diagrams: maintaining researcher control during graphic elicitation in qualitative interviews

Graphic elicitation, i.e. asking participants to draw, is an interview technique used to focus the interviewee on the given topic or gain extra meaning not covered verbally as part of the interview. This study analyses two interview contexts which included visual elicitation. It describes a successful example in which the researcher maintained control over the mode of the planned research task (diagram) as well as another example in which slippage occurred between the mode of the planned research task (drawing) and the resulting artefact (diagram). Through this analysis, strategies for maintaining researcher control over the mode of elicitation are identified, increasing our understanding about the theory and practice of both drawings and diagrams as two different modes of visual elicitation. The paper concludes that the required control does not necessarily comprise an increase in task structure (directing participants as to how to draw). Moreover, the subject and purpose of the task are equally important. Successful researcher control then comprises a careful balance between all the three aspects of purpose, structure and subject.

Learning networks for schools: keeping up with the times or a leap into the unknown?

This article seeks to explore the ‘fit’ of ‘the network’ as an organizational form being implemented in schools in England. It considers current trends within education policy, pedagogy and educational technology in the context of these new service delivery models and relates these to the current interest in learning networks. The article draws upon the experience of school networks as it has been discussed in evaluation research and literature surveys, to highlight the issues around their implementation. The purpose, typology and potential tensions of educational networks are reviewed, with a particular focus on the Networked Learning Communities (NLCs) pioneered by the National College for School Leadership (NCSL). Although, on the face of things, the position of the ‘school network’ as a structural model seems logical, there are significant tensions which suggest that the implementation and development of meaningful and high quality networks is far more challenging than the government may appreciate.

‘I know it’s not proper research, but…’: how professionals’ understandings of research can frustrate its potential for CPD

This article draws upon the work of two researchers who facilitated practitioner research with school professionals in Liverpool. The researchers themselves had not been involved in practitioner research before. In this account, the researchers reflect critically upon their own experience. The discussion presents the learning curve that the researchers underwent as well as what they discovered about the relationship between practitioners and researchers when engaged in school‐based research. Crucially the issue of practitioners’ understandings of what constituted ‘good’ research emerged as a significant issue. In particular, positivist notions of research that drew from popular scientific understandings, as well as the culture of numerical targeting in the schools system, seemed to shape these practitioners’ sense of what was expected of them as practitioner‐researchers. The article finishes by reflecting upon the possible lessons that this work presents for education managers considering practitioner research approaches for continuing professional development (CPD).

Developing e-learning for interprofessional education

An evidence-based, interprofessional educational course involving first-year undergraduate students studying medicine, nursing, physiotherapy and occupational therapy has been piloted at the University of Liverpool. Part of the content was developed in an online format. To capture the development process and the e-learning writing experience, a focus group was arranged for the content writers. The session was audio-recorded and tapes were transcribed. All the data were subjected to thematic analysis. Twenty-three sub-themes were identified in the 72 comments. These were grouped under six themes, corresponding to the developmental stages of e-learning. The highest number of comments fell under the theme of preparation, followed by content development, evaluation, general design and structure, and finally delivery. Team working contributed to the success of the writing process, reflecting the theme of working interprofessionally.

Learning Literacies through collaborative enquiry; collaborative enquiry through learning literacies

The extent to which university departments foster learning literacies that equip students with the diverse skills required for employment in a digital world is an issue that is under increased scrutiny in British higher education. The Learning Literacies in the Digital Age report (LLiDA by Beetham et al. 2009) offers a framework of learning literacies, which encompasses a range of literacies including academic, information, digital and media literacies. Building on the LLiDA framework, this article outlines and discusses an approach that aimed to extend the development of information literacies of first-year undergraduate students along with digital and media literacies. The central characteristics of this approach involved students working collaboratively, in teams, on an enquiry-based learning task using the institutional virtual learning environment’s wiki tool. The task involved developing and creating a wiki on exactly the kind of learning literacies that students were meant to acquire during this enquiry. This dual development was underpinned by the collaborative input of staff from academic and central services departments. Student survey feedback and observation were used to map the various gains in the areas of 1) collaboration and communication skills, 2) information literacy (IL), academic practice (study skills) and employability skills, 3) media and digital/computer literacies and, finally, 4) disciplinary skills. The findings confirm the usefulness of the LLiDA framework as well as point to its potential for further development to map literacies specific to the discipline.

Cultural–historical activity theory and ‘the visual’ in research: exploring the ontological consequences of the use of visual methods

This article addresses the under-theorization of visual techniques for social science research applications through the cultural–historical activity theory (CHAT). The ‘problem’ of ‘the visual’ in research is given an ontological framing by highlighting the ways in which the use of visual techniques as research tools – designed to elicit participant responses – has a bearing upon the types of data that are produced: the ‘how’ to some degree shapes the ‘what’ of research output. CHAT, by drawing our attention to the ways in which the artefacts we use to mediate researcher–participant relationship (our visual research tools) also affects them, alerts us to the meanings that we (inadvertently, reflexively or even deliberately) create in the research process. Three different kinds of visual techniques are explored according to a CHAT-informed typology: diagrams as a means of eliciting technical information, drawings as a means of eliciting interpretations and judgements and fictional characters as a means of eliciting personal identification. In each case, the ontological consequences of the choice of visual technique for the insight produced are discussed to explore the value of CHAT as one approach to deepening our understanding and appreciation of the value of ‘the visual’ in research.

Social inclusion and learning networks: a ‘wider notion of learning’ or taking things in a different direction?

This article has been produced from the work of a research project conducted in the context of a city‐wide education service in the United Kingdom. This was the Liverpool Learning Networks Research Project, which began in July 2005. The researchers carried out semi‐structured interviews with education practitioners – learning network coordinators – who have strategic responsibility for the development of school networks in Liverpool. The role of these practitioners represents a confluence of two significant agendas. The first is that of social inclusion, with ‘the school’ being seen as a key vehicle of policy delivery. The second is that of a shift towards the model of ‘the school network’, aimed at improving pupil learning. What emerges from the interviews is that social inclusion is central to these key practitioners’ understanding of the learning networks for which they are responsible. Despite a strong local emphasis on ‘learning’, then, in the presentation of the learning networks, within the city the focus on what happens in the classroom has become blurred by a far wider, social notion of how learning should be understood. The authors argue that this represents a significant tension for how learning networks will actually develop. Whilst in a perfect world a focus upon pupil learning in the classroom on the one hand, and on child social welfare on the other, may complement one another, in reality this is not the case. In the real world of government priority, resource commitment and time‐bound policy delivery, one or other focus will win out. The emphasis placed upon social inclusion by these senior education officers suggests that this is what will ultimately shape the direction and destination of these ‘learning’ networks. If so, the legacy of such networks may prove to be government‐driven social reform rather than the pioneering of ‘networked learning’ that was their original promise.

School professionals’ attitudes to professional development in a networked context: developing the model of ‘believers, seekers and sceptics’

This paper argues that school professionals’ attitudes to continuing professional development (CPD) fall into identifiable types, which influence their involvement with CPD. In order to consider appropriate support for staff to take up relevant CPD, this paper aims to identify what these attitudes are. To this end, a model developed as an outcome of a Wellcome Trust funded project is applied to the experiences of school professionals in a networked CPD context. The Wellcome Trust model presents four categories—believers, seekers, agnostics and sceptics—according to their attitudes to CPD. This study extends it with a further, fifth, category; that of ‘providers’. Whilst the original model suggests that professionals’ uptake of CPD is primarily dependent on their individual attitude, this paper argues that attitude is a more complex product of professional attitude and other factors, such as access to, relevance and variety of CPD. Through the additional lens provided by other CPD models used in the literature, this paper offers insights into possible ways forward in providing appropriate support for effective CPD in a networked context.