Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.
School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.
Med Educ. 2020 Aug;54(8):748-757. doi: 10.1111/medu.14135. Epub 2020 Apr 3.
Both classroom and clinical sessional educators are often overlooked in faculty development, even though they play an important role in student learning. Our aim was to contrast classroom and clinical sessional educators´ experiences of and perceived needs for connectedness, appreciation and support, in relation to their teaching quality. We then utilised these results to make suggestions for supporting these educators.
The participants (11 physical therapy sessional educators: four clinical; seven clinical, and classroom) took part in three focus groups. We based the interview guide questions on previous survey results, used a critical theory research paradigm and performed thematic analysis.
We identified four emerging differences between physical therapy sessional educators with experience in the classroom and clinic. Classroom sessional educators needed: (a) more connectedness; (b) more appreciation; (c) more access to the learning management system, and (d) both different and similar faculty development when compared to clinical sessional educators. Differences were greater in classroom sessional educators who taught more hours. We also saw similarities in the need for feedback on teaching, orientations and communication, a better salary and clinical workplace support their role of an educator. Suggestions for context-dependent support for sessional educators were designed to address these similarities and differences.
Talking to various types of sessional educators about their teaching needs is the first step in providing effective faculty development. Varying needs for connectedness, appreciation, pedagogy and access to the learning management system amongst physical therapy sessional educators highlighted the need for an investment in classroom educators who teach multiple hours and want to grow as health science educators. Differences between classroom and clinical sessional educators brought to the forefront the importance of individualised, contextual faculty development and administrative or departmental action that supports sessional educators. The resulting context-dependent suggestions for improvement of support of sessional educators have the potential to improve the quality of health science teaching overall.
课堂和临床兼职教育者在教师发展中经常被忽视，尽管他们在学生学习中起着重要作用。我们的目的是对比课堂和临床兼职教育者在教学质量方面的联系感、赞赏和支持的体验和感知需求。然后，我们利用这些结果为支持这些教育者提出建议。
11 名物理治疗兼职教育者（4 名临床，7 名临床和课堂）参加了三个焦点小组。我们根据之前的调查结果制定了访谈指南问题，使用了批判理论研究范式并进行了主题分析。
我们确定了在具有课堂和临床经验的物理治疗兼职教育者之间存在的四个新兴差异。课堂兼职教育者需要：（a）更多的联系感；（b）更多的赞赏；（c）更多地访问学习管理系统；（d）与临床兼职教育者相比，有不同的和相似的教师发展。在教授更多课时的课堂兼职教育者中，差异更大。我们还看到了在教学反馈、方向和沟通、更好的薪资和临床工作场所支持他们作为教育者的角色方面的相似需求。为兼职教育者设计的基于情境的支持建议旨在解决这些相似性和差异。
与各种类型的兼职教育者谈论他们的教学需求是提供有效的教师发展的第一步。在物理治疗兼职教育者中，对联系感、赞赏、教学法和访问学习管理系统的不同需求突出了对教授多个小时并希望成长为健康科学教育者的课堂教育者的投资需求。课堂和临床兼职教育者之间的差异凸显了个性化、基于情境的教师发展以及支持兼职教育者的行政或部门行动的重要性。由此产生的基于情境的改善对兼职教育者支持的建议有可能整体提高健康科学教学质量。
