Harz Dominique, Kesselheim Jennifer, Fischer Krisztina
Instructor of Orthodontics, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Designated Institutional Official, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
MedEdPORTAL. 2025 May 2;21:11520. doi: 10.15766/mep_2374-8265.11520. eCollection 2025.
Limited guidance exists to engage health profession educators in designing and critically evaluating rigorous research projects. Traditional lectures are often insufficient for advancing educators' skills. By leveraging educational theories, we designed and implemented an interactive, learner-focused, reflective workshop-the Sailboat activity-offering educators an opportunity to evaluate their research plans and hone their research planning skills.
Preworkshop, participants represented their research plan on a Sailboat diagram and completed a preworkshop survey assessing their confidence in designing a research project. During the 90-minute virtual workshop, participants discussed their projects in pairs, and developed Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound action plans. The group then reconvened to review two projects and reflect on the activity. Finally, participants completed a postworkshop survey.
Thirty-four educators from 17 diverse specialties participated in the 2021, 2022, and 2023 Sailboat workshops. Pre- and postworkshop survey response rates were high (>90%). Participants indicated that they found the workshop valuable, highlighting that it helped them refine their project plans and organize their thoughts while fostering peer interaction. Responses to open-ended questions revealed that the workshop enhanced participants' understanding of the importance of iterative research planning. We observed significant increases from pre- to postworkshop ( < .05) in participants' confidence regarding identifying project barriers, weaknesses, key elements, alignment, and subsequent steps.
The Sailboat activity is an effective, feasible opportunity for educators to critically appraise and refine Health Professions Education Research projects, even in virtual environments. It could be adapted for other academic environments and incorporated into existing curricula.
在让健康职业教育工作者参与设计和批判性评估严谨的研究项目方面，可用的指导有限。传统讲座往往不足以提升教育工作者的技能。通过运用教育理论，我们设计并实施了一个互动式、以学习者为中心的反思性工作坊——帆船活动，为教育工作者提供评估其研究计划并磨练研究计划技能的机会。
在工作坊前，参与者在帆船图上展示他们的研究计划，并完成一项工作坊前调查，评估他们对设计研究项目的信心。在90分钟的虚拟工作坊中，参与者成对讨论他们的项目，并制定具体、可衡量、可实现、相关、有时限的行动计划。然后小组重新集合，审查两个项目并反思该活动。最后，参与者完成工作坊后调查。
来自17个不同专业的34名教育工作者参加了2021年、2022年和2023年的帆船工作坊。工作坊前和工作坊后的调查回复率很高（>90%）。参与者表示他们认为该工作坊很有价值，强调它帮助他们完善了项目计划，整理了思路，同时促进了同伴互动。对开放式问题的回复显示，该工作坊增强了参与者对迭代研究计划重要性的理解。我们观察到，从工作坊前到工作坊后，参与者在识别项目障碍、弱点、关键要素、一致性和后续步骤方面的信心有显著提高（<.05）。
帆船活动是教育工作者批判性评估和完善健康职业教育研究项目的有效且可行的机会，即使是在虚拟环境中。它可以适用于其他学术环境，并纳入现有课程。
