Translating Theory into Practice: Facilitating Work-Based Learning through IT

Educating clinical educators: using a model of the experience of being a clinical educator

BACKGROUND

Clinical educators are expected to prepare students to be competent beginning practitioners, ready to enter the workforce and meet the demands of competent practice. As part of ensuring the quality of clinical education, universities that provide these programs need to be involved in the education and support of clinical educators. In this paper we examine the preparation and professional development of clinical educators based on research into the experiences of being a clinical educator (McAllister 2001).

METHODS

The research approach involved a blend of hermeneutic phenomenology and narrative inquiry. In-depth interviews were conducted with five speech pathologists in Australia. Data were analysed using a phenomenological analysis process.

RESULTS

Recurrent themes in the research were represented by 12 themed stories to richly portray participants' experiences of being clinical educators. An example is provided in this paper. The research produced a model of The Experience of Being a Clinical Educator. The six dimensions of this model are: a sense of self, of self-identity; a sense of relationship with others; a sense of being a clinical educator; a sense of agency or purposeful action; dynamic self-congruence; and the experience of growth and change.

CONCLUSION

Becoming and being a clinical educator is a developmental process, mirroring in some ways the developmental process clinical educators strive to facilitate for their students. This journey of growth and development as a clinical educator requires active learning approaches coupled with reflection on one's practice as a clinical educator. The model can be used to educate clinical educators in speech pathology and other professions, given the commonalities in clinical educators' roles across professions. Interactive and reflective strategies are presented in the paper for the development and support of clinical educators across the continuum from novice to professional artist.

In Search of the Total Learning Experience (TLE): A Case Study of Singapore's e-Inclusive Society

This paper re-visits the ongoing e-learning phenomenon from a holistic perspective through the study of the world's first nationwide, e-inclusive society in Singapore. It draws upon the current literature for learning models, knowledge management and utilization of technology for electronic education to examine the contribution Singapore's National IT Literacy Program (NITLP) has made to drive the diffusion of Internet, broadband and e-transaction adoption in this island nation. In doing so, the case study tracks NITLP's development of continuous and progressive phases of infrastructure, infostructure and knowledge-structure integration to leverage Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) more efficiently and effectively for the delivery of a holistic learning experience for Singapore's late IT adopters. The practical application of the implementation program is the provision of an evaluative tool for e-learning practitioners to enable an upward spiral of continuous feedback and improvements to the e-learning architecture and contribute more strategically to the development of a total learning experience. For the learner, the model generates strategic value from knowledge creating and sharing activities. The lessons learnt from Singapore's approach to developing its e-inclusive society are significant beyond just the experience of this island nation, as it serves as an indicator of how countries in the Asia-Pacific and internationally can conceptualize and implement national IT literacy programs within a framework of e-inclusive societies to promote knowledge-based economies.

Mental health practice and the rhetoric-reality gap

This paper had its genesis in a national project, sponsored by the English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting, to explore team working within mental health practice. The project extended over a 2-year period and utilized various methods of data collection. However, this paper focused on data, from the national survey and informal interviews (based in eight regions), that addressed specific issues within the practitioner group. Of the 800 questionnaires sent out 26% were returned. Fifty-three percent of the returns were from practitioners, 14% user/carers and 33% educationalists. Our focus was that of the practitioners. This group had a response rate of 50% (i.e. 50% of the surveys sent out to practitioners were returned). A content analysis of 100 interviews was used to triangulate the data. Whilst the original brief was to explore team working the survey also highlighted data that indicated a common understanding of what mental health practitioners do and what they say they do and that, although there was a commonality of vocabulary, different practices existed between and within regions. This is the focus of this paper. We argue, from our findings, that different practice is a result of 'habitus'. Whilst practitioners reported that they subscribe to a national agreement of meaning, there is a rhetoric-reality gap: that which is said to be done is not what is, in fact, practised. At the local level we argue that working within the habitus (educationally) can address the rhetoric-reality gap. However, we recommend further studies in order to explore how working within the habitus can address this matter across regions.

E-learning policies, practices and challenges in two Norwegian organizations

This article reports a pilot study on the uses of technology to enable learning within a formal educational setting in a higher education institution and within a corporation. These two Norwegian cases were selected due to their commitment to technology-enabled learning, as expressed in policy and strategy documents. The aim was to investigate the commitment and actual use of information and communications technology (ICT) for learning as well as what key actors think are the major challenges for successful large scale implementation of ICT for learning. The findings indicate that there is insufficient follow-up on e-learning policies and that there is a general lack of strategic direction and leadership in this area. The key challenges respondents highlight relate to the need for a systematic and pedagogical approach to e-learning in which three equally important considerations must be balanced: organization, pedagogy and technology. Key perspectives of a coherent pedagogical and organizational framework for planning e-learning are discussed.