Analysis of a foundational biomedical curriculum: exploring cumulative knowledge-building in the rehabilitative health professions
- Authors: De Bie, Gabrielle
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Medical education -- Curricula , Human anatomy -- Study and teaching -- Curricula , Physiology -- Study and teaching -- Curricula , Occupational therapy -- Study and teaching -- Curricula , Physical therapy -- Study and teaching -- Curricula , Medical rehabilitation -- Study and teaching -- Curricula , Knowledge, Theory of
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/18617 , vital:22361
- Description: This study was motivated by the researcher's experience that students in the rehabilitative health professional programmes were finding it difficult to access fundamental knowledge upon which their professional practices and clinical contexts are based. An important focus of the research was the extent to which cumulative knowledge-building was impacted after the foundational biomedical curriculum became an interdisciplinary programme. The study explored whether the organisation of the interdisciplinary foundational curriculum served the fundamental needs of the professions, and whether, as a matter of social justice, students' access to powerful knowledge was enabled by the form that the fundamental curriculum assumed. This curriculum study at a particular Faculty of Health Sciences foregrounds the structuring, organisation and differentiation of disciplinary knowledge, and reflects a twenty year period that included not only transitions in professional education but also extensive transformation in, and a different approach to, health delivery. At the institution, physiology and anatomy, the biomedical sciences basic to the health professions, underwent disciplinary merging and subsequent altered positioning in curricula. Medicine opted for a problem-based learning approach whereas the rehabilitation health sciences did not. Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) provided the means for analysis of the extent to which interdisciplinary organisation in the foundational curriculum for Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy enabled integrative, cumulative building of knowledge for professional and clinical contexts. Specialisation and Semantics dimensions of Legitimation Code Theory were used to reveal the principles underpinning practices, contexts and dispositions of Anatomy and Physiology at the Faculty of Health Sciences over a twenty year period post democratisation in South Africa (1994 - 2013). Disciplinary positioning in curriculum prior- and post-merger, were compared and contrasted. LCT were used to characterise the distinctiveness of Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy at the university including the kind of knowledge and the kind of knower that specialises the different professions, and what is valorised and legitimated for each kind of professional. Semantic gravity was used to explore the expected knowledge recontextualisations in diverse and complex clinical settings for each of the professions. Registered professionals who are clinical educators as well as curriculum designers for clinical studies were interviewed. Profession-specific course outlines were further data sources. The biomedical disciplines Anatomy and Physiology were characterised for their measures of distinction and their respective knowledge-knower structures. Analysis traced each discipline from its strongly classified form in autonomous curricula when there were separate learner-cohorts for physiotherapists and occupational therapists, to post-merger when the disciplines were framed as human biology in an integrated foundational curriculum for a joint cohort of students. Curricular documents for the twenty year period were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively to establish the positioning of Physiology and Anatomy before and after the disciplines merged to a single course of Human Biology. Teaching staff were interviewed for their understanding of what specialises the physiological and anatomical components of the Human Biology curriculum, what they considered as powerful knowledge for the professions, and who they envisaged as the ideal student-knower exiting the basic sciences platform to enter more advanced clinical studies. The degree of context-dependence for meaning-making in the different disciplinary domains and the condensation of meanings inherent in the respective practices and contexts, were analysed. The thesis argues that following the merger Anatomy is preferentially legitimated as powerful knowledge at the expense of Physiology; that the ideal of disciplinary integration is not reached, and that the segmental organisation and structuring of the curriculum negatively impacted on cumulative knowledge-building and application of professional knowledge in the clinical arena. After the merger the disciplines lost their shape, and in particular the hierarchical knowledge structure of Physiology collapsed. By not having access to the necessary disciplinary knowledge structures and their associated practices, students' ability for scaffolding and integrating knowledge into the clinical arena was constrained. The organisation of the current Human Biology curriculum does not facilitate cumulative learning, and in so doing may not contribute to the envisaged graduate professional who is required to practice within a complex and demanding healthcare work environment. The significance of this study conveys that interdisciplinary programmes should be carefully considered, and there is an added imperative in the health professions which ultimately realise treatment of patients. If, aside from interdisciplinary teaching, there are also merged cohorts of participant students, then a sound understanding of the epistemic requirements of each profession is required. Those involved in curriculum development in various fields need to take these recommendations into account to enable cumulative learning and enable epistemological access to powerful knowledge for an increasingly diverse student body.
- Full Text:
- Authors: De Bie, Gabrielle
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Medical education -- Curricula , Human anatomy -- Study and teaching -- Curricula , Physiology -- Study and teaching -- Curricula , Occupational therapy -- Study and teaching -- Curricula , Physical therapy -- Study and teaching -- Curricula , Medical rehabilitation -- Study and teaching -- Curricula , Knowledge, Theory of
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/18617 , vital:22361
- Description: This study was motivated by the researcher's experience that students in the rehabilitative health professional programmes were finding it difficult to access fundamental knowledge upon which their professional practices and clinical contexts are based. An important focus of the research was the extent to which cumulative knowledge-building was impacted after the foundational biomedical curriculum became an interdisciplinary programme. The study explored whether the organisation of the interdisciplinary foundational curriculum served the fundamental needs of the professions, and whether, as a matter of social justice, students' access to powerful knowledge was enabled by the form that the fundamental curriculum assumed. This curriculum study at a particular Faculty of Health Sciences foregrounds the structuring, organisation and differentiation of disciplinary knowledge, and reflects a twenty year period that included not only transitions in professional education but also extensive transformation in, and a different approach to, health delivery. At the institution, physiology and anatomy, the biomedical sciences basic to the health professions, underwent disciplinary merging and subsequent altered positioning in curricula. Medicine opted for a problem-based learning approach whereas the rehabilitation health sciences did not. Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) provided the means for analysis of the extent to which interdisciplinary organisation in the foundational curriculum for Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy enabled integrative, cumulative building of knowledge for professional and clinical contexts. Specialisation and Semantics dimensions of Legitimation Code Theory were used to reveal the principles underpinning practices, contexts and dispositions of Anatomy and Physiology at the Faculty of Health Sciences over a twenty year period post democratisation in South Africa (1994 - 2013). Disciplinary positioning in curriculum prior- and post-merger, were compared and contrasted. LCT were used to characterise the distinctiveness of Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy at the university including the kind of knowledge and the kind of knower that specialises the different professions, and what is valorised and legitimated for each kind of professional. Semantic gravity was used to explore the expected knowledge recontextualisations in diverse and complex clinical settings for each of the professions. Registered professionals who are clinical educators as well as curriculum designers for clinical studies were interviewed. Profession-specific course outlines were further data sources. The biomedical disciplines Anatomy and Physiology were characterised for their measures of distinction and their respective knowledge-knower structures. Analysis traced each discipline from its strongly classified form in autonomous curricula when there were separate learner-cohorts for physiotherapists and occupational therapists, to post-merger when the disciplines were framed as human biology in an integrated foundational curriculum for a joint cohort of students. Curricular documents for the twenty year period were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively to establish the positioning of Physiology and Anatomy before and after the disciplines merged to a single course of Human Biology. Teaching staff were interviewed for their understanding of what specialises the physiological and anatomical components of the Human Biology curriculum, what they considered as powerful knowledge for the professions, and who they envisaged as the ideal student-knower exiting the basic sciences platform to enter more advanced clinical studies. The degree of context-dependence for meaning-making in the different disciplinary domains and the condensation of meanings inherent in the respective practices and contexts, were analysed. The thesis argues that following the merger Anatomy is preferentially legitimated as powerful knowledge at the expense of Physiology; that the ideal of disciplinary integration is not reached, and that the segmental organisation and structuring of the curriculum negatively impacted on cumulative knowledge-building and application of professional knowledge in the clinical arena. After the merger the disciplines lost their shape, and in particular the hierarchical knowledge structure of Physiology collapsed. By not having access to the necessary disciplinary knowledge structures and their associated practices, students' ability for scaffolding and integrating knowledge into the clinical arena was constrained. The organisation of the current Human Biology curriculum does not facilitate cumulative learning, and in so doing may not contribute to the envisaged graduate professional who is required to practice within a complex and demanding healthcare work environment. The significance of this study conveys that interdisciplinary programmes should be carefully considered, and there is an added imperative in the health professions which ultimately realise treatment of patients. If, aside from interdisciplinary teaching, there are also merged cohorts of participant students, then a sound understanding of the epistemic requirements of each profession is required. Those involved in curriculum development in various fields need to take these recommendations into account to enable cumulative learning and enable epistemological access to powerful knowledge for an increasingly diverse student body.
- Full Text:
Discursive constructions of quality assurance: the case of the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education
- Authors: Chidindi, Joseph
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education -- Evaluation , Education, Higher -- Zimbabwe , Universities and colleges -- Evaluation -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/7800 , vital:21299
- Description: Quality assurance is on the contemporary agenda in higher education and has been prioritised across the globe. It has been conspicuous through the emergence of numerous quality assurance bodies, and in Zimbabwe, where this study takes place, the government has constituted the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education. This study aims to identify the discourses drawn on by academics and those working within Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education to construct the roles and processes of external quality assurance practices in universities in Zimbabwe. The study was grounded on the premise that external quality assurance processes in higher education can vary according to their contextual environment. Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis as a method driven theory not only provided a methodology, a way of collecting and analysing my data, but it was also a substantive theory, which provided a particular way of understanding the world through discourse. Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis is grounded in a Critical Realist view of the social world that enabled generalisations about the effect discourse was having on the phenomenon of interest: quality assurance in higher education. One-to-one and group interviews were used to yield exploratory, descriptive and explanatory data. To corroborate and augment data from interviews, key documents related to quality assurance in universities in Zimbabwe and obtained from the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education were analysed. There were a number of profound discourses that emerged in the research study. There was a discourse of ‘control’ in which Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education put in place compliance mechanisms, setting minimum requirements for universities to offer ‘credible’ higher education. There was a discourse of ‘power struggle’ in which universities endeavoured to maintain their institutional autonomy in response to what was perceived as Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education’s requirement of compliance. In the context of higher education in Zimbabwe, an important implication of the study was evident in the discourse of ‘gold standard’ of quality assurance which assumed that quality entails a generic best practice but which fails to take context into account. While a generic ‘global’ notion of best practice in quality assurance was dominant in the discourses of quality identified in this study, there were other discourses that focused on what quality might look like within the resource constraints of the context. The study highlighted the importance of collegiality between quality assurance organisations and universities to realise success of quality assurance intentions.
- Full Text:
Discursive constructions of quality assurance: the case of the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education
- Authors: Chidindi, Joseph
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education -- Evaluation , Education, Higher -- Zimbabwe , Universities and colleges -- Evaluation -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/7800 , vital:21299
- Description: Quality assurance is on the contemporary agenda in higher education and has been prioritised across the globe. It has been conspicuous through the emergence of numerous quality assurance bodies, and in Zimbabwe, where this study takes place, the government has constituted the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education. This study aims to identify the discourses drawn on by academics and those working within Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education to construct the roles and processes of external quality assurance practices in universities in Zimbabwe. The study was grounded on the premise that external quality assurance processes in higher education can vary according to their contextual environment. Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis as a method driven theory not only provided a methodology, a way of collecting and analysing my data, but it was also a substantive theory, which provided a particular way of understanding the world through discourse. Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis is grounded in a Critical Realist view of the social world that enabled generalisations about the effect discourse was having on the phenomenon of interest: quality assurance in higher education. One-to-one and group interviews were used to yield exploratory, descriptive and explanatory data. To corroborate and augment data from interviews, key documents related to quality assurance in universities in Zimbabwe and obtained from the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education were analysed. There were a number of profound discourses that emerged in the research study. There was a discourse of ‘control’ in which Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education put in place compliance mechanisms, setting minimum requirements for universities to offer ‘credible’ higher education. There was a discourse of ‘power struggle’ in which universities endeavoured to maintain their institutional autonomy in response to what was perceived as Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education’s requirement of compliance. In the context of higher education in Zimbabwe, an important implication of the study was evident in the discourse of ‘gold standard’ of quality assurance which assumed that quality entails a generic best practice but which fails to take context into account. While a generic ‘global’ notion of best practice in quality assurance was dominant in the discourses of quality identified in this study, there were other discourses that focused on what quality might look like within the resource constraints of the context. The study highlighted the importance of collegiality between quality assurance organisations and universities to realise success of quality assurance intentions.
- Full Text:
Understanding the reading practices of Fort Hare students
- Authors: O’Shea, Cathy
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/6886 , vital:21197
- Description: Universities world-wide are battling to offer access to far greater numbers than ever before. The University of Fort Hare, specifically, is also part of a troubled South African education system and is located in a disadvantaged, rural area. The main aim of this study was to understand Fort Hare students’ reading practices, as reported by the students themselves. This thesis used a framework of New Literacy Studies, which views student learning as a process of mastering discipline-specific, socially constructed norms and values, and sees the adopting of a literacy as including the adoption of an identity. Since discourse, in the NLS tradition, has been found to be a mediating mechanism in the social construction of identity, a critical discourse analysis was adopted to begin understanding aspects of Fort Hare students’ reading practices and the links between these and their identities. Critical realism is the ontological underpinning of this thesis. This means that the study aimed to identify the tendencies of certain mechanisms - in this case, Discourses - to affect students’ reading practices, by analysing interview transcripts of focus group discussions held with 30 students. Frameworks and tools provided by Fairclough and Gee were applied to interview data analysis. The ‘We blacks’ Discourse was one of one of the prominent Discourses that interviewees drew on when talking about their reading practices. It was closely allied to the ‘Resistance to reading’ Discourse, as participants explained that they tended to disregard books and did not enjoy reading for leisure. The ‘We blacks’ Discourse in this way homogenised class and other differences between black students, and indicated the ways in which their experiences were outside of academic Discourses. This Discourse served as a constraining mechanism for some, and indicated that those who used it tended not to identify with the academy. There was an evident link between the ‘We blacks’ Discourse, the ‘Resistance to reading’ Discourse and the ‘Better than us’ Discourse, in which students who enjoyed reading were called names for supposedly being conceited. Two opposing discourses (with a small ‘d’) emerged when students talked about literacy sponsors like parents and lecturers. Some used the ‘Our parents don’t chase us’ discourse to depict family members who were not encouraging, overlapping with the ‘We blacks’ Discourse. The contrasting ‘Go read anything’ discourse described more encouraging teachers and relatives. This discourse was also used to describe educators who had forced them to read, with several interviewees describing corporal punishment as being a necessary part of school-based literacy practices. It also became clear that Fort Hare’s institutional identity played a role in some interviewees’ self-identities, as the ‘Resistance to reading’ Discourse was linked to the ‘Why bother?’ Discourse. The latter seemed part of a defensive positionality that arose partly because some students see Fort Hare as a university with relatively low academic standards. However, the implication is that lecturers and others can work towards changing Discourses and so endeavour to enable reading practices. Educators could also take steps to address resistant attitudes and encourage reading.
- Full Text:
- Authors: O’Shea, Cathy
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/6886 , vital:21197
- Description: Universities world-wide are battling to offer access to far greater numbers than ever before. The University of Fort Hare, specifically, is also part of a troubled South African education system and is located in a disadvantaged, rural area. The main aim of this study was to understand Fort Hare students’ reading practices, as reported by the students themselves. This thesis used a framework of New Literacy Studies, which views student learning as a process of mastering discipline-specific, socially constructed norms and values, and sees the adopting of a literacy as including the adoption of an identity. Since discourse, in the NLS tradition, has been found to be a mediating mechanism in the social construction of identity, a critical discourse analysis was adopted to begin understanding aspects of Fort Hare students’ reading practices and the links between these and their identities. Critical realism is the ontological underpinning of this thesis. This means that the study aimed to identify the tendencies of certain mechanisms - in this case, Discourses - to affect students’ reading practices, by analysing interview transcripts of focus group discussions held with 30 students. Frameworks and tools provided by Fairclough and Gee were applied to interview data analysis. The ‘We blacks’ Discourse was one of one of the prominent Discourses that interviewees drew on when talking about their reading practices. It was closely allied to the ‘Resistance to reading’ Discourse, as participants explained that they tended to disregard books and did not enjoy reading for leisure. The ‘We blacks’ Discourse in this way homogenised class and other differences between black students, and indicated the ways in which their experiences were outside of academic Discourses. This Discourse served as a constraining mechanism for some, and indicated that those who used it tended not to identify with the academy. There was an evident link between the ‘We blacks’ Discourse, the ‘Resistance to reading’ Discourse and the ‘Better than us’ Discourse, in which students who enjoyed reading were called names for supposedly being conceited. Two opposing discourses (with a small ‘d’) emerged when students talked about literacy sponsors like parents and lecturers. Some used the ‘Our parents don’t chase us’ discourse to depict family members who were not encouraging, overlapping with the ‘We blacks’ Discourse. The contrasting ‘Go read anything’ discourse described more encouraging teachers and relatives. This discourse was also used to describe educators who had forced them to read, with several interviewees describing corporal punishment as being a necessary part of school-based literacy practices. It also became clear that Fort Hare’s institutional identity played a role in some interviewees’ self-identities, as the ‘Resistance to reading’ Discourse was linked to the ‘Why bother?’ Discourse. The latter seemed part of a defensive positionality that arose partly because some students see Fort Hare as a university with relatively low academic standards. However, the implication is that lecturers and others can work towards changing Discourses and so endeavour to enable reading practices. Educators could also take steps to address resistant attitudes and encourage reading.
- Full Text:
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