The challenges of health care are increasingly complex and subject to frequent change. Meeting these demands requires that health professionals work in partnership with each other and the patient. One way of contributing to this is for students to learn together. However, effective teamwork requires an education system that helps to foster understanding among all those entering the health workforce. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes towards shared learning of undergraduate dental students and trainee dental technicians in a university dental school/hospital in the United Kingdom. Twenty-ive trainee dental technicians and 75 undergraduate dental students took part in the study over ive academic years. Data were collected using structured questionnaires. A 100% response rate was achieved from the questionnaires. The results indicated the majority of students recognized the beneits of shared learning and viewed the acquisition of teamworking skills as useful for their future working lives, beneicial to the care of their patients, and likely to enhance professional working relationships. The study also found a positive association of being valued as an individual in the dental team by all student groups. Future dental curricula should provide opportunities to develop effective communication between these two groups and encourage teamworking opportunities. These opportunities need to be systematically developed in the dental curriculum to achieve the desired goals.
This qualitative research aims to examine university students' conceptions and experiences of teacher care and its pedagogical implications, premised on ethics of care framed within Vygotskian social constructivism. The COVID-initiated rapid introduction of online learning platform-based study for students, has caused many to critically reflect on teachers' caring behaviors that are possible during physically-embodied pedagogy, but that are either impossible or undesirable online. This has been germane to this phenomenological study utilizing autobiographical narrations to explore undergraduates' caring experiences as informed by their online study. Thematic analysis of their narrations identified four overarching themes, 'Co-creation and Mutuality', 'Tolerance and Attentiveness', 'Practical and Extra Help' and 'Presence and Motivation', representing their conceptions of care. We propose a model of caring pedagogy embodied in 'Co-creation, Response-ability and Presence' for online learning. This study contributes to enriching the conceptual knowledge of teacher care amidst online learning from university students' perspectives.
The implications for dental education are that for effective professional collaboration during training to take place a merger of interests among educators and policy developers in dental education must occur, and the challenges encountered within practice cultures must somehow be overcome. Therefore, more investment in evaluating research into interprofessional learning in dentistry would contribute to our knowledge about the place and role of interprofessional education in the professional dental curriculum and beyond.
This paper is part of a larger project where the researchers explored English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students' experiences in learning English using Self-Organized Learning Environments (SOLEs) within the context of their English foundation year in a college setting in Oman. The purpose that guided this current paper is to investigate whether SOLE pedagogy is able to positively influence Omani EFL college students' learning beliefs and behaviours. Using a participatory action research design, data sources included a series of diaries, semi-structured interviews, focus groups and the researchers' field notes. Interaction between the researchers and participants and among participants themselves helped to ensure the rigour of this research. Throughout the research, participants were involved in expressing their ideas and thoughts about SOLEs and in decision making. The results indicated that SOLEs can be an effective EFL pedagogical approach. Some strengths of SOLEs that were indicated by the results include the SOLEs' ability to increase students' autonomy and their ability to motivate students. This empirical study assists in understanding the construction of an effective English language learning environment in an under-researched international context. It also contributes to previous and ongoing studies that investigate SOLEs in different contexts and fields to explore and examine their impact on students' experiences of higher education.
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