‘I could never have learned this in a lecture’: transformative learning in rural health education

Abstract

Health indicators for rural populations in Australia continue to lag behind those of urban populations and particularly for Indigenous populations who make up a large proportion of people living in rural and remote Australia. Preparation of health practitioners who are adequately prepared to face the 'messy swamps' of rural health practice is a growing challenge. This paper examines the process of learning among health science students from several health disciplines from five Western Australian universities during 'Country Week': a one-week intensive experiential interprofessional education program in rural Western Australia. The paper weaves together strands of transformative theory of learning with findings from staff and student reflections from Country Week to explore how facilitated learning in situ can work to produce practitioners better prepared for rural health practice.

Value-adding to health professional student placement experiences: Enhancing work readiness and employability through a rural community engagement program

“…In acknowledging this issue, in 2015, Universities Australia launched a national strategy focussed on work integrated learning to strengthen collaborations with industry and communities in order to better prepare university graduates for employment (Universities Australia, 2015). While traditional, formal models of university education provide students with many of the pre-requisites for employment in their chosen field, they also need contextually authentic and relevant activities that extend their capabilities (Higgs, 2011) and ensure they are work-ready, improving their chances of obtaining a job when they graduate (Clark et al, 2015;Prout et al, 2014) and meet the expectations of potential employers (Caballero & Walker, 2010;Caballero et al, 2011;Hager & Holland, 2006;Walker et al, 2013) in order to develop their broader generic skill set that employers value.…”

“…There are a range of different definitions such as work-integrated models (Universities Australia, 2015) service learning models (Stanton, Giles Jr, & Cruz, 1999) and experiential learning models (Kolb, 2014). Inherent within the different definitions, theories and applications however, is agreement that there are a number of student benefits for personal and academic growth (Deeley, 2014;Hébert & Hauf, 2015), collaborative practice (Croker, Brown, Little, & Crowley, 2016) and transformative learning (Caspersz & Olaru, 2017;Prout, Lin, Nattabi, & Green, 2014). Community benefits are less articulated and include co-produced outcomes where partnerships are initiated by communities to address areas of need (Jones, McAllister, & Lyle, 2016a).…”

“…Examples of curriculum-based community engagement focus mainly on social justice and responsibility (Marullo & Edwards, 2000;Peck, Furze, Black, Flecky, & Nebel, 2010) and are experiential and transformative (Prout et al, 2014), where others focus on the acquisition of knowledge and skills (Jones, McAllister, & Lyle, 2015;Rooks & Rael, 2013) for instance public health (Cashman & Seifer, 2008). Non-curriculum based programs are generally extracurricular and tend to focus more on 'life-wide learning' (Thompson et al, 2013), and are complementary rather than specific to an undergraduate degree (Clark, Marsden, Whyatt, Thompson, & Walker, 2015).…”

Using transformative learning theory to develop metacognitive and self-reflective skills in pharmacy students: A primer for pharmacy educators

“…As best described by Prout et al "Country Week provides transformative opportunities for students to develop better understanding of, and preparation for, meeting the health needs for rural and remote communities by exploring rural and Aboriginal health issues in the rural context." 33 This method has been reported to "generate transformative learning moments not possible in the conventional tertiary lecturing framework." 33 Encouraging discourse and intellectual openness Discourse can occur between students and faculty outside of class, between individual students, within small groups of students, or in a classroom context.…”

“…33 This method has been reported to "generate transformative learning moments not possible in the conventional tertiary lecturing framework." 33 Encouraging discourse and intellectual openness Discourse can occur between students and faculty outside of class, between individual students, within small groups of students, or in a classroom context. The instructor's role is to facilitate reflective dialogue by asking students to weigh evidence, assess others' arguments, and to continue to explore different perspectives.…”