In this extra post, Dr Ayesha Hanif a dentist and clinical academic, reflects on the advantages of enrolling in the MSc Clinical Education at The University of Edinburgh and the benefits of distance learning for diverse learners.
Lack of teacher training for healthcare professionals, including dentists, persists worldwide (Johnston et al., 2019) despite their role in educating the next generations. In Pakistan (Latif and Wajid, 2018) a dental graduate, finishing four years of academia and one year of clinical training, is commonly hired as teaching faculty in a dental school, without any formal teacher training.
Traditionally, it was accepted that those with professional clinical knowledge would naturally be good teachers. In 1986 however, there was a shift in the prevalent assumption, when Shulman introduced the conceptual framework of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), where integration of content knowledge with pedagogical knowledge was highlighted for effective classroom teaching (Shulman, 1986). With the advances in technology, Shulman’s work was expanded by Mishra and Koelher (2006) to integrate technological practices that enhance the framework to TPACK [Fig 1].
It is imperative that measures be taken to equip dental faculty with emergent pedagogies. For this reason, I felt that an additional professional postgraduate degree would aid my career advancement. While searching for options, I stumbled upon the online MSc in Clinical Education at The University of Edinburgh.
I was initially sceptical; online learning, while providing opportunities, faces a fair share of criticism; with some suggesting that it is a second-rate substitute for traditional face-to-face learning (Mahlangu, 2018). However, the scientifically-backed advantages outweigh the negative commentary. Such programmes are delivered part-time, granting the learner time to move back and forth between academia and professional engagements, fostering learning as a horizontal process as opposed to a vertical one (Aitken, 2021). Since I am a clinical academic, distance learning gave me the opportunity to implement and apply the knowledge and skills learnt from the course to my practice whilst continuing to learn simultaneously (Mahlangu, 2018). I credit a lot of the upgrading of my teaching and assessment practices to what I learned on the MSc. The introduction of formative assessment of OSCE for third year periodontology students was one of the things I worked on. This formative assessment gathered positive feedback from learners and has now become a regular practice in spite of initial reluctance from educators, because it required extra effort, time and preparation. Moreover, I feel equipped to integrate scientific educational knowledge into small group clinical sessions, aligning objectives and outcomes to deliver high-quality learning experiences. This learning curve in my career has further strengthened my commitment to improve dental education delivery.
Despite the criticism that online learning is devoid of fostering meaningful relationships across the learner’s setting (Mahlangu, 2018), I made some wonderful connections during my MSc tenure with my fellow students from diverse backgrounds, even if the interaction was always virtual. Interacting with the tutors was more relaxed, breaking the traditional power dynamics between student and teacher (Aitken, 2021). Another interesting point was that with such a diverse student group, technology without human skills cannot possibly capture the multifaceted nuances of group teaching, which confirms that distance learning does not equate a replacement of the human interaction with technology (Aitken, 2021). Technology is the tool to deliver learning, however it is the educators that facilitate collaboration.
Despite the virtual nature, if the distance learning courses provide quality content, the distance/online learning courses can be contested to acknowledge and not ignore the physical (the appearance of learning resources, personnel and communication materials) or temporal requirements of the students (willingness to help the learners and provide prompt service) (Mahlangu, 2018).
In my experience, well-designed distance learning courses – like the MSc in Clinical Education – succeed at providing quality content whilst meeting the physical and temporal needs of students, such as attractive communication materials and responsive course facilitators (Mahlangu, 2018).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A warm acknowledgement to Prof. Gill Aitken for being a mentor and extending support throughout the program, for considering me to write this blog and helping me in finalizing the blogpost. Much regards to Sylvia Joshua for pouring in her valuable insights for the improvement of this blog post.
References:
Aitken, G. (2021) ‘A Postdigital Exploration of Online Postgraduate Learning in Healthcare Professionals: A Horizontal Conception’, Postdigital Science and Education, 3(1), pp. 181–197. doi: 10.1007/s42438-020-00103-w.
Johnston, C. et al. (2019) ‘Faculty Development Initiatives in Academic Dentistry: A Systematic Review.’, Journal of dental education, 83(9), pp. 1107–1117. doi: 10.21815/JDE.019.096.
Latif, M. Z. and Wajid, G. (2018) ‘Reforming Medical Education in Pakistan through strengthening Departments of Medical Education.’, Pakistan journal of medical sciences, 34(6), pp. 1439–1444. doi: 10.12669/pjms.346.15942.
Mahlangu, V. P. (2018) ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Distance Learning in Higher Education’, in Sinecen, M. (ed.). Rijeka: IntechOpen, p. Ch. 2. doi: 10.5772/intechopen.75702.
Mishra, P. and koehler, M., 2006. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher Knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), pp.1017-1054.
Shulman, L. S. (1986) ‘Those Who Understand: Knowledge Growth in Teaching’, Educational Researcher, 15(2), pp. 4–14. doi: 10.2307/1175860.
Ayesha Hanif
Dr Ayesha Hanif, a dentist by profession and a clinical academic. Master of Dentistry (MDS) in Periodontology from Ziauddin University, Karachi, Pakistan. Recently completed MSc. In Clinical Education (ClinEd) from the University of Edinburgh. Currently, she is a senior faculty of Periodontology at the Sindh Institute of Oral Health Sciences in Karachi, Pakistan. Ayesha is a commonwealth scholar and a member of the Academy of Medical Educators (AoME). The interests in educational research lie within the arena of developing dentists as educators, emergent engaging learning methodologies and digital advances in education.
