Scholarship of Medical Education, 7.5 credits

Bachelor's degree or vocational degree worth at least 180 credits and at least two years work experience are required within the medical, caring, or behavioural sciences, and/or two years teaching experience (at upper secondary level or higher). English language skills equivalent to English B at Swedish upper secondary school are also required.

The aim of the course is for the participants to develop a reflective approach and an understanding for how the process of scholarship as a model can be a way to support own development. By working scholarly during the terms of the course the participants will gain an understanding for how scholarship of medical education can be applied in medical education contexts of their practice. By the end of the course participants should be able to:

1. Show understanding of the concept of Scholarship of Medical Education by identifying and analysing an area of development within a specific context within university or health care practice.

2. Identify issues of impact on teaching and learning from an individual and organizational perspective.

3. Create search strategies for relevant medical educational information and be able to compare, evaluate and handle the result of different search strategies.

4. Compare different methodologies and argue for a choice of methodology in relation to paradigm and epistemology.

5. Evaluate one’s own contribution to the creation of an on-line learning community.

The course will consist of five areas:
1. Introduction to Scholarship of Medical Education
2. Investigation of the relationship between individual and organisation
3. Information literacy
4. Methodology in Scholarship of Medical Education
5. Evaluation and reflection

Introduction to Scholarship of Medical Education: Basic concepts and a defintion of Scholarship of Medical Education is introduced. Participants will start working according to the scholarship cycle, a process that will continue througout the course. Participants understaniding of a system perspective on an organisation is emphasised.

Investigation of the relationship between individual and organisation: Participants will oscillate between the study of structure, regulations, process and praxis in their own organisations and that of peer course participants'. Working on this area is a way to find general principles for how this area could be identified, described and relate to relevant literature.

Information literacy: In a multifaceted world of information there is a need for conscious strategies to be able to localise, value and effectively handle information. Seeking evidence in the available literature can give support, but also challenge own thinking and claims about practice. Except searching relevant information, we will during this part of the course reflect over the process of searching information.

Methodology in medical education: To create an understanding for different perspectives on teaching and learning that is inherent in different organisations, this part of the course will ask questions about how knowledge is created and look into different perspectives for how to define science. This is a central area of the course that leads into what choices of research methods, and also methods of developmental work, are made. Participants will during this part of the course get acquainted with two methods of investigation. They will also discuss how this is related to paradigm and epistemology, and what it means for the methods of analysis used to interpret data.

Evaluation and reflection: During the terms of the course different tools for creating a democratic and learning community will be applied. The course ends with an emphasis of the process and how it has impacted the individual in her learning, as well as how the individual has used opportunities for individual and community learning that have been available, and how these could have been improved.

The course i divided into five different areas. Interaction among course participants and course director and tutors is carried out via the learning platform PingPong. Each course participant will during the course take part of a smaller group lead by a tutor. Studies of literature, lectures and group discussions and group assignments will create the basis for the completion of an individual assignment to be handed in. The assignments will be reviewed by other course participants and/ or the course director and provide opportunity for feedback and the completion of an individual piece of assessment.

Participation in the course require Internet availability. The course will result in the presentation of a application for educational project funding, where the course participant has studied an organisation and an aspect of which the project aims to improve.

The course participants will through this first course of the Master Program get acquainted with the learning platform PingPong, and the different functionalities avialable such as discussion forum, chat, uploading of documents.

The literature will consist of parts of books and articles, where those articles central for all course participants are listed in the literature list. However, since each participant will work on an individual project, a large part of the literature will be searched and discussed in smaller groups to be as relevant as possible for each individual's project.

The assessment consist of an individual assignment where the participant write and hand in a project application that is reviewed by two other course participants and finally assessed by the teacher. Also, each course participant will review two project applications.

To pass the course, it is required by each participant to show activity on the learning platform Ping Pong and take responsibility for following the agreement for level of activity that will be made at the introduction of the course.

The course has been cancelled.

A course evaluation will be pursued in alignment with the requirements established by the Board of Education at Karolinska Institutet and with an individual reflection.