Scholarship of Medical Education, 7.5 credits

Bachelor’s degree or vocational degree worth at least 180 higher education credits and at least two years’ professional experience within medicine, care or behavioural science and/or at least two years’ teaching experience (at a minimum of upper-secondary level).
English-language skills equivalent to English B (with a minimum grade of Pass) 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 is an underlying in the Master program. 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 describing an area of development within a specific context within university or health care practice.

2. Identify and discuss structural and organisational factors that impact teaching and learning at individual and organisational level within a specific context with a scientific approach.

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

4. With the support of scientific literature be able to analyse how teaching and learning is situated in a disciplinary and professional context, and how underlying assumptions can affect teaching and learning in university, health and medical contexts.

The course will consist of four areas:
1. To have a scholarly approach to teaching and learning
2. Information literacy
3. Paradigm, epistemology and methodology
4. To work with change in education and learning

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

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.

Paradigm, epistemology and methodology: 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.

To work with change in education and learning: 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.

The course i divided into four 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 mini project, where the course participant has studied and described their own organisation.

Different forms for communication and interaction via Internet will be tried during the course. There is room for the participants to apply innovative forms to present their mini-project. The meaning of forms of communication in relation to how it is interpreted are discussed based on relevant theory.

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 mini-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 an assignment that is reviewed by two other course participants and finally assessed by the teacher. Also, each course participant will review two assignments.

To pass the course, it is required by each participant to show activity on the learning platform Ping Pong and take responsibility of following the agreement for level of activity that will be made on the campus-based days. If the agreement is broken, individual assignments will replace the activity.

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.

The course has been cancelled. It was given for the last time autumn 2011.