Browsing by Author "Louw, Alwyn"

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    Developing higher education curriculum in the health sciences context
    (AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2016) Louw, Alwyn; Archer, Elize
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : Introduction: How did it happen that Professor Eli Bitzer – the educationist – ended up being involved in health professions education? Was it a matter of a trans-disciplinary approach followed by two faculties, or was it because of specific expertise needed at a specific time of development at one faculty? The answer is most probably – both. In this chapter we will attempt to demonstrate how expertise in one field of science can very successfully be transferred to another field. We will also explore the links between the field of Education where Eli Bitzer comes from, and the field of Health Sciences from which perspective this chapter is written. We do not intend to report on each and every intervention Eli Bitzer had with students, neither do we claim to be the experts in writing about someone as respected as he is. We have only focused on writing about the period between 2006 and 2016, when both of us had the privilege of working closely with him as a colleague. While the main purpose of this chapter is to describe the role Eli Bitzer played in health professions education, the second part of our chapter will pay tribute to him as a teacher, supervisor and colleague. This chapter further highlights his personal characteristics, as perceived by the health sciences community, his involvement in the establishment of an educational centre, his role in the development of a curriculum for the MPhil in Health Sciences and his contribution to postgraduate students as lecturer, mentor and supervisor.
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    Perceptions of physiotherapy clinical educators’ dual roles as mentors and assessors : influence on teaching–learning relationships
    (AOSIS Publishing, 2019) Meyer, Ilse S.; Louw, Alwyn; Ernstzen, Dawn V.
    Background: Central to clinical education is the teaching–learning (T-L) relationship that evolves between the clinical educator (CE) and the student. Within this T-L relationship, CEs may be expected to fulfil dual roles as mentors and assessors of students. Challenges for both parties may arise when CEs take on these different roles. Objectives: The goal of this study was to ascertain how CEs perceived the influence of their dual roles as mentors and assessors on their T-L relationships with physiotherapy students. Method: Individual interviews were semi-structured with nine CEs during this qualitative descriptive study at the Division of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University. A content analysis followed to analyse the data obtained. An iterative process, aimed to understand the phenomena under study, was conducted via an interpretive approach in context. This revealed main themes that were identified and refined. Results: Clinical educators experienced challenges when their role changed from being a mentor to that of assessor. These challenges affected the learning of students, as they influenced the T-L relationship. Clinical educators experienced ambiguities regarding their dual roles and, as a result, their expectations were often not fulfilled. Conclusion: Students’ learning processes were negatively affected by the changing roles of CEs, who acted as mentors and later as assessors of clinical competence during the students’ clinical rotations. The positioning theory was offered as a framework to resolve the challenges created by the dual roles and to manage expectations between CEs and students. The T-L encounters could be enhanced if students and CEs aligned themselves to a learning-centred paradigm where the focus was on learning and where the needs of the diverse students and the expectations of CEs were balanced. Further research should explore how a workshop with role play, demonstrating to CEs in practice how to reposition themselves, would impact the relationships between both parties. Clinical implications: It is essential to ensure a positive T-L relationship between a CE and a student as this will improve the quality of learning in the clinical environment and, therefore, directly influence student’s patient management. Implementing faculty development programmes to address this, should be further explored.
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    Perceptions of physiotherapy clinical educators’ dual roles as mentors and assessors : influence on teaching–learning relationships
    (AOSIS, 2019) Meyer, Ilse S.; Louw, Alwyn; Ernstzen, Dawn v.
    Background: Central to clinical education is the teaching–learning (T-L) relationship that evolves between the clinical educator (CE) and the student. Within this T-L relationship, CEs may be expected to fulfil dual roles as mentors and assessors of students. Challenges for both parties may arise when CEs take on these different roles. Objectives: The goal of this study was to ascertain how CEs perceived the influence of their dual roles as mentors and assessors on their T-L relationships with physiotherapy students. Method: Individual interviews were semi-structured with nine CEs during this qualitative descriptive study at the Division of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University. A content analysis followed to analyse the data obtained. An iterative process, aimed to understand the phenomena under study, was conducted via an interpretive approach in context. This revealed main themes that were identified and refined. Results: Clinical educators experienced challenges when their role changed from being a mentor to that of assessor. These challenges affected the learning of students, as they influenced the T-L relationship. Clinical educators experienced ambiguities regarding their dual roles and, as a result, their expectations were often not fulfilled. Conclusion: Students’ learning processes were negatively affected by the changing roles of CEs, who acted as mentors and later as assessors of clinical competence during the students’ clinical rotations. The positioning theory was offered as a framework to resolve the challenges created by the dual roles and to manage expectations between CEs and students. The T-L encounters could be enhanced if students and CEs aligned themselves to a learning-centred paradigm where the focus was on learning and where the needs of the diverse students and the expectations of CEs were balanced. Further research should explore how a workshop with role play, demonstrating to CEs in practice how to reposition themselves, would impact the relationships between both parties.
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    Physiotherapy students’ perceptions of the dual role of the clinical educator as mentor and assessor : influence on the teaching–learning relationship
    (AOSIS Publishing, 2017) Meyer, Ilse S.; Louw, Alwyn; Ernstzen, Dawn
    Background: Clinical education is widely considered to be the cornerstone of health care professionals’ education. Clinical educators (CEs) fulfil many roles and act as both mentors and assessors in the learning process of students’ undergraduate health care professions education. However, changing from being a mentor to being an assessor may present particular challenges for both the CE and the students. Objective: To explore students’ perceptions of how the dual role of a CE as mentor and assessor influenced the teaching–learning (T-L) relationship. Method: A qualitative descriptive study, involving seven individual semi-structured interviews and two focus group discussions, was conducted with students in the Division of Physiotherapy, Stellenbosch University. A contextualised interpretive content analysis was used to analyse the data. By following an iterative process, themes were identified and categories were reviewed and refined. Results: Challenges were experienced when CEs had to act and change as both mentors and assessors to the needs of the students. This influenced the T-L relationship and consequently impacted the learning of students. The expectations of students and CEs were often not fulfilled. Contradictions were disclosed regarding the dual role of CEs. Conclusion: The findings of the study, grounded in the perceptions and experiences of students on the dual role of the CE, are highlighted. It is important to consider the challenges that the students face in order to minimise any negative effects these challenges could have on students’ learning processes.